A customer brought in a front wheel with a wide tubular rim for me to work on.
The hub is a DT350 disc straight-pull model with 24 spokes
and the spokes are black CX-RAY straight-gauge.
The rim is your typical Chinese carbon,
but when you think about it, setting aside the hub,
you don't really see spokes with "examples of nameless brand usage."
Maybe they're just difficult to manufacture, or perhaps
it's a part where it's hard to recoup the initial investment
of setting up new production equipment.
Apparently it hit a stake during a cyclocross event at Kurondo Pond.
The rim has some scratches,
and on the side of the rim with the damage (right side / non-rotor-mount side)
two spokes are broken.
Counting the rim holes consecutively from left and right,
there are 5 spokes in a row that need replacing.
The 1st, 3rd, and 5th on the left side show deformation,
and the 2nd and 4th on the right side are broken.
↑The 5th spoke (far right in the previous image)
is clearly bent,
and what I thought was just a slight deformation in the 1st spoke
turned out to be quite bent once I relieved the tension.
This wheel has a tubular tire glued firmly to the rim with rim cement,
and if I drop even a single nipple inside the rim during spoke replacement,
I'll have to remove the tire and re-glue it firmly.
Since the labor time changes drastically, I want to avoid such accidents.
Oh noooooo!
Just kidding — the spoke threads are catching properly on the nipple so it's fine,
but playing around like this can actually end up hurting sometimes,
so kids, don't try this at home!
By the way, this rim apparently has no holes on the outer edge except the valve hole,
so if I drop a nipple, it would be a pain in other ways besides
having to remove and re-install the tire.
About removing the damaged spokes,
the spoke head hits the adjacent spoke, so
it doesn't look like I can remove them.
Is this maybe one of those wheels that requires
a complete disassembly for spoke replacement?
Nope, it's not.
In the image above, the final cross is woven,
and this narrows the directional orientation for pulling out the spoke head, so
by loosening and removing the nipple, then flipping the spoke
so the final cross doesn't weave,
it comes out at an angle like this.
If I were replacing only 1 or 2 spokes, there'd be no problem,
but with 5 spokes, significant lateral runout appears directly below that section.
And to dial out the runout, I'd need to remove the tire.
But since the hassle of removing and re-installing this tire is enormous,
I dialed out the runout with the tire still on
(just visually, rather than using a gauge against the tire's outer edge).
The customer said they'll bring it back after the season to remove the tire,
so this was a temporary fix for today.
As I always say,
in theory, adjusting just these 5 nipples should
eliminate most of the runout,
but for some reason the most runout quickly appeared
in the opposite phase area, and when I felt the spoke
directly below it, I didn't notice at first,
but it was quite dented, and when I relieved the tension,
↑it looked like this.
That's the 6th spoke needing replacement.
It's fixed.
There was some center offset (unclear if it was original or from my work),
and I dialed it in using Park Tool's simple gauge that works with the tire on.
Since this thing can't detect a sheet-of-paper-thin offset, I'd rather not use it...
↑The replaced spokes
From top: 1st, 4th, 3rd, 2nd, 5th, and 6th.
The hub is a DT350 disc straight-pull model with 24 spokes
and the spokes are black CX-RAY straight-gauge.
The rim is your typical Chinese carbon,
but when you think about it, setting aside the hub,
you don't really see spokes with "examples of nameless brand usage."
Maybe they're just difficult to manufacture, or perhaps
it's a part where it's hard to recoup the initial investment
of setting up new production equipment.
Apparently it hit a stake during a cyclocross event at Kurondo Pond.
The rim has some scratches,
and on the side of the rim with the damage (right side / non-rotor-mount side)
two spokes are broken.
Counting the rim holes consecutively from left and right,
there are 5 spokes in a row that need replacing.
The 1st, 3rd, and 5th on the left side show deformation,
and the 2nd and 4th on the right side are broken.
↑The 5th spoke (far right in the previous image)
is clearly bent,
and what I thought was just a slight deformation in the 1st spoke
turned out to be quite bent once I relieved the tension.
This wheel has a tubular tire glued firmly to the rim with rim cement,
and if I drop even a single nipple inside the rim during spoke replacement,
I'll have to remove the tire and re-glue it firmly.
Since the labor time changes drastically, I want to avoid such accidents.
Oh noooooo!
Just kidding — the spoke threads are catching properly on the nipple so it's fine,
but playing around like this can actually end up hurting sometimes,
so kids, don't try this at home!
By the way, this rim apparently has no holes on the outer edge except the valve hole,
so if I drop a nipple, it would be a pain in other ways besides
having to remove and re-install the tire.
About removing the damaged spokes,
the spoke head hits the adjacent spoke, so
it doesn't look like I can remove them.
Is this maybe one of those wheels that requires
a complete disassembly for spoke replacement?
Nope, it's not.
In the image above, the final cross is woven,
and this narrows the directional orientation for pulling out the spoke head, so
by loosening and removing the nipple, then flipping the spoke
so the final cross doesn't weave,
it comes out at an angle like this.
If I were replacing only 1 or 2 spokes, there'd be no problem,
but with 5 spokes, significant lateral runout appears directly below that section.
And to dial out the runout, I'd need to remove the tire.
But since the hassle of removing and re-installing this tire is enormous,
I dialed out the runout with the tire still on
(just visually, rather than using a gauge against the tire's outer edge).
The customer said they'll bring it back after the season to remove the tire,
so this was a temporary fix for today.
As I always say,
in theory, adjusting just these 5 nipples should
eliminate most of the runout,
but for some reason the most runout quickly appeared
in the opposite phase area, and when I felt the spoke
directly below it, I didn't notice at first,
but it was quite dented, and when I relieved the tension,
↑it looked like this.
That's the 6th spoke needing replacement.
It's fixed.
There was some center offset (unclear if it was original or from my work),
and I dialed it in using Park Tool's simple gauge that works with the tire on.
Since this thing can't detect a sheet-of-paper-thin offset, I'd rather not use it...
↑The replaced spokes
From top: 1st, 4th, 3rd, 2nd, 5th, and 6th.