A customer brought in a Cosmic Professional Carbon Super Light
Universal Standard Tubeless Disc Brake
Tour de France 2019 wheel set for service.
It arrived in the original box from an overseas online shop,
so it's definitely brand new.
Let me start with the front wheel.
↑The rim side has an illustration printed with the Tour de France 2019 course route.
With a fairly tall rim height and no brake zone needed,
there's quite a lot of space on the rim side for creative design work.
↑Saint-Étienne
↑A cow
Anyway, there was some centering deviation.
Several aero spokes had their flattened orientation slightly rotated,
so I corrected those as well.
I got the centering dead on, but I showed the customer that result,
so I didn't take any photos of it.
Next up, the rear wheel.
Sure enough, it was off-center too, so I fixed that as well.
This wheel has a manufacturer's recommended retail price of ¥374,000 including tax in Japan,
but the customer got it for around ¥140,000 through overseas shopping.
It's not something new, but the whole pricing structure is falling apart.
However, even shops that high-handedly sell at the recommended price
frequently receive Mavic wheels with centering issues
(this one was no exception), and either just sell them as-is
or often lack the technical skill to properly true them.
So it's understandable that buying from overseas retailers plus
getting a proper inspection at a competent shop might actually be
a better option than buying official imports.
※ I'm not criticizing that way of doing business, just to be clear.
If you can keep it up in times like these, please do.
The tubeless rim tape had changed from brown to green.
In any case, I often see sealant seeping between the tape layers
for about 10cm from the end of this rim tape.
Since it's no longer brown, I can't make the "beetle" anymore
(→here).
Universal Standard Tubeless Disc Brake
Tour de France 2019 wheel set for service.
It arrived in the original box from an overseas online shop,
so it's definitely brand new.
Let me start with the front wheel.
↑The rim side has an illustration printed with the Tour de France 2019 course route.
With a fairly tall rim height and no brake zone needed,
there's quite a lot of space on the rim side for creative design work.
↑Saint-Étienne
↑A cow
Anyway, there was some centering deviation.
Several aero spokes had their flattened orientation slightly rotated,
so I corrected those as well.
I got the centering dead on, but I showed the customer that result,
so I didn't take any photos of it.
Next up, the rear wheel.
Sure enough, it was off-center too, so I fixed that as well.
This wheel has a manufacturer's recommended retail price of ¥374,000 including tax in Japan,
but the customer got it for around ¥140,000 through overseas shopping.
It's not something new, but the whole pricing structure is falling apart.
However, even shops that high-handedly sell at the recommended price
frequently receive Mavic wheels with centering issues
(this one was no exception), and either just sell them as-is
or often lack the technical skill to properly true them.
So it's understandable that buying from overseas retailers plus
getting a proper inspection at a competent shop might actually be
a better option than buying official imports.
※ I'm not criticizing that way of doing business, just to be clear.
If you can keep it up in times like these, please do.
The tubeless rim tape had changed from brown to green.
In any case, I often see sealant seeping between the tape layers
for about 10cm from the end of this rim tape.
Since it's no longer brown, I can't make the "beetle" anymore
(→here).