I received a Bora One (high-end wheel set) from a customer for inspection.
They wanted a full checkup.
The front wheel was perfectly centered with only minimal runout—
I didn't take photos of it.
The rear wheel had lateral runout.
They said a local shop had done a spoke tension check on it,
but apparently they addressed the radial runout.
Radial runout inherent to G3 hub geometry that's structurally unavoidable is one thing,
but significant radial runout on a Bora wheel like this is extremely rare.
I showed the customer how the rim is pulled inward on 7 positions directly beneath the G3 flange.
While radial runout was nearly nonexistent,
there was slight radial runout at one spot not attributable to G3 geometry,
so I tried turning the nipple—
—and found that spoke had a twist in it.
This can't be a coincidence.
Someone tried to correct radial runout at that spot and twisted the spoke, then left it as-is.
It would've been fine if the radial runout got fixed,
but it didn't even get fully corrected.
I need to tighten the nipple to fix it,
but that twisted section feels like it'll snap with a crack,
so I can't increase tension further.
I replaced that spoke.
And honestly, if they'd done the runout correction "properly,"
that initial amount of lateral centering error wouldn't exist in the first place.
They noticed the radial runout but gave up when the spoke twisted, then left the lateral error too and called it "done." Don't pull that.
Separately from the runout work, the customer asked me to increase spoke tension slightly, so
I did preferential tightening on the freewheel side.
The rim is now pulled toward the freewheel side compared to when I received it.
At this point I've already dialed in radial and lateral runout,
and from here I can keep tensioning the non-freewheel side one-sidedly until perfect centering is achieved.
I forgot to take a photo of perfect centering,
but I definitely showed the customer.
They wanted a full checkup.
The front wheel was perfectly centered with only minimal runout—
I didn't take photos of it.
The rear wheel had lateral runout.
They said a local shop had done a spoke tension check on it,
but apparently they addressed the radial runout.
Radial runout inherent to G3 hub geometry that's structurally unavoidable is one thing,
but significant radial runout on a Bora wheel like this is extremely rare.
I showed the customer how the rim is pulled inward on 7 positions directly beneath the G3 flange.
While radial runout was nearly nonexistent,
there was slight radial runout at one spot not attributable to G3 geometry,
so I tried turning the nipple—
—and found that spoke had a twist in it.
This can't be a coincidence.
Someone tried to correct radial runout at that spot and twisted the spoke, then left it as-is.
It would've been fine if the radial runout got fixed,
but it didn't even get fully corrected.
I need to tighten the nipple to fix it,
but that twisted section feels like it'll snap with a crack,
so I can't increase tension further.
I replaced that spoke.
And honestly, if they'd done the runout correction "properly,"
that initial amount of lateral centering error wouldn't exist in the first place.
They noticed the radial runout but gave up when the spoke twisted, then left the lateral error too and called it "done." Don't pull that.
Separately from the runout work, the customer asked me to increase spoke tension slightly, so
I did preferential tightening on the freewheel side.
The rim is now pulled toward the freewheel side compared to when I received it.
At this point I've already dialed in radial and lateral runout,
and from here I can keep tensioning the non-freewheel side one-sidedly until perfect centering is achieved.
I forgot to take a photo of perfect centering,
but I definitely showed the customer.