A customer dropped off a Bora WTO 45mm deep rim brake wheelset with us.
Brand new. They want a CULT upgrade and a full inspection.
Let's start with the front wheel.
The temporary center is right on the money—practically no runout at all.
When I grabbed the hollow end bolts on both sides with a wrench and loosened them,
the right side came loose first.
I applied some strong thread-locking compound to the threads on the end bolt
and tightened the right side firmly with a 14mm wrench and 5mm Allen key.
The white thread-locking compound visible on the bolt threads in the photo
was factory-applied, but it clearly didn't do anything.
Next, I held the right side by the 14mm flats on the hub axle,
and tried to loosen the left side by inserting an Allen key into the 5mm hex hole on the end bolt,
but
it wouldn't budge.
The Allen key in the photo above is a Beta (ベータ).
According to someone from the distributor most knowledgeable about Campagnolo in Japan,
loosening the cone adjustment nut should make the left end bolt
come loose easily,
but as you can see, I've already loosened that in the photo above.
Come on! This thing won't budge!
I occasionally see front wheels that I wish would just appear in front of me so I could work on them—this is one of those.
I sprayed penetrating oil on the threads,
switched to a Vera (ヴェラ) Allen key that I normally don't use for everyday work
（with corner engagement rather than face engagement on the hex）
and applied considerable torque. With a sharp "crack!" sound
and the smell of heated iron, it finally loosened.
From this wheel's factory condition, there's pretty much no way
to avoid catastrophic new axle failure on first try.
↑This is the left side bearing,
with the seal snapped perfectly into the one (bearing cup) groove.
On the right side, just pulling the hub axle out caused the seal to pop right out.
If a seal is properly seated in the one groove, it would never come loose
just from removing the axle—so it wasn't properly seated from the factory.
This is extremely rare in stock condition from the manufacturer,
but when I've disassembled hubs from customers who do their own Campagnolo/Fulcrum hub greasing,
I see this fairly often.
Excessive maintenance with no real purpose keeps resetting the bearing's break-in,
and the unseated seal creates a rubbing sensation on hub rotation
（which is actually happening）
plus rough insertion and removal of the freebody often deforms
the pawl spring. I see that frequently too.
I removed the USB bearing cup.
Since there's no grease containment part to prevent grease from flowing into the hub shell,
white grease is attached to the inside of the hub,
but because the center of the hub shell is constricted into a waisted shape,
grease-covered axles being inserted alone causes grease
to adhere to the hub interior.
Cleaned it up.
Since the ball bearings and USB bearing races have turned silver,
to avoid mixing them up with CULT parts,
I'm strict about sealing away the removed USB parts
before opening any CULT part packaging.
I pressed in the CULT bearing cup.
The press fit is stronger than the factory setting, I'm sure of it.
There's a USB sticker on the hub shell,
but whether to peel it off is up to the customer.
A model called the Bola Ultra WTO with CULT bearing spec from the start
and a carbon hub shell
will launch as a 2022 model
（the first shipment is already in circulation），
but that's only available with disc brake wheels.
Even though the temporary center was spot-on,
bearing replacement introduced a tiny shift—about a sheet of paper's thickness.
I'm checking the temporary center because I want to figure out what caused that.
Did the centering.
As I mentioned, there was barely any runout to begin with.
Just a random note, but the reinforcement fabric on the ends of
the latest blue wheel bag this wheel came in
has become this leather brand logo-style pattern.
Both the front and rear wheel bags this time had it,
but the rear wheel I rebuilt the other day for the ZIPP 808 Firecrest
came in the same blue Campagnolo wheel bag, and
when I looked at it, it had a crocodile-texture pattern instead.
Regarding the one with the Calvin Klein-ish logo
（→here）
Now for the rear wheel,
when I checked the temporary center, it was way off.
With Mavic, I wouldn't even blink at worse than this.
Also, unlike the front wheel, there's runout.
Grease was applied with no restraint whatsoever,
but I removed and sealed away all the USB parts, cleaned the hub,
pressed in the CULT bearing cups, assembled the parts, and applied the center gauge
The centering trend is the same, and the amount looks like it increased,
but since this wheel had runout and the center gauge might not be
at the same phase as before,
I can't say with certainty that bearing replacement and centering shift
are definitely related.
Trued the runout and centered it up.
Brand new. They want a CULT upgrade and a full inspection.
Let's start with the front wheel.
The temporary center is right on the money—practically no runout at all.
When I grabbed the hollow end bolts on both sides with a wrench and loosened them,
the right side came loose first.
I applied some strong thread-locking compound to the threads on the end bolt
and tightened the right side firmly with a 14mm wrench and 5mm Allen key.
The white thread-locking compound visible on the bolt threads in the photo
was factory-applied, but it clearly didn't do anything.
Next, I held the right side by the 14mm flats on the hub axle,
and tried to loosen the left side by inserting an Allen key into the 5mm hex hole on the end bolt,
but
it wouldn't budge.
The Allen key in the photo above is a Beta (ベータ).
According to someone from the distributor most knowledgeable about Campagnolo in Japan,
loosening the cone adjustment nut should make the left end bolt
come loose easily,
but as you can see, I've already loosened that in the photo above.
Come on! This thing won't budge!
I occasionally see front wheels that I wish would just appear in front of me so I could work on them—this is one of those.
I sprayed penetrating oil on the threads,
switched to a Vera (ヴェラ) Allen key that I normally don't use for everyday work
（with corner engagement rather than face engagement on the hex）
and applied considerable torque. With a sharp "crack!" sound
and the smell of heated iron, it finally loosened.
From this wheel's factory condition, there's pretty much no way
to avoid catastrophic new axle failure on first try.
↑This is the left side bearing,
with the seal snapped perfectly into the one (bearing cup) groove.
On the right side, just pulling the hub axle out caused the seal to pop right out.
If a seal is properly seated in the one groove, it would never come loose
just from removing the axle—so it wasn't properly seated from the factory.
This is extremely rare in stock condition from the manufacturer,
but when I've disassembled hubs from customers who do their own Campagnolo/Fulcrum hub greasing,
I see this fairly often.
Excessive maintenance with no real purpose keeps resetting the bearing's break-in,
and the unseated seal creates a rubbing sensation on hub rotation
（which is actually happening）
plus rough insertion and removal of the freebody often deforms
the pawl spring. I see that frequently too.
I removed the USB bearing cup.
Since there's no grease containment part to prevent grease from flowing into the hub shell,
white grease is attached to the inside of the hub,
but because the center of the hub shell is constricted into a waisted shape,
grease-covered axles being inserted alone causes grease
to adhere to the hub interior.
Cleaned it up.
Since the ball bearings and USB bearing races have turned silver,
to avoid mixing them up with CULT parts,
I'm strict about sealing away the removed USB parts
before opening any CULT part packaging.
I pressed in the CULT bearing cup.
The press fit is stronger than the factory setting, I'm sure of it.
There's a USB sticker on the hub shell,
but whether to peel it off is up to the customer.
A model called the Bola Ultra WTO with CULT bearing spec from the start
and a carbon hub shell
will launch as a 2022 model
（the first shipment is already in circulation），
but that's only available with disc brake wheels.
Even though the temporary center was spot-on,
bearing replacement introduced a tiny shift—about a sheet of paper's thickness.
I'm checking the temporary center because I want to figure out what caused that.
Did the centering.
As I mentioned, there was barely any runout to begin with.
Just a random note, but the reinforcement fabric on the ends of
the latest blue wheel bag this wheel came in
has become this leather brand logo-style pattern.
Both the front and rear wheel bags this time had it,
but the rear wheel I rebuilt the other day for the ZIPP 808 Firecrest
came in the same blue Campagnolo wheel bag, and
when I looked at it, it had a crocodile-texture pattern instead.
Regarding the one with the Calvin Klein-ish logo
（→here）
Now for the rear wheel,
when I checked the temporary center, it was way off.
With Mavic, I wouldn't even blink at worse than this.
Also, unlike the front wheel, there's runout.
Grease was applied with no restraint whatsoever,
but I removed and sealed away all the USB parts, cleaned the hub,
pressed in the CULT bearing cups, assembled the parts, and applied the center gauge
The centering trend is the same, and the amount looks like it increased,
but since this wheel had runout and the center gauge might not be
at the same phase as before,
I can't say with certainty that bearing replacement and centering shift
are definitely related.
Trued the runout and centered it up.