A customer dropped off the front and rear wheels from a Racing Zero.
Starting with the front wheel.
Fair warning: my camera lens was dirty, so
the images that follow have a hazy look at the top.
They fell on the left side, and both wheels have scratches on the spokes.
On top of that, the front wheel has one broken spoke.
When the customer took it to a certain well-known shop I know,
they were told the repair within the customer's desired scope
would cost around ¥48,500 just for spokes and labor,
and since they didn't have spokes in stock, they couldn't do it right away.
So a mutual acquaintance recommended our shop.
The customer's desired repair scope was
replacing 8 spokes on the front wheel and 2 on the rear.
These spokes are different lengths and part numbers, but when I checked the retail prices,
both were ¥1,727 per spoke, so 10 spokes × ¥1,727 = ¥17,270.
In other words, they were claiming labor costs of over ¥30,000.
That's insane (what kind of math are they doing?).
And I can say this with certainty: that shop would never
return the wheels in proper condition, no matter how much time or money you throw at it.
If they'd had spokes in stock, the customer might actually have used them.
When the customer first came in, they said
"If we can keep it under ¥50,000..."
and I couldn't help but point out that shouldn't cost nearly that much.
All the spokes on the left side have scratches.
By "left side" I mean the side that hit when they crashed,
which also happens to be the cone locknut adjustment side, so it checks out either way.
As for the spoke scratches—unless they're really deep or there's deformation,
there's no problem using them as-is. I suggested to the customer that the bare minimum replacement
would cost around ¥8,000 including parts, but
they wanted a full replacement for peace of mind,
so we ended up swapping all 8 spokes on that side.
The spoke stamp was "——" (two horizontal bars side by side).
This first appeared on the Shamal Mille front wheel.
Found it! We had it in stock!
I swapped in the new spokes and tensioned them fairly evenly,
but there's still quite a bit of center offset to work out.
With the right-side spoke nipples, up to a certain point I barely touched them.
With Fulcrum wheels, they function as a vertical runout reference,
which is one reason why I do a complete rebuild on Rovale wheels—
the original precision can't be trusted,
so it's easier to just reset everything.
For CL models with brass nipples, I'd like to swap them for aluminum ones.
For CLX, which has aluminum nipples already, I want to clean up the threads
and reapply thread-locking compound.
↑I worked out the vertical runout.
The image shows the left side of the rim, and you can see
a white wear mark slightly inside the center of the brake zone
where a metal fragment got caught and braked.
I asked the customer to check the brake shoe on their end.
Centering done.
All fixed.
↑The replaced spokes
Oops, I should've shown them this way to see the damage.
The 1 broken spoke and 1 of the remaining 7 had deformation,
so the other 6 are usable as spares.
I returned them to the customer because if something happens later and we don't have spokes in stock,
or if an acquaintance needs some,
they're perfectly serviceable as a temporary fix.
They were basically fine as-is anyway.
Now for the rear wheel.
The customer marked 2 spokes with tape
and requested those to be replaced.
All set.
I also found looseness in the right end nut
and play in the hub's cone bearings, so I adjusted those.
Both are fundamental to center gauge readings anyway,
so I always check them.
↑The replaced spokes
This one had no deformation, so I returned it as a spare.
This one had deformation, so I discarded it.
I also visually inspected all the other spokes for deformation,
but found none that needed replacement outside the customer's specified range.
The work on both wheels took less than an hour... probably.
If we kept wheels like this for any length of time, the shop would be buried in them,
so I try to finish jobs on the spot when possible.
Though honestly, the shop's already buried in wheels anyway.
Starting with the front wheel.
Fair warning: my camera lens was dirty, so
the images that follow have a hazy look at the top.
They fell on the left side, and both wheels have scratches on the spokes.
On top of that, the front wheel has one broken spoke.
When the customer took it to a certain well-known shop I know,
they were told the repair within the customer's desired scope
would cost around ¥48,500 just for spokes and labor,
and since they didn't have spokes in stock, they couldn't do it right away.
So a mutual acquaintance recommended our shop.
The customer's desired repair scope was
replacing 8 spokes on the front wheel and 2 on the rear.
These spokes are different lengths and part numbers, but when I checked the retail prices,
both were ¥1,727 per spoke, so 10 spokes × ¥1,727 = ¥17,270.
In other words, they were claiming labor costs of over ¥30,000.
That's insane (what kind of math are they doing?).
And I can say this with certainty: that shop would never
return the wheels in proper condition, no matter how much time or money you throw at it.
If they'd had spokes in stock, the customer might actually have used them.
When the customer first came in, they said
"If we can keep it under ¥50,000..."
and I couldn't help but point out that shouldn't cost nearly that much.
All the spokes on the left side have scratches.
By "left side" I mean the side that hit when they crashed,
which also happens to be the cone locknut adjustment side, so it checks out either way.
As for the spoke scratches—unless they're really deep or there's deformation,
there's no problem using them as-is. I suggested to the customer that the bare minimum replacement
would cost around ¥8,000 including parts, but
they wanted a full replacement for peace of mind,
so we ended up swapping all 8 spokes on that side.
The spoke stamp was "——" (two horizontal bars side by side).
This first appeared on the Shamal Mille front wheel.
Found it! We had it in stock!
I swapped in the new spokes and tensioned them fairly evenly,
but there's still quite a bit of center offset to work out.
With the right-side spoke nipples, up to a certain point I barely touched them.
With Fulcrum wheels, they function as a vertical runout reference,
which is one reason why I do a complete rebuild on Rovale wheels—
the original precision can't be trusted,
so it's easier to just reset everything.
For CL models with brass nipples, I'd like to swap them for aluminum ones.
For CLX, which has aluminum nipples already, I want to clean up the threads
and reapply thread-locking compound.
↑I worked out the vertical runout.
The image shows the left side of the rim, and you can see
a white wear mark slightly inside the center of the brake zone
where a metal fragment got caught and braked.
I asked the customer to check the brake shoe on their end.
Centering done.
All fixed.
↑The replaced spokes
Oops, I should've shown them this way to see the damage.
The 1 broken spoke and 1 of the remaining 7 had deformation,
so the other 6 are usable as spares.
I returned them to the customer because if something happens later and we don't have spokes in stock,
or if an acquaintance needs some,
they're perfectly serviceable as a temporary fix.
Now for the rear wheel.
The customer marked 2 spokes with tape
and requested those to be replaced.
All set.
I also found looseness in the right end nut
and play in the hub's cone bearings, so I adjusted those.
Both are fundamental to center gauge readings anyway,
so I always check them.
↑The replaced spokes
This one had no deformation, so I returned it as a spare.
This one had deformation, so I discarded it.
I also visually inspected all the other spokes for deformation,
but found none that needed replacement outside the customer's specified range.
The work on both wheels took less than an hour... probably.
If we kept wheels like this for any length of time, the shop would be buried in them,
so I try to finish jobs on the spot when possible.
Though honestly, the shop's already buried in wheels anyway.