A customer brought in an Alpinist CLX rear wheel for repair.
There was one spot where it was rubbing badly.
On the right side (the radial-laced side with fewer spokes)
there was a bent spoke.
The deformation matched up exactly with where it was rubbing,
so I found it right away.
In the photo above, I've released tension after identifying the problem
so the deformation is more obvious.
This wheel had a very noticeable wobble visually,
and whether it was at a regular shop or a nearby one, I'm not sure,
but the customer took it to a shop that carries Specialized
(I don't know if it was a concept store or not)
and they said something like
"With this much runout, there's carbon damage and blah blah blah...,"
recommending a complete wheel replacement.
The customer was skeptical about whether that was really true
or if it could still be repaired, so they consulted with someone they ride with,
who referred them to our shop.
The results speak for themselves—I fixed it just by replacing one spoke
and doing a truing adjustment.
I even told the customer,
"I'm confident that this rear wheel is now the truest
and most centered Alpinist CLX rear wheel
within a hundred-kilometer radius of here."
Though I also said that if another one of the same wheel comes in,
that number one spot might get swapped out, but I'll do the job properly either way.
Fixed.
↑The replaced spoke
The deformation looked like it was only sideways,
so I thought if I just straightened that out,
it might be reusable.
I straightened out the side-to-side deformation by hand as best I could,
but it was also bent in the fore-aft direction.
And there was an impact mark or paint chip at the point where the bending started.
Apart from that, there's another issue. I asked the customer
whether they were the original owner of this wheel (they were),
or if they'd adjusted the nipples of the spokes around the bent one
to try to reduce the lateral runout.
They said they hadn't touched anything.
I can tell they're not lying, and I don't doubt them.
But there's no doubt someone fiddled with it in a strange way at some point.
Here's the thing—this wasn't actually the first time this wheel needed a spoke replaced.
The customer brought along a bag with spare spokes mounted on a card,
whether it came as a bonus with the wheel or was bought separately, I'm not sure.
They asked if any of those spokes could be used.
Well, the spoke of the correct length had already been removed from the card
and used in what I'll call a previous spoke-replacement attempt,
so for this repair I provided a new spoke from our stock.
By the way, this is just a side note,
but I thought Roval spare spoke lengths weren't public information,
yet the card actually had the length listed on it.
Well, I've already got the specs memorized for most of the major models anyway.
The precision of that previous spoke-replacement attempt was so rough
that most of my time was actually spent fixing those mistakes.
Between that previous botch job and when the wheel came to us,
there was one prominent fore-aft runout,
and the customer had been riding it while it wobbled and went out of round the whole time.
I didn't even ask whether the shop that recommended a wheel replacement
and the shop that did the previous spoke-replacement attempt were the same place,
so I don't know.
But what I do know is that recommending a wheel replacement for a wheel that needs just one spoke changed,
and not being able to true a wheel better than factory standards
makes for a pretty crappy shop. May such shops disappear. ☆
There was one spot where it was rubbing badly.
On the right side (the radial-laced side with fewer spokes)
there was a bent spoke.
The deformation matched up exactly with where it was rubbing,
so I found it right away.
In the photo above, I've released tension after identifying the problem
so the deformation is more obvious.
This wheel had a very noticeable wobble visually,
and whether it was at a regular shop or a nearby one, I'm not sure,
but the customer took it to a shop that carries Specialized
(I don't know if it was a concept store or not)
and they said something like
"With this much runout, there's carbon damage and blah blah blah...,"
recommending a complete wheel replacement.
The customer was skeptical about whether that was really true
or if it could still be repaired, so they consulted with someone they ride with,
who referred them to our shop.
The results speak for themselves—I fixed it just by replacing one spoke
and doing a truing adjustment.
I even told the customer,
"I'm confident that this rear wheel is now the truest
and most centered Alpinist CLX rear wheel
within a hundred-kilometer radius of here."
Though I also said that if another one of the same wheel comes in,
that number one spot might get swapped out, but I'll do the job properly either way.
Fixed.
↑The replaced spoke
The deformation looked like it was only sideways,
so I thought if I just straightened that out,
it might be reusable.
I straightened out the side-to-side deformation by hand as best I could,
but it was also bent in the fore-aft direction.
And there was an impact mark or paint chip at the point where the bending started.
Apart from that, there's another issue. I asked the customer
whether they were the original owner of this wheel (they were),
or if they'd adjusted the nipples of the spokes around the bent one
to try to reduce the lateral runout.
They said they hadn't touched anything.
I can tell they're not lying, and I don't doubt them.
But there's no doubt someone fiddled with it in a strange way at some point.
Here's the thing—this wasn't actually the first time this wheel needed a spoke replaced.
The customer brought along a bag with spare spokes mounted on a card,
whether it came as a bonus with the wheel or was bought separately, I'm not sure.
They asked if any of those spokes could be used.
Well, the spoke of the correct length had already been removed from the card
and used in what I'll call a previous spoke-replacement attempt,
so for this repair I provided a new spoke from our stock.
By the way, this is just a side note,
but I thought Roval spare spoke lengths weren't public information,
yet the card actually had the length listed on it.
Well, I've already got the specs memorized for most of the major models anyway.
The precision of that previous spoke-replacement attempt was so rough
that most of my time was actually spent fixing those mistakes.
Between that previous botch job and when the wheel came to us,
there was one prominent fore-aft runout,
and the customer had been riding it while it wobbled and went out of round the whole time.
I didn't even ask whether the shop that recommended a wheel replacement
and the shop that did the previous spoke-replacement attempt were the same place,
so I don't know.
But what I do know is that recommending a wheel replacement for a wheel that needs just one spoke changed,
and not being able to true a wheel better than factory standards
makes for a pretty crappy shop. May such shops disappear. ☆