A customer dropped off the front and rear wheels from a Fulcrum Racing 700.
This is a model that comes with complete bikes for distribution,
not sold through normal retail channels.
They bought it at auction thinking they'd use it on a commuter or casual ride bike,
but it's missing the end parts related to the thru-axle,
so they're asking for parts sourcing and inspection.
The necessary parts have arrived.
It's 8+16, 24 hole.
When I see hubs like this for broken-neck spokes with holes different from standard ones,
my mind starts wandering to naughty ideas.
Just like the rear wheel on that crappy Aero Ovalé disc brake,
the low-spoke side is laced tangent, so
the high-spoke side has more deformation when gripping the final crossing.
Since it's not on the disc rotor side,
I don't think tangent lacing is necessary even if I'm being nervous...
Both front and rear wheels have offset rims.
It's a tubeless-ready rim with a pronounced hump,
and the factory original came with a stretch-band type
rim tape.
Currently at most phases,
it's stretched across the full width of the rim, but
it got pulled into the recess and couldn't cover the full rim width anymore, and
it developed a crease at the hump section, so
jumping ahead in the timeline, I switched to Stans tape.
The rear wheel's rim tape showed the same tendency,
so I switched that to Stans tape as well.
Going back a bit in the timeline,
the front wheel rim had a huge chunk of cutting debris left in it.
Since the rim doesn't have holes other than the valve hole,
it should fall out during wheel building,
but it was still sitting inside the rim.
Also, the rim's hump is as shown in the image above.
The disc rotor seat is center-lock, but
center-lock lock rings come in two types:
the "INT/internal tightening" kind that works with cassette sprocket lock ring tools, and
the "EXT/external tightening" kind that works with first-gen Hollowtech II BB tools, but
in either case, the lock ring side is male threads (hollow bolt) and
the seat side is female threads.
However, Campagnolo/Fulcrum complete wheels
have center-lock seats that are male threads,
and come with a proprietary lock ring that's
female threads (nut).
The matching tool is first-gen Hollowtech II BB only.
↑So there are no threads on the inside, and
standard lock rings won't fit like this.
The problem with this is that
the customer probably has never used this wheel
(they definitely couldn't use it since the end parts were missing),
yet they're asking me to "just slap on some cheap rotor, would ya?",
so there's a good chance they don't know that the proprietary lock ring wasn't included when they bought the wheel.
The lock ring is available and even in stock,
but each one costs ¥2700 before tax.
More expensive than a cheap rotor.
What do I do?
↑This is the provisional dishing—after removing the slight runout that was there,
the dish didn't drift.
The images would be almost identical, so I didn't shoot it.
The hub bearing wasn't loose—if anything it was too tight,
with a grinding feeling in the rotation, but
loosening it slightly revealed a spot where there was no play yet
the rotation became smooth. Found it right away.
Now for the rear wheel.
Why is the rear wheel radial laced when the rotor is on it?
However, I do appreciate that it's been done with zero-cross radial lacing.
If radial lacing absolutely had to be done,
and it was confirmed not to interfere with the rotor,
I'd do the same thing.
The provisional dishing showed the rim biased toward the non-freewheel side.
Both end parts are shiny because
these are the new parts we ordered.
There was one noticeable lateral runout,
and the spoke at that phase had paint chipping.
Thinking it might be related to the runout, I released the tension on that spoke, but
the spoke itself was completely straight.
However, it seemed unlikely to be unrelated to the runout, so
I carefully palpated the spokes around it, but
none of them were bent.
The gauge was 14-gauge plain, so
I replaced it with DT's black Champion 14-gauge.
Then I lightly tightened several nipples on the freewheel side
to make minor runout corrections, but
the dish came out on its own once the runout work was done.
I wasn't tightening the freewheel side nearly enough to take up that dish,
and besides, I didn't even tighten all 12 nipples on one side.
It seems like, purely by chance, the provisional dishing gauge was
positioned right below the phase with the worst runout.
All fixed.
↑The replaced spoke
As you can see, it's completely straight.
Even new CX-RAY spokes sometimes come more bent than this, from the manufacturing process.
There was a small crack at the nipple end—the kind your fingernail can catch on.
When spoke tension is applied,
the crack might be expanding.
Actually, if that weren't the case,
there's no way you'd get lateral runout this bad
directly below an unbent spoke.
The rear wheel rim, especially on the right side, had what looked like
chain oil contamination, but it still seemed salvageable, so
I managed to clean it up.
As I mentioned earlier,
the rear wheel also got a tape-type rim tape replacement.
The image above is where it had shifted.
From the same customer, I also received the front and rear wheels
from an AXIS brand (a budget Specialized house brand) that come on Specialized complete bikes.
While waiting for the Racing 700's end parts to arrive,
they picked these up at auction as a stopgap, apparently.
They're asking for inspection here too, and they mention being concerned about
the hub rotation feeling sluggish.
These also have tubeless-ready rims with
stretch-band type rim tape, but
since the hump is absent (virtually absent),
there's no crease from the fold.
There were spots where it got pulled into the recess and didn't
cover the rim's full width, but
that's fine...
Nearly every spoke hole on the freewheel side of the rear wheel—the high-tension side—
had cracks.
In the worst spots,
↑the rim is lifting.
Since I noticed this, I haven't started work.
If the customer is willing to spend enough to replace the rim, I can do it. Otherwise, I can't.
This is a model that comes with complete bikes for distribution,
not sold through normal retail channels.
They bought it at auction thinking they'd use it on a commuter or casual ride bike,
but it's missing the end parts related to the thru-axle,
so they're asking for parts sourcing and inspection.
The necessary parts have arrived.
It's 8+16, 24 hole.
When I see hubs like this for broken-neck spokes with holes different from standard ones,
my mind starts wandering to naughty ideas.
Just like the rear wheel on that crappy Aero Ovalé disc brake,
the low-spoke side is laced tangent, so
the high-spoke side has more deformation when gripping the final crossing.
Since it's not on the disc rotor side,
I don't think tangent lacing is necessary even if I'm being nervous...
Both front and rear wheels have offset rims.
It's a tubeless-ready rim with a pronounced hump,
and the factory original came with a stretch-band type
rim tape.
Currently at most phases,
it's stretched across the full width of the rim, but
it got pulled into the recess and couldn't cover the full rim width anymore, and
it developed a crease at the hump section, so
jumping ahead in the timeline, I switched to Stans tape.
The rear wheel's rim tape showed the same tendency,
so I switched that to Stans tape as well.
Going back a bit in the timeline,
the front wheel rim had a huge chunk of cutting debris left in it.
Since the rim doesn't have holes other than the valve hole,
it should fall out during wheel building,
but it was still sitting inside the rim.
Also, the rim's hump is as shown in the image above.
The disc rotor seat is center-lock, but
center-lock lock rings come in two types:
the "INT/internal tightening" kind that works with cassette sprocket lock ring tools, and
the "EXT/external tightening" kind that works with first-gen Hollowtech II BB tools, but
in either case, the lock ring side is male threads (hollow bolt) and
the seat side is female threads.
However, Campagnolo/Fulcrum complete wheels
have center-lock seats that are male threads,
and come with a proprietary lock ring that's
female threads (nut).
The matching tool is first-gen Hollowtech II BB only.
↑So there are no threads on the inside, and
standard lock rings won't fit like this.
The problem with this is that
the customer probably has never used this wheel
(they definitely couldn't use it since the end parts were missing),
yet they're asking me to "just slap on some cheap rotor, would ya?",
so there's a good chance they don't know that the proprietary lock ring wasn't included when they bought the wheel.
The lock ring is available and even in stock,
but each one costs ¥2700 before tax.
More expensive than a cheap rotor.
What do I do?
↑This is the provisional dishing—after removing the slight runout that was there,
the dish didn't drift.
The images would be almost identical, so I didn't shoot it.
The hub bearing wasn't loose—if anything it was too tight,
with a grinding feeling in the rotation, but
loosening it slightly revealed a spot where there was no play yet
the rotation became smooth. Found it right away.
Now for the rear wheel.
Why is the rear wheel radial laced when the rotor is on it?
However, I do appreciate that it's been done with zero-cross radial lacing.
If radial lacing absolutely had to be done,
and it was confirmed not to interfere with the rotor,
I'd do the same thing.
The provisional dishing showed the rim biased toward the non-freewheel side.
Both end parts are shiny because
these are the new parts we ordered.
There was one noticeable lateral runout,
and the spoke at that phase had paint chipping.
Thinking it might be related to the runout, I released the tension on that spoke, but
the spoke itself was completely straight.
However, it seemed unlikely to be unrelated to the runout, so
I carefully palpated the spokes around it, but
none of them were bent.
The gauge was 14-gauge plain, so
I replaced it with DT's black Champion 14-gauge.
Then I lightly tightened several nipples on the freewheel side
to make minor runout corrections, but
the dish came out on its own once the runout work was done.
I wasn't tightening the freewheel side nearly enough to take up that dish,
and besides, I didn't even tighten all 12 nipples on one side.
It seems like, purely by chance, the provisional dishing gauge was
positioned right below the phase with the worst runout.
All fixed.
↑The replaced spoke
As you can see, it's completely straight.
Even new CX-RAY spokes sometimes come more bent than this, from the manufacturing process.
There was a small crack at the nipple end—the kind your fingernail can catch on.
When spoke tension is applied,
the crack might be expanding.
Actually, if that weren't the case,
there's no way you'd get lateral runout this bad
directly below an unbent spoke.
The rear wheel rim, especially on the right side, had what looked like
chain oil contamination, but it still seemed salvageable, so
I managed to clean it up.
As I mentioned earlier,
the rear wheel also got a tape-type rim tape replacement.
The image above is where it had shifted.
From the same customer, I also received the front and rear wheels
from an AXIS brand (a budget Specialized house brand) that come on Specialized complete bikes.
While waiting for the Racing 700's end parts to arrive,
they picked these up at auction as a stopgap, apparently.
They're asking for inspection here too, and they mention being concerned about
the hub rotation feeling sluggish.
These also have tubeless-ready rims with
stretch-band type rim tape, but
since the hump is absent (virtually absent),
there's no crease from the fold.
There were spots where it got pulled into the recess and didn't
cover the rim's full width, but
that's fine...
Nearly every spoke hole on the freewheel side of the rear wheel—the high-tension side—
had cracks.
In the worst spots,
↑the rim is lifting.
Since I noticed this, I haven't started work.
If the customer is willing to spend enough to replace the rim, I can do it. Otherwise, I can't.