A customer dropped off the front and rear wheels of a Bora Ultra 50 (Campagnolo high-performance wheel) with me.
According to the customer's assessment, 6 spokes on the left side of the front wheel and 7 spokes on the left side of the rear wheel (that's all of them) have developed scuff marks, and they'd like them replaced.
The spokes show no deformation, and the scratches aren't causing any runout issues, but the customer wants them replaced for cosmetic reasons and peace of mind.
Since this wheel has radial-pattern spokes on the front left and right sides and rear left side that all share the same part number, the repair requires 13 spokes total.
(The replaced spokes ended up being exactly the ones the customer identified as needing replacement)
But I was just one spoke short in stock, so
I ordered spokes from Campagnolo to cover what this wheel repair needed plus some stock.
Not just spokes, but spare parts boxes in general are transitioning to paper boxes with an eye toward SDGs, and this batch arrived entirely in the newer style boxes.
The number of spokes per box varies—some wheels are sold as complete sets of 16 or 21 spokes for front or rear respectively—but usually it's just 1 aluminum spoke or 4 steel spokes per box, which volume-wise is like shipping air all the way from Italy or Romania.
↑Bora 35 front/rear left spokes—old and new box styles
↑Bora 50 front/rear left spokes—old and new box styles
I consolidate inventory into one box, but the old plastic-film boxes are sturdier, so if I have any old boxes that haven't fallen apart, I use those instead.
↑This is what the scratch that prompted the replacement looks like
This is the rear wheel, and I'm checking it with a dishing gauge right after removing all 7 spokes on the non-freewheel side.
I'm not joking around here.
When replacing the left side spokes on the front and the left spokes on the rear, you need to temporarily remove the hub axle.
Even with CULT bearings, grease from around the ratchet mechanism seeps past the seal onto the ball race on the rear right side.
I wiped it clean.
↑This is the left side of the rear hub right after removing the axle. The front hub left and right sides look similar, but
↑the rear hub right side looks like this.
I removed the seals and ball retainers on both sides and cleaned them. I'm careful to keep the left and right parts oriented the same way as they were originally.
When the bearings inside a freewheel body wear out and the outer race moves around loosely relative to the inner race, that eccentric motion can sometimes cause the ratchet teeth on the hub body side to leave marks on the pawl section of the freewheel body.
The image above shows that same kind of mark, but in this case the cause wasn't bearing wear—it was a loose right locknut.
The pawl return spring was no longer perfectly round, so I'm replacing it.
↑Here's a new spring for comparison
The front wheel is done.
Of the 9 spokes on the left side, the 6 with marker tape are the new ones.
The rear wheel is done too.
Since all of the left side was being replaced, I didn't mark those with tape.
↑The replaced spokes
6 from the front wheel and 7 from the rear, arranged separately and just held together with tape.
As you can see, there's not a single spoke showing visible deformation.
↑The 6 front spokes.
I've arranged them in order of their original rim holes, but if I numbered them so the most severely scratched spokes get lower numbers starting from the right, the scratch pattern isn't 123456 so much as 121323—kind of repeating.
↑The 7 rear spokes.
Again arranged in their original rim hole order, but there's not much sense of continuity. If anything, the spoke at the far right feels like the final blow.
Since I replaced all 7, I can't tell where it started, but if I number them in what I estimate was the scraping order from right to left, it's probably 7123456.
The 7th spoke has a scratch on the edge rather than the flat side—it was only the corner that scraped.
This damage to the spokes is an extremely rare example. A normal crash would usually deform the spokes themselves, not just roughen the flat side, and just tipping the bike over without the wheel spinning wouldn't produce these marks going around the entire circumference.
I thought maybe the customer had fallen off a stationary trainer, so I asked what happened.
Turns out the bike tipped sideways into a U-shaped drainage ditch while moving, and the wheels scraped along with that characteristic grinding sound for a bit before getting out.
Ah, so the concrete edge of that U-ditch was right where those scratches are.
Not exactly the same situation, but if I demonstrate with one of my own wheels, this is roughly what must have happened.
According to the customer's assessment, 6 spokes on the left side of the front wheel and 7 spokes on the left side of the rear wheel (that's all of them) have developed scuff marks, and they'd like them replaced.
The spokes show no deformation, and the scratches aren't causing any runout issues, but the customer wants them replaced for cosmetic reasons and peace of mind.
Since this wheel has radial-pattern spokes on the front left and right sides and rear left side that all share the same part number, the repair requires 13 spokes total.
(The replaced spokes ended up being exactly the ones the customer identified as needing replacement)
But I was just one spoke short in stock, so
I ordered spokes from Campagnolo to cover what this wheel repair needed plus some stock.
Not just spokes, but spare parts boxes in general are transitioning to paper boxes with an eye toward SDGs, and this batch arrived entirely in the newer style boxes.
The number of spokes per box varies—some wheels are sold as complete sets of 16 or 21 spokes for front or rear respectively—but usually it's just 1 aluminum spoke or 4 steel spokes per box, which volume-wise is like shipping air all the way from Italy or Romania.
↑Bora 35 front/rear left spokes—old and new box styles
↑Bora 50 front/rear left spokes—old and new box styles
I consolidate inventory into one box, but the old plastic-film boxes are sturdier, so if I have any old boxes that haven't fallen apart, I use those instead.
↑This is what the scratch that prompted the replacement looks like
This is the rear wheel, and I'm checking it with a dishing gauge right after removing all 7 spokes on the non-freewheel side.
I'm not joking around here.
When replacing the left side spokes on the front and the left spokes on the rear, you need to temporarily remove the hub axle.
Even with CULT bearings, grease from around the ratchet mechanism seeps past the seal onto the ball race on the rear right side.
I wiped it clean.
↑This is the left side of the rear hub right after removing the axle. The front hub left and right sides look similar, but
↑the rear hub right side looks like this.
I removed the seals and ball retainers on both sides and cleaned them. I'm careful to keep the left and right parts oriented the same way as they were originally.
When the bearings inside a freewheel body wear out and the outer race moves around loosely relative to the inner race, that eccentric motion can sometimes cause the ratchet teeth on the hub body side to leave marks on the pawl section of the freewheel body.
The image above shows that same kind of mark, but in this case the cause wasn't bearing wear—it was a loose right locknut.
The pawl return spring was no longer perfectly round, so I'm replacing it.
↑Here's a new spring for comparison
The front wheel is done.
Of the 9 spokes on the left side, the 6 with marker tape are the new ones.
The rear wheel is done too.
Since all of the left side was being replaced, I didn't mark those with tape.
↑The replaced spokes
6 from the front wheel and 7 from the rear, arranged separately and just held together with tape.
As you can see, there's not a single spoke showing visible deformation.
↑The 6 front spokes.
I've arranged them in order of their original rim holes, but if I numbered them so the most severely scratched spokes get lower numbers starting from the right, the scratch pattern isn't 123456 so much as 121323—kind of repeating.
↑The 7 rear spokes.
Again arranged in their original rim hole order, but there's not much sense of continuity. If anything, the spoke at the far right feels like the final blow.
Since I replaced all 7, I can't tell where it started, but if I number them in what I estimate was the scraping order from right to left, it's probably 7123456.
The 7th spoke has a scratch on the edge rather than the flat side—it was only the corner that scraped.
This damage to the spokes is an extremely rare example. A normal crash would usually deform the spokes themselves, not just roughen the flat side, and just tipping the bike over without the wheel spinning wouldn't produce these marks going around the entire circumference.
I thought maybe the customer had fallen off a stationary trainer, so I asked what happened.
Turns out the bike tipped sideways into a U-shaped drainage ditch while moving, and the wheels scraped along with that characteristic grinding sound for a bit before getting out.
Ah, so the concrete edge of that U-ditch was right where those scratches are.
Not exactly the same situation, but if I demonstrate with one of my own wheels, this is roughly what must have happened.