A customer dropped off a rear wheel for disc brakes from a Bora WTO45.
It was purchased from an overseas online shop.
Because it came with a Campagnolo freebody, the discount was so large
that it significantly undercut the price of a Shimano freebody version.
So the customer's logic was: buy this and just swap in a Shimano freebody instead.
That's what they did after purchasing it.
With rim brake wheels, the type of brake shoes included differs,
but with disc brake wheels, only the freebody spec is different.
The hub bearings had a slight amount of play,
but that's unrelated to the freebody swap.
One spoke is broken.
The broken spoke and nipple are still lodged inside the rim.
Spokes don't usually fracture from fatigue in the middle section—
when this happens, there's always an external cause.
Apparently, this spoke had been bent earlier,
and despite knowing it was damaged, the customer kept using the wheel.
Then the other day—crack—it broke.
The customer is from Osaka city,
and since we have spoke stock at the shop, I told them over the phone
we could fix it right away if they brought it in.
They showed up immediately.
To pull the broken spoke out of the hub flange,
because of the flange shape, the spoke head was catching,
so I had to reduce tension on the adjacent spoke first.
I loosened it considerably for now.
Besides adjusting the replaced spoke's nipple and the temporarily loosened nipples,
I did some very minor truing at a few spots.
Once I'd removed all the runout and checked it with a centering gauge,
the center came out on its own.
It was like the wheel was guided back to its originally perfect centering.
In the image above, there appears to be a gap at the non-drive side dropout, but—
↑this one
The silver part of the hub axle is where it contacts the frame dropout,
and the black part has a step relative to the axle,
so it just appears to have a gap.
Done.
The spoke with the yellow tape is the replacement,
and the blue tape marks the spots where I temporarily loosened the nipples
for the work.
↑the replaced spoke
You can see it was bent before it fractured.
As for the cause,
the customer said:
"I hit one of those bollards on the Yodo River floodplain…"
…Oh man, that's basically a metal stag beetle (→here)!
Getting away with just one broken spoke as tuition for laziness
is probably still a lucky outcome.
Some people have had their rims destroyed (→here).
Even though the generation and specs differ,
in the sense of being "Bora without the Ultra," it's the same wheel grade as
this Bora WTO in today's case.
It was purchased from an overseas online shop.
Because it came with a Campagnolo freebody, the discount was so large
that it significantly undercut the price of a Shimano freebody version.
So the customer's logic was: buy this and just swap in a Shimano freebody instead.
That's what they did after purchasing it.
With rim brake wheels, the type of brake shoes included differs,
but with disc brake wheels, only the freebody spec is different.
The hub bearings had a slight amount of play,
but that's unrelated to the freebody swap.
One spoke is broken.
The broken spoke and nipple are still lodged inside the rim.
Spokes don't usually fracture from fatigue in the middle section—
when this happens, there's always an external cause.
Apparently, this spoke had been bent earlier,
and despite knowing it was damaged, the customer kept using the wheel.
Then the other day—crack—it broke.
The customer is from Osaka city,
and since we have spoke stock at the shop, I told them over the phone
we could fix it right away if they brought it in.
They showed up immediately.
To pull the broken spoke out of the hub flange,
because of the flange shape, the spoke head was catching,
so I had to reduce tension on the adjacent spoke first.
I loosened it considerably for now.
Besides adjusting the replaced spoke's nipple and the temporarily loosened nipples,
I did some very minor truing at a few spots.
Once I'd removed all the runout and checked it with a centering gauge,
the center came out on its own.
It was like the wheel was guided back to its originally perfect centering.
In the image above, there appears to be a gap at the non-drive side dropout, but—
↑this one
The silver part of the hub axle is where it contacts the frame dropout,
and the black part has a step relative to the axle,
so it just appears to have a gap.
Done.
The spoke with the yellow tape is the replacement,
and the blue tape marks the spots where I temporarily loosened the nipples
for the work.
↑the replaced spoke
You can see it was bent before it fractured.
As for the cause,
the customer said:
"I hit one of those bollards on the Yodo River floodplain…"
…Oh man, that's basically a metal stag beetle (→here)!
Getting away with just one broken spoke as tuition for laziness
is probably still a lucky outcome.
Some people have had their rims destroyed (→here).
Even though the generation and specs differ,
in the sense of being "Bora without the Ultra," it's the same wheel grade as
this Bora WTO in today's case.