A customer dropped off the front wheel from a Racing 3.
A spoke has broken off.
Fixed.
↑Replaced parts
The nipple could have been reused, but I replaced it anyway.
This is a common fracture pattern where the break occurs right at the start of the threads.
Since the spoke length protrudes slightly beyond the flat face of the nipple,
the broken section can be recovered if there's no thread seizure.
Next, the same customer brought in the rear wheel from a Racing Quattro Carbon.
The customer identified three nipples where the wrench flats have become stripped and are no longer square,
and asked to have them replaced.
White powder—a mixture of rust and dust—had accumulated in the grip pockets of the aluminum nipples.
Additionally, a shop in the customer's neighborhood did some amateur truing work that deformed the nipple flats,
causing cracks to develop.
All three nipples that the customer wanted replaced were in a state where only two of the four wrench flats
could be gripped properly.
This happens when the square is deformed into a parallelogram,
causing the diagonal sides to exceed the width of the tool.
The wheel had almost no runout, but when I checked the centering position using rule-of-thumb experience
from hanging wheels at Fulcrum and factoring in the rim drift that occurs over time,
the rim was shifted to the left by an impossible amount—
a clear sign that amateur truing was done without using a centering gauge.
Rear wheels with equal spoke counts on both sides have lower tension on the non-freewheel side,
making it easier to tighten up that side. Rear wheels with unequal spoke counts on both sides
have fewer spokes to adjust on the non-freewheel side anyway,
so regardless of the design, truing tends to be done by tightening the non-freewheel side.
This isn't necessarily wrong in itself, but if the work ends without checking with a centering gauge,
the rim tends to shift to the left quite often.
Sometimes this is because someone's being lazy about using the centering gauge, but more often
the real issue is that they're not removing the tire from the wheel in the first place,
which is necessary to properly use a centering gauge.
One of the three nipples was on a non-freewheel side spoke, and I managed to loosen it.
White powder came pouring out and there's a crack in the nipple.
The remaining two nipples on the freewheel side had corroded grip flats,
so the nipples wouldn't turn anymore.
Fortunately, they were aero spokes with straight sections, so I was able to grip the spoke
at two points—at the hub end and the rim end—and rotate it to recover the nipple.
But for radial spokes (which is the case with the non-freewheel side, both wheels on the front,
and the left side on the rear), there's a rolled stop dent on the hub side, just below the spoke neck,
so this technique won't work.
If you damage a nipple on the non-freewheel side, you have to cut the spoke
and replace both the spoke and nipple.
I replaced the three nipples and did the truing and centering.
The only nipples I judged needed replacement were the three the customer pointed out.
↑Replaced nipples
The other nipples also had white powder packed in their grip pockets, but
since their wrench flats weren't stripped, I was able to turn them
while keeping the square shape of the grip flats intact.
A spoke has broken off.
Fixed.
↑Replaced parts
The nipple could have been reused, but I replaced it anyway.
This is a common fracture pattern where the break occurs right at the start of the threads.
Since the spoke length protrudes slightly beyond the flat face of the nipple,
the broken section can be recovered if there's no thread seizure.
Next, the same customer brought in the rear wheel from a Racing Quattro Carbon.
The customer identified three nipples where the wrench flats have become stripped and are no longer square,
and asked to have them replaced.
White powder—a mixture of rust and dust—had accumulated in the grip pockets of the aluminum nipples.
Additionally, a shop in the customer's neighborhood did some amateur truing work that deformed the nipple flats,
causing cracks to develop.
All three nipples that the customer wanted replaced were in a state where only two of the four wrench flats
could be gripped properly.
This happens when the square is deformed into a parallelogram,
causing the diagonal sides to exceed the width of the tool.
The wheel had almost no runout, but when I checked the centering position using rule-of-thumb experience
from hanging wheels at Fulcrum and factoring in the rim drift that occurs over time,
the rim was shifted to the left by an impossible amount—
a clear sign that amateur truing was done without using a centering gauge.
Rear wheels with equal spoke counts on both sides have lower tension on the non-freewheel side,
making it easier to tighten up that side. Rear wheels with unequal spoke counts on both sides
have fewer spokes to adjust on the non-freewheel side anyway,
so regardless of the design, truing tends to be done by tightening the non-freewheel side.
This isn't necessarily wrong in itself, but if the work ends without checking with a centering gauge,
the rim tends to shift to the left quite often.
Sometimes this is because someone's being lazy about using the centering gauge, but more often
the real issue is that they're not removing the tire from the wheel in the first place,
which is necessary to properly use a centering gauge.
One of the three nipples was on a non-freewheel side spoke, and I managed to loosen it.
White powder came pouring out and there's a crack in the nipple.
The remaining two nipples on the freewheel side had corroded grip flats,
so the nipples wouldn't turn anymore.
Fortunately, they were aero spokes with straight sections, so I was able to grip the spoke
at two points—at the hub end and the rim end—and rotate it to recover the nipple.
But for radial spokes (which is the case with the non-freewheel side, both wheels on the front,
and the left side on the rear), there's a rolled stop dent on the hub side, just below the spoke neck,
so this technique won't work.
If you damage a nipple on the non-freewheel side, you have to cut the spoke
and replace both the spoke and nipple.
I replaced the three nipples and did the truing and centering.
The only nipples I judged needed replacement were the three the customer pointed out.
↑Replaced nipples
The other nipples also had white powder packed in their grip pockets, but
since their wrench flats weren't stripped, I was able to turn them
while keeping the square shape of the grip flats intact.