I haven't written an article about it, but a while back I did a complete overhaul of the front and rear wheels on a customer's Racing Zero.
I think it was just the condition when they brought it in that was poor, but after using the serviced wheels,
they said that even just riding in front of the house made such a difference that you could tell right away.
Nomu Lab believer — what a bunch of nonsense.
So yesterday, that Racing Zero customer brought in the front and rear wheels of a Bora Ultra 50 for inspection.
About the only issue was some center drift on the rear wheel that appeared to be from age-related use,
but there were no real problems.
I didn't take photos for an article on that one either.
Yesterday, a friend of that customer brought in a Shimano WH-R9270-C50-TL and a Roval CL50 front and rear for inspection.
I struggled with these last two pairs, especially the CL50,
and didn't finish the work until around 11 PM.
↑This is the R9270 front wheel.
The center drift aside, there was one spot with radial runout so bad you wouldn't believe they passed QC on it.
This wheel is with its first owner, has no spoke truing history, and apparently the shop where it was purchased
wasn't the type that could do proper initial inspection,
so the radial runout must have been there from the start.
Next up is the Roval CL50.
I only took a photo of the front wheel.
For both wheels, about two years ago we inspected them at the shop.
Instead of rebuilding, we just did minor spoke truing and centering work,
but apparently the wheels became noticeably better to ride.
Nomu Lab believer — what a bunch of nonsense.
The front wheel got hit by a raccoon and threw a big wobble,
so the customer had it fixed at a nearby shop, and while they were at it, got the rear wheel trued too.
But it was clearly worse after that than before,
so even though it's a bit of a distance, they brought it in to us yesterday.
First, the rear wheel — it was a fake truing job.
There was center drift, and while they were adjusting by grabbing the inside of the nipple head,
they had stripped two of the original brass nipples,
so I swapped them out for original CL50 brass nipples that wefor some reason have in stock.
Then I did work that was less "spoke truing" and more like "taking a Rubik's Cube that a monkey played with and returning it to its original state."
It's not like there's been zero runout since the inspection two years ago,
but most of the reason I'm turning nipples is undoing that fake truing job.
With DT's Squorx nipples and Reynolds' complete wheelset aluminum nipples,
when spoke tension is applied in the finished wheel state, if you grab the inside of the nipple head and turn it, they strip easily.
But with Roval's CLX aluminum nipples, you can grab the inside—not the outside—with a normal spoke wrench
and complete wheel building without stripping the nipple.
At least, I can.
This wheel is a CL50, so it's built with brass nipples, which are harder to strip than aluminum,
but even so, there were nipples stripped enough to need replacement,
and several others with edges worn down.
I'll say it straight — the shop that messed this up cannot build a CLX 50 wheelset from all-new materials.
Oh, there was also radial runout.
I had the customer watch the wheel eccentric and dancing on the truing stand,
then confirmed with them that the runout was gone after correction.
The front wheel was also a fake truing job.
Because it's built with the XI pattern, perhaps the lower spoke count side runs high tension,
and two consecutive nipples on the radial spokes on the right side appear to have been stripped.
They were replaced with DT black aluminum nipples.
If you're not replacing all the nipples, you should replace them with brass,
but they probably didn't have black brass in stock.
And then — quite artistically — they handed the wheel to the customer with those replacement nipples stripped right after installation, without saying anything.
I was able to remove these two nipples while keeping them in their stripped shape, without loosening the other 19 nipples.
These are the same nipples I normally use,
but I'd like to ask how (what tools) you'd have to use to strip them like that.
After removing these, I filled the spokes with original black brass nipples
and then trued the wheel.
The CL50 front wheel, like the rear, had been messed with in many unnecessary places,
and took more work time than building a Nomu Lab Wheel No. 8 front wheel from scratch.
By the way, the CLX 50 rear wheel from the previous article had
the non-freewheel side nipples loosened six turns
before loosening the nipples on the final cross 5-pair 10 spokes on the freewheel side.
Then, after replacing the freewheel side spokes,
I rough-trued the lateral runout, tightened the non-freewheel side by 3 turns,
and gradually tightened the remaining 3 turns in stages for final centering.
For wheels I've rebuilt, that kind of process might be necessary,
but if I've only done an inspection with a tightening-trend approach,
you shouldn't strip the nipple just by turning it without all that fuss.
With a CL50 wheel, the raccoon incident, the nipple mess-up,
if the idiot who did this fake truing reads this, they'll definitely know it's about them,
but my thoughts are twofold:
First, not all customers fail to notice your mistakes,
even if you're too dumb to imagine that they might,
and second — you're lucky your shop's in that location; if you were in Osaka, you couldn't eat on what you'd make.
I think it was just the condition when they brought it in that was poor, but after using the serviced wheels,
they said that even just riding in front of the house made such a difference that you could tell right away.
Nomu Lab believer — what a bunch of nonsense.
So yesterday, that Racing Zero customer brought in the front and rear wheels of a Bora Ultra 50 for inspection.
About the only issue was some center drift on the rear wheel that appeared to be from age-related use,
but there were no real problems.
I didn't take photos for an article on that one either.
Yesterday, a friend of that customer brought in a Shimano WH-R9270-C50-TL and a Roval CL50 front and rear for inspection.
I struggled with these last two pairs, especially the CL50,
and didn't finish the work until around 11 PM.
↑This is the R9270 front wheel.
The center drift aside, there was one spot with radial runout so bad you wouldn't believe they passed QC on it.
This wheel is with its first owner, has no spoke truing history, and apparently the shop where it was purchased
wasn't the type that could do proper initial inspection,
so the radial runout must have been there from the start.
Next up is the Roval CL50.
I only took a photo of the front wheel.
For both wheels, about two years ago we inspected them at the shop.
Instead of rebuilding, we just did minor spoke truing and centering work,
but apparently the wheels became noticeably better to ride.
Nomu Lab believer — what a bunch of nonsense.
The front wheel got hit by a raccoon and threw a big wobble,
so the customer had it fixed at a nearby shop, and while they were at it, got the rear wheel trued too.
But it was clearly worse after that than before,
so even though it's a bit of a distance, they brought it in to us yesterday.
First, the rear wheel — it was a fake truing job.
There was center drift, and while they were adjusting by grabbing the inside of the nipple head,
they had stripped two of the original brass nipples,
so I swapped them out for original CL50 brass nipples that we
Then I did work that was less "spoke truing" and more like "taking a Rubik's Cube that a monkey played with and returning it to its original state."
It's not like there's been zero runout since the inspection two years ago,
but most of the reason I'm turning nipples is undoing that fake truing job.
With DT's Squorx nipples and Reynolds' complete wheelset aluminum nipples,
when spoke tension is applied in the finished wheel state, if you grab the inside of the nipple head and turn it, they strip easily.
But with Roval's CLX aluminum nipples, you can grab the inside—not the outside—with a normal spoke wrench
and complete wheel building without stripping the nipple.
At least, I can.
This wheel is a CL50, so it's built with brass nipples, which are harder to strip than aluminum,
but even so, there were nipples stripped enough to need replacement,
and several others with edges worn down.
I'll say it straight — the shop that messed this up cannot build a CLX 50 wheelset from all-new materials.
Oh, there was also radial runout.
I had the customer watch the wheel eccentric and dancing on the truing stand,
then confirmed with them that the runout was gone after correction.
The front wheel was also a fake truing job.
Because it's built with the XI pattern, perhaps the lower spoke count side runs high tension,
and two consecutive nipples on the radial spokes on the right side appear to have been stripped.
They were replaced with DT black aluminum nipples.
If you're not replacing all the nipples, you should replace them with brass,
but they probably didn't have black brass in stock.
And then — quite artistically — they handed the wheel to the customer with those replacement nipples stripped right after installation, without saying anything.
I was able to remove these two nipples while keeping them in their stripped shape, without loosening the other 19 nipples.
These are the same nipples I normally use,
but I'd like to ask how (what tools) you'd have to use to strip them like that.
After removing these, I filled the spokes with original black brass nipples
and then trued the wheel.
The CL50 front wheel, like the rear, had been messed with in many unnecessary places,
and took more work time than building a Nomu Lab Wheel No. 8 front wheel from scratch.
By the way, the CLX 50 rear wheel from the previous article had
the non-freewheel side nipples loosened six turns
before loosening the nipples on the final cross 5-pair 10 spokes on the freewheel side.
Then, after replacing the freewheel side spokes,
I rough-trued the lateral runout, tightened the non-freewheel side by 3 turns,
and gradually tightened the remaining 3 turns in stages for final centering.
For wheels I've rebuilt, that kind of process might be necessary,
but if I've only done an inspection with a tightening-trend approach,
you shouldn't strip the nipple just by turning it without all that fuss.
With a CL50 wheel, the raccoon incident, the nipple mess-up,
if the idiot who did this fake truing reads this, they'll definitely know it's about them,
but my thoughts are twofold:
First, not all customers fail to notice your mistakes,
even if you're too dumb to imagine that they might,
and second — you're lucky your shop's in that location; if you were in Osaka, you couldn't eat on what you'd make.