A customer dropped off a first-generation Bora WTO
disc brake wheel for service.
Since it's not the Ultra version,
a rim brake Bora WTO is also possible,
so I'm writing "for disc brakes" to be clear.
Starting with the rear wheel.
While neither wheel is an Ultra,
apparently both were converted to CULT (Campagnolo Ultra-Light Technology) afterwards.
This wheel was won at auction and sent to our shop unused,
so the customer has many concerns and wants an inspection.
The CULT conversion was done by the previous owner themselves (in other words, as an amateur),
so they want us to check if it was done properly,
and even whether it's really a CULT at all.
I won't mention the identifying points,
but it is possible to distinguish between USB and CULT hubs.
After disassembling the hub and examining the internals,
both wheels had indeed been converted to CULT,
but both had play in the bearing cone adjustment.
And not a trivial amount either—pressing the left and right ends alternately with both thumbs
produces an audible clicking sound, quite pronounced,
especially on the front wheel. If someone couldn't feel this while riding,
I'd have to say they're remarkably insensitive.
It's oddly contradictory that someone who can't adjust the bearing cone
managed to convert to CULT.
The locknut for the bearing cone adjustment is properly tightened.
The 14mm wrench flat concealer and stopper split ring—which prevents the cone adjustment nut from loosening excessively—has pry marks on it.
Since the hub axle end is only the silver portion,
this isn't an essential functional component for the wheel.
There's no particular reason to remove and use it anyway.
On the freewheel body spline, there are marks from tightening the lockring
with the top gear phasing in the wrong position.
Prioritizing the condition that nothing has been touched at all,
I checked the preliminary center even with hub bearing play,
and found the rim was significantly off-center toward the non-freewheel side.
This exceeds the tolerance that would pass Campagnolo quality control.
Examining the nipple wrench flats and spoke twist patterns,
there are no obvious signs of tampering,
but I can true wheels without leaving marks myself,
so marks present = proof of handling, but marks absent ≠ proof of non-handling.
With 24 spokes in G3, there are eight bundles running parallel,
and directly below two consecutive bundles there's radial runout—
this also fails to meet manufacturer shipping standards,
so wheel truing tinkering is virtually certain.
It looks like someone loosened the freewheel side spokes
and over-tightened the non-freewheel side
without using a centering gauge.
When shaking the rim, I heard something rattling inside,
so I removed it.
It was a nipple anti-loosening nylon washer
that had twisted off and fallen out.
Since a tubeless valve was installed,
I temporarily removed it.
I disassembled the hub.
The removed bearing components are distinguished by
which side they came from and reassembled in their original positions.
At this stage of disassembly, it's possible to distinguish
between USB and CULT silver ball races.
Which area to examine is trade secret.
On the non-freewheel side, for approximately half the circumference,
the cone was scraped out at an angle, leaving scratches
on the inside of the hub body.
The image above shows the unmarked side.
↑opposite side
from here
to here
I didn't remove the cone, but as a precaution
I pressed it back in with a press tool.
There was no feel of it going in further than originally.
I reassembled the hub and adjusted the bearing cone.
The preliminary center at that point shows the rim
offset significantly to the left side.
Since there was almost no lateral runout, the first preliminary center
wasn't taken at the point of maximum right-side runout.
Could it be the hub play? When the centering gauge was applied in one orientation,
the hub axle moved downward,
but didn't in the opposite orientation,
which is one possibility.
If wheel truing tinkering was done (and it almost certainly was),
loosening the 16 freewheel-side spokes to correct lateral runout
would be nearly impossible, so they over-tightened the non-freewheel side
and shifted the rim to the left.
The approach should be to loosen that to bring it back,
but the freewheel side seemed like it needed more tension,
so first I'd tighten the freewheel side, and if the rim still pulled left,
I'd barely loosen the non-freewheel side,
but then
I was able to achieve center just by over-tightening the freewheel side.
The gap that appears between the non-freewheel end and the centering gauge probe
is
as I mentioned before, or in previous posts,
because the left hub axle end is only the silver portion,
with a step between it and the black component.
Now the front wheel.
Taking the preliminary center with the hub play present,
it came out spot-on.
The hub body end has a minor scratch that flaked the anodize.
I disassembled the hub.
The image above is the right side, and
this is the left side,
with slight contamination on the hub body exterior to the seal.
After flushing the hub interior including this and re-pressing the cone,
surprisingly I felt it go in a bit further.
Clearly the cone has moved inward slightly.
The scratches around the cone were made during the original installation.
↑both images are the left side.
I deleted the image with the centering gauge applied to the right side.
The upper image didn't show the gauge body,
so I retook it, but accidentally deleted it during editing.
↑there is center offset.
Whether only the left side's cone advanced further from pressing is unclear,
but measurable hub clearance is visible on the side where greater left advancement occurs.
Since the initial preliminary center had hub play, I can't rule out that influence either.
I trued the center.
There's virtually no lateral runout, and the odd radial runout from the rear wheel was absent,
so the front wheel likely wasn't subjected to truing tinkering.
The rear wheel seemed like "there's some lateral runout, let's fix it!"
and the result of one-sided (non-freewheel) over-tightening
creating radial runout and center offset without concern
while only reducing lateral runout from what it was—tinkering results.
But seeing stuff like this, buying wheels at auction
carries significant risk.
Even if the current owner notices and fixes hub play,
they might not notice all these other problems
and just use the wheel as-is.
disc brake wheel for service.
Since it's not the Ultra version,
a rim brake Bora WTO is also possible,
so I'm writing "for disc brakes" to be clear.
Starting with the rear wheel.
While neither wheel is an Ultra,
apparently both were converted to CULT (Campagnolo Ultra-Light Technology) afterwards.
This wheel was won at auction and sent to our shop unused,
so the customer has many concerns and wants an inspection.
The CULT conversion was done by the previous owner themselves (in other words, as an amateur),
so they want us to check if it was done properly,
and even whether it's really a CULT at all.
I won't mention the identifying points,
but it is possible to distinguish between USB and CULT hubs.
After disassembling the hub and examining the internals,
both wheels had indeed been converted to CULT,
but both had play in the bearing cone adjustment.
And not a trivial amount either—pressing the left and right ends alternately with both thumbs
produces an audible clicking sound, quite pronounced,
especially on the front wheel. If someone couldn't feel this while riding,
I'd have to say they're remarkably insensitive.
It's oddly contradictory that someone who can't adjust the bearing cone
managed to convert to CULT.
The locknut for the bearing cone adjustment is properly tightened.
The 14mm wrench flat concealer and stopper split ring—which prevents the cone adjustment nut from loosening excessively—has pry marks on it.
Since the hub axle end is only the silver portion,
this isn't an essential functional component for the wheel.
There's no particular reason to remove and use it anyway.
On the freewheel body spline, there are marks from tightening the lockring
with the top gear phasing in the wrong position.
Prioritizing the condition that nothing has been touched at all,
I checked the preliminary center even with hub bearing play,
and found the rim was significantly off-center toward the non-freewheel side.
This exceeds the tolerance that would pass Campagnolo quality control.
Examining the nipple wrench flats and spoke twist patterns,
there are no obvious signs of tampering,
but I can true wheels without leaving marks myself,
so marks present = proof of handling, but marks absent ≠ proof of non-handling.
With 24 spokes in G3, there are eight bundles running parallel,
and directly below two consecutive bundles there's radial runout—
this also fails to meet manufacturer shipping standards,
so wheel truing tinkering is virtually certain.
It looks like someone loosened the freewheel side spokes
and over-tightened the non-freewheel side
without using a centering gauge.
When shaking the rim, I heard something rattling inside,
so I removed it.
It was a nipple anti-loosening nylon washer
that had twisted off and fallen out.
Since a tubeless valve was installed,
I temporarily removed it.
I disassembled the hub.
The removed bearing components are distinguished by
which side they came from and reassembled in their original positions.
At this stage of disassembly, it's possible to distinguish
between USB and CULT silver ball races.
Which area to examine is trade secret.
On the non-freewheel side, for approximately half the circumference,
the cone was scraped out at an angle, leaving scratches
on the inside of the hub body.
The image above shows the unmarked side.
↑opposite side
from here
to here
I didn't remove the cone, but as a precaution
I pressed it back in with a press tool.
There was no feel of it going in further than originally.
I reassembled the hub and adjusted the bearing cone.
The preliminary center at that point shows the rim
offset significantly to the left side.
Since there was almost no lateral runout, the first preliminary center
wasn't taken at the point of maximum right-side runout.
Could it be the hub play? When the centering gauge was applied in one orientation,
the hub axle moved downward,
but didn't in the opposite orientation,
which is one possibility.
If wheel truing tinkering was done (and it almost certainly was),
loosening the 16 freewheel-side spokes to correct lateral runout
would be nearly impossible, so they over-tightened the non-freewheel side
and shifted the rim to the left.
The approach should be to loosen that to bring it back,
but the freewheel side seemed like it needed more tension,
so first I'd tighten the freewheel side, and if the rim still pulled left,
I'd barely loosen the non-freewheel side,
but then
I was able to achieve center just by over-tightening the freewheel side.
The gap that appears between the non-freewheel end and the centering gauge probe
is
as I mentioned before, or in previous posts,
because the left hub axle end is only the silver portion,
with a step between it and the black component.
Now the front wheel.
Taking the preliminary center with the hub play present,
it came out spot-on.
The hub body end has a minor scratch that flaked the anodize.
I disassembled the hub.
The image above is the right side, and
this is the left side,
with slight contamination on the hub body exterior to the seal.
After flushing the hub interior including this and re-pressing the cone,
surprisingly I felt it go in a bit further.
Clearly the cone has moved inward slightly.
The scratches around the cone were made during the original installation.
↑both images are the left side.
I deleted the image with the centering gauge applied to the right side.
The upper image didn't show the gauge body,
so I retook it, but accidentally deleted it during editing.
↑there is center offset.
Whether only the left side's cone advanced further from pressing is unclear,
but measurable hub clearance is visible on the side where greater left advancement occurs.
Since the initial preliminary center had hub play, I can't rule out that influence either.
I trued the center.
There's virtually no lateral runout, and the odd radial runout from the rear wheel was absent,
so the front wheel likely wasn't subjected to truing tinkering.
The rear wheel seemed like "there's some lateral runout, let's fix it!"
and the result of one-sided (non-freewheel) over-tightening
creating radial runout and center offset without concern
while only reducing lateral runout from what it was—tinkering results.
But seeing stuff like this, buying wheels at auction
carries significant risk.
Even if the current owner notices and fixes hub play,
they might not notice all these other problems
and just use the wheel as-is.