Another wheel day (and so on).
I took in a customer's current generation Ultegra C36 front wheel.
It had been used for cyclocross, and
whether related to that or not, the hub rotation was grinding,
and since the ball races are actually pitted,
the customer requested a hub replacement and rebuild.
Before that, a side note unrelated to this job.
This front wheel originally had a list price of
66,000 yen (ex-tax) / 72,600 yen (inc-tax).
If you were to go to a shop with 220,000 yen,
you could buy exactly three of these wheels.
Since this pricing remained through the end of 2022,
I ordered 8 front wheels at the last moment before the price increase, and
in early January 2023 I rebuilt 4 of them as rear wheels
and sold them at a special price.
I didn't order rear wheels because with Optivar's 2:1 lacing
it's not a particularly good build method.
Currently, this front wheel's list price has increased twice and is now
96,667 yen (ex-tax) / 106,334 yen (inc-tax).
If you run to the shop with 220,000 yen
and buy at list price, you can now only buy exactly 2 wheels.
What used to be 3 wheels for the same amount with little change left over
is now only 2 wheels—
which means the price has roughly increased by 1.5 times.
And from November 2024,
Shimano's overseas-manufactured products will increase in price again.
Road components from Dura-Ace down to 105 in the upper grades
are mostly made in Japan, so they're not subject to this,
but complete wheels have been Malaysian-made for all grades
since the original 7700 series,
so they'll see price increases at the time of the overseas production price revision.
Lower grade component parts are seeing price increases of around 3.5%,
but the R8170 wheels are seeing increases of 12.5–14.8%,
and the R9270 wheels are seeing 16.3–16.7% increases—
for the WH-R8170-C36-TL front wheel
the new list price will be 108,759 yen (ex-tax) / 119,635 yen (inc-tax).
You can't even buy 2 wheels anymore with 220,000 yen.
By the way, the special price back then for the front and rear wheels of that
R8170-C36-TL that we rebuilt from front to rear was
139,000 yen (inc-tax). Just to be clear, that was for both wheels.
Back to this wheel.
The hub shell showed the distinctive dirt pattern of cyclocross use, and
fine sand was trying to work its way into
the rim holes once the wheel was disassembled.
The drainage holes on either side of the rim
had been taped shut by the customer.
For road bikes used almost exclusively on pavement
even in the rain, these holes are better left open.
Some tubeless-ready rims have much larger holes,
and in those cases it seems the intent is to
prevent rim explosions from the inside when tire pressure
rushes in rapidly through gaps in the rim tape
(→here).
ENVE makes a Pressure Relief Valve Stem Nut
which is a tubeless valve that releases air from inside the rim
through the valve nut area in such situations.
Built.
Tni Duro Disc Hub 24H black semi CX sprint
64-spoke reverse Italian lacing.
Spoke threading comes later.
I took in a customer's current generation Ultegra C36 front wheel.
It had been used for cyclocross, and
whether related to that or not, the hub rotation was grinding,
and since the ball races are actually pitted,
the customer requested a hub replacement and rebuild.
Before that, a side note unrelated to this job.
This front wheel originally had a list price of
66,000 yen (ex-tax) / 72,600 yen (inc-tax).
If you were to go to a shop with 220,000 yen,
you could buy exactly three of these wheels.
Since this pricing remained through the end of 2022,
I ordered 8 front wheels at the last moment before the price increase, and
in early January 2023 I rebuilt 4 of them as rear wheels
and sold them at a special price.
I didn't order rear wheels because with Optivar's 2:1 lacing
it's not a particularly good build method.
Currently, this front wheel's list price has increased twice and is now
96,667 yen (ex-tax) / 106,334 yen (inc-tax).
If you run to the shop with 220,000 yen
and buy at list price, you can now only buy exactly 2 wheels.
What used to be 3 wheels for the same amount with little change left over
is now only 2 wheels—
which means the price has roughly increased by 1.5 times.
And from November 2024,
Shimano's overseas-manufactured products will increase in price again.
Road components from Dura-Ace down to 105 in the upper grades
are mostly made in Japan, so they're not subject to this,
but complete wheels have been Malaysian-made for all grades
since the original 7700 series,
so they'll see price increases at the time of the overseas production price revision.
Lower grade component parts are seeing price increases of around 3.5%,
but the R8170 wheels are seeing increases of 12.5–14.8%,
and the R9270 wheels are seeing 16.3–16.7% increases—
for the WH-R8170-C36-TL front wheel
the new list price will be 108,759 yen (ex-tax) / 119,635 yen (inc-tax).
You can't even buy 2 wheels anymore with 220,000 yen.
By the way, the special price back then for the front and rear wheels of that
R8170-C36-TL that we rebuilt from front to rear was
139,000 yen (inc-tax). Just to be clear, that was for both wheels.
Back to this wheel.
The hub shell showed the distinctive dirt pattern of cyclocross use, and
fine sand was trying to work its way into
the rim holes once the wheel was disassembled.
The drainage holes on either side of the rim
had been taped shut by the customer.
For road bikes used almost exclusively on pavement
even in the rain, these holes are better left open.
Some tubeless-ready rims have much larger holes,
and in those cases it seems the intent is to
prevent rim explosions from the inside when tire pressure
rushes in rapidly through gaps in the rim tape
(→here).
ENVE makes a Pressure Relief Valve Stem Nut
which is a tubeless valve that releases air from inside the rim
through the valve nut area in such situations.
Built.
Tni Duro Disc Hub 24H black semi CX sprint
64-spoke reverse Italian lacing.
Spoke threading comes later.