A customer brought in a wheel from a brand called Idaten (韋駄天) — a 20-inch WO rim with ETRTO 451mm specifications.
The rim is pretty much unmarked, but "Idaten" is laser-engraved on the hub shell, and the rim tape also has the Idaten brand printed on it. By the time I took these photos above, I'd already done some work — I replaced one spoke.
When customers bring wheels to me, I sometimes tell them, "Why don't you just have the shop that sold it to you fix it?" The images from today aren't quite right for the blog, but I replaced a spoke on a WH-R9270-C50TL front wheel earlier for a different reason. The customer said, "I'm not the original owner." And the other most common reason I hear is, "We don't trust the shop that sold it to us."
When I say, "Why don't you just have the shop that sold it to you fix it?" — I'm not trying to kick them out. If the seller won't or can't repair it, I want to hear their excuse. This wheel was bought from Velolife Amp, a mini-velo specialty shop. When the customer asked about the rear wheel being out of true, they hemmed and hawed, saying things like, "We're not sure if we can fix it. It would take time..." and so on, which is why the customer brought it to us. It turned out the rear wheel had a pretty bad hop at one spot caused by spoke deformation, and ultimately a spoke replacement was needed. Not being able to immediately say, "Bring it by," for something as simple as wheel truing — especially for a wheel you sold yourself — shows a lack of any real capability beyond just selling mini-velos left and right. That's low-level work. (Mini-velo "specialty" shop, right?)
As for whether Velolife Amp could have actually fixed this wheel? Probably not, frankly. I also inspected the front wheel while I was at it, and the wheel center was way off (I even showed the customer). A shop that doesn't feel shame selling wheels in that condition, and probably lacks both the concept and the skill to even inspect wheels in the first place — that's the level of shop we're dealing with here.
↑The spoke I replaced
This wheel is "kind of like a Rolf," with the main difference being that the rear hub isn't reverse high-low flange. By "kind of like a Rolf," I don't just mean it's a low-spoke-count pair-spoke wheel —
First, the front wheel is 14H radial laced, but when you look at the rim holes going clockwise starting from the valve hole, the spoke holes alternate left-right-left-right. This is the same state you'd get if you took a standard normal-hole-spacing wheel and rotated one flange's phase (rim holes) to create a dense-sparse phase.
But on the 16H rear wheel, the hole spacing starting from the valve hole is right-left-left-right, with a grouping of the final left-right crossing pair — this isn't simply a standard rear wheel made into dense-sparse phase. And Rolf's rear wheels are built this way too, which is what I'm referring to when I call it "Rolf-like."
Now, this rear wheel had radial (vertical) runout that I couldn't completely eliminate. At actual brake-shoe adjustment and usage levels, you wouldn't notice it, but on the truing stand it bounces up and down pretty noticeably as it spins.
Digging deeper, I discovered something interesting. Of the eight rest phases, if I adjust the truing stand gauge to rub equally at a phase that isn't directly under the final crossing, then at the four rest phases directly under the final crossing, the gauge doesn't touch the rim at all. When I divide the rest phases into four under the final crossing and four elsewhere, adjusting the nipple on one pair-spoke's rim hole affects both sets, so I can't make those four positions align vertically with each other.
So the best I could do is "align the vertical position of the rest phases that aren't directly under the final crossing" — that's the limit of radial truing for this wheel. With a 700C rim, you can't observe this phenomenon as clearly.
The rim is pretty much unmarked, but "Idaten" is laser-engraved on the hub shell, and the rim tape also has the Idaten brand printed on it. By the time I took these photos above, I'd already done some work — I replaced one spoke.
When customers bring wheels to me, I sometimes tell them, "Why don't you just have the shop that sold it to you fix it?" The images from today aren't quite right for the blog, but I replaced a spoke on a WH-R9270-C50TL front wheel earlier for a different reason. The customer said, "I'm not the original owner." And the other most common reason I hear is, "We don't trust the shop that sold it to us."
When I say, "Why don't you just have the shop that sold it to you fix it?" — I'm not trying to kick them out. If the seller won't or can't repair it, I want to hear their excuse. This wheel was bought from Velolife Amp, a mini-velo specialty shop. When the customer asked about the rear wheel being out of true, they hemmed and hawed, saying things like, "We're not sure if we can fix it. It would take time..." and so on, which is why the customer brought it to us. It turned out the rear wheel had a pretty bad hop at one spot caused by spoke deformation, and ultimately a spoke replacement was needed. Not being able to immediately say, "Bring it by," for something as simple as wheel truing — especially for a wheel you sold yourself — shows a lack of any real capability beyond just selling mini-velos left and right. That's low-level work. (Mini-velo "specialty" shop, right?)
As for whether Velolife Amp could have actually fixed this wheel? Probably not, frankly. I also inspected the front wheel while I was at it, and the wheel center was way off (I even showed the customer). A shop that doesn't feel shame selling wheels in that condition, and probably lacks both the concept and the skill to even inspect wheels in the first place — that's the level of shop we're dealing with here.
↑The spoke I replaced
This wheel is "kind of like a Rolf," with the main difference being that the rear hub isn't reverse high-low flange. By "kind of like a Rolf," I don't just mean it's a low-spoke-count pair-spoke wheel —
First, the front wheel is 14H radial laced, but when you look at the rim holes going clockwise starting from the valve hole, the spoke holes alternate left-right-left-right. This is the same state you'd get if you took a standard normal-hole-spacing wheel and rotated one flange's phase (rim holes) to create a dense-sparse phase.
But on the 16H rear wheel, the hole spacing starting from the valve hole is right-left-left-right, with a grouping of the final left-right crossing pair — this isn't simply a standard rear wheel made into dense-sparse phase. And Rolf's rear wheels are built this way too, which is what I'm referring to when I call it "Rolf-like."
Now, this rear wheel had radial (vertical) runout that I couldn't completely eliminate. At actual brake-shoe adjustment and usage levels, you wouldn't notice it, but on the truing stand it bounces up and down pretty noticeably as it spins.
Digging deeper, I discovered something interesting. Of the eight rest phases, if I adjust the truing stand gauge to rub equally at a phase that isn't directly under the final crossing, then at the four rest phases directly under the final crossing, the gauge doesn't touch the rim at all. When I divide the rest phases into four under the final crossing and four elsewhere, adjusting the nipple on one pair-spoke's rim hole affects both sets, so I can't make those four positions align vertically with each other.
So the best I could do is "align the vertical position of the rest phases that aren't directly under the final crossing" — that's the limit of radial truing for this wheel. With a 700C rim, you can't observe this phenomenon as clearly.