Tomorrow, September 28th (Sunday),
I have some unavoidable business to attend to,
so I'll be taking the day off.
I apologize for any inconvenience, and thank you for your understanding.
～Bonus Content～
Regarding disc brakes
Spare parts I keep in stock
Current Shimano
road disc brake calipers
have caps in two locations.
I removed both caps.
At Shimano,
the cap that goes on the hex hole of the bolt
that seals the brake fluid line on top of the body
is called the bleed screw cap,
and the cap that seals the hose connection port on the side of the body
is called the bleed boss cap.
These caps tend to go missing naturally.
The hex hole cap
is used as a tap handle with an Allen key
to open the oil line, so
dirt or water getting on it isn't a big problem,
but on the hose connection side,
it's preferable to have the cap in place.
This is the bleed screw cap.
It has a convex plug-in shape,
and when pinched with tweezers it deforms somewhat,
but has a plastic-like feel and is slightly rigid.
The Dura-Ace grade versions
are D-shaped rather than round
(not that Dura-Ace only fits D-shaped caps).
This kind of pointless attention to detail
causes a manufacturer to outsource the mold for this part,
but then not regularly order from it,
and on top of that, not pay the fixed asset tax on the mold—
which seems like a factor contributing to supplier mistreatment.
Edit: The mold is Shimano's property,
and what Shimano wasn't paying was
the mold storage fees
as stipulated by the Subcontracting Act.
Thank you for the comment.
Next, the bleed boss cap:
This one is made of soft rubber-like material.
There are some protrusions built in
to prevent it from falling off,
but I still see them missing all the time.
The bolt on the bleed port of SRAM brake levers and calipers
very frequently has a stripped Torx hole.
The image above is my personal Rival AXS,
and the rough condition isn't because
I don't maintain it properly—
a customer's lever had a Torx hole that was stripping and a rusty bolt,
so I swapped it with mine.
A spare part for this came in stock, so I replaced it.
↑This one
It apparently first appeared as a spare part for MTB Juicy brakes,
and officially that's still the designation,
but it works with current road levers too.
The current list price for single units is 150 yen,
but for 20-piece packs it's 2090 yen (104.5 yen per unit),
so I went with those.
This is just my own speculation, but...
With SRAM brake hoses that can be cut to any length
and have an olive installed,
you first screw in a part called a barb
with a Torx wrench into the hose.
The barb also has threads on its outside,
and you install the olive, which acts as a nut,
by turning it by hand on those threads.
The threads on this olive are
reverse-threaded
so the barb won't loosen from co-rotation.
Anyway, the Torx wrench for screwing the barb into the hose
comes with the hose kit,
so they pile up.
What I suspect, based on my own speculation, is that
some people are using this barb Torx wrench
on Torx holes on the lever or caliper side
that are a different size,
and turning the bolt with it.
The Torx holes over there have
so many stripped examples.
I checked, and you can technically
loosen the bolt this way.
↑Correct-size Torx wrench inserted
This bolt's Torx hole is T10,
and the barb's Torx hole is T8.
Shimano front disc brake mounting bolts—
probably chromoly material—
I think it would be good to keep these in stock
based on a case I saw recently.
There was a case where a stainless bolt with matching thread length
was used to mount the front brake,
and when I looked closely at the removed bolt,
the part not engaged with the fork threads,
just below the slot of the adapter that reverses orientation
to convert between 160mm and 140mm rotor diameters,
showed stretching.
↑This one
This is actually the milder case.
↑The sketchy one
This'll kill you.
I have some unavoidable business to attend to,
so I'll be taking the day off.
I apologize for any inconvenience, and thank you for your understanding.
～Bonus Content～
Regarding disc brakes
Spare parts I keep in stock
Current Shimano
road disc brake calipers
have caps in two locations.
I removed both caps.
At Shimano,
the cap that goes on the hex hole of the bolt
that seals the brake fluid line on top of the body
is called the bleed screw cap,
and the cap that seals the hose connection port on the side of the body
is called the bleed boss cap.
These caps tend to go missing naturally.
The hex hole cap
is used as a tap handle with an Allen key
to open the oil line, so
dirt or water getting on it isn't a big problem,
but on the hose connection side,
it's preferable to have the cap in place.
This is the bleed screw cap.
It has a convex plug-in shape,
and when pinched with tweezers it deforms somewhat,
but has a plastic-like feel and is slightly rigid.
The Dura-Ace grade versions
are D-shaped rather than round
(not that Dura-Ace only fits D-shaped caps).
causes a manufacturer to outsource the mold for this part,
but then not regularly order from it,
and on top of that, not pay the fixed asset tax on the mold—
which seems like a factor contributing to supplier mistreatment.
Edit: The mold is Shimano's property,
and what Shimano wasn't paying was
the mold storage fees
as stipulated by the Subcontracting Act.
Thank you for the comment.
Next, the bleed boss cap:
This one is made of soft rubber-like material.
There are some protrusions built in
to prevent it from falling off,
but I still see them missing all the time.
The bolt on the bleed port of SRAM brake levers and calipers
very frequently has a stripped Torx hole.
The image above is my personal Rival AXS,
and the rough condition isn't because
I don't maintain it properly—
a customer's lever had a Torx hole that was stripping and a rusty bolt,
so I swapped it with mine.
A spare part for this came in stock, so I replaced it.
↑This one
It apparently first appeared as a spare part for MTB Juicy brakes,
and officially that's still the designation,
but it works with current road levers too.
The current list price for single units is 150 yen,
but for 20-piece packs it's 2090 yen (104.5 yen per unit),
so I went with those.
This is just my own speculation, but...
With SRAM brake hoses that can be cut to any length
and have an olive installed,
you first screw in a part called a barb
with a Torx wrench into the hose.
The barb also has threads on its outside,
and you install the olive, which acts as a nut,
by turning it by hand on those threads.
The threads on this olive are
reverse-threaded
so the barb won't loosen from co-rotation.
Anyway, the Torx wrench for screwing the barb into the hose
comes with the hose kit,
so they pile up.
What I suspect, based on my own speculation, is that
some people are using this barb Torx wrench
on Torx holes on the lever or caliper side
that are a different size,
and turning the bolt with it.
The Torx holes over there have
so many stripped examples.
I checked, and you can technically
loosen the bolt this way.
↑Correct-size Torx wrench inserted
This bolt's Torx hole is T10,
and the barb's Torx hole is T8.
Shimano front disc brake mounting bolts—
probably chromoly material—
I think it would be good to keep these in stock
based on a case I saw recently.
There was a case where a stainless bolt with matching thread length
was used to mount the front brake,
and when I looked closely at the removed bolt,
the part not engaged with the fork threads,
just below the slot of the adapter that reverses orientation
to convert between 160mm and 140mm rotor diameters,
showed stretching.
↑This one
This is actually the milder case.
↑The sketchy one
This'll kill you.