A customer brought me a pair of CADEX wheels for inspection.
Since this isn't the original owner, they wanted a full inspection.
Let's start with the front wheel.
The hub bearing feels gritty, and even when I give the wheel a spin,
it stops rotating in less than 10 seconds.
It's performing worse than a typical commuter bike wheel.
I'm replacing the bearings with steel ball units.
Since the rear wheel's bearings look fine,
I suspect the extreme damage on the front
is caused by over-tightening the thru-axle.
The bearing inner race has
CADEX CERAMIC
laser-etched into it.
I'm not sure if it's made by Effetto Mariposa,
but the brown tubeless tape applied here
appears to be the same type
used on MAVIC wheels
(→here).
This tape's characteristic is the sticky residue left on the rim after removal.
To prevent bumps from forming under the next layer of tape,
I removed as much of it as I could.
In the image above, the dull areas are the rim surface,
and the shiny areas are tape adhesive residue.
When checking the preliminary centering after bearing replacement,
the rim was offset to the left side.
↑about this much
However, since there was a phase with significant lateral runout,
if I'd deliberately centered it at that exact phase,
it might have worked perfectly.
I thoroughly inspect all the carbon spokes for defects like splinters,
and I pay especially close attention to the spoke directly beneath the area of maximum runout.
The spoke cracks could be the cause of the runout.
In the end, both front and rear wheels
had no spoke issues.
I trued the runout and adjusted the centering.
Next up is the rear wheel.
It has a freebody for Shimano 11-speed (12-speed compatible as well).
At DT Swiss, the set of freebody and right-side spacer is called
a "rotor kit,"
and since the right-side spacer dimensions differ depending on the freebody standard,
each rotor kit requires a specific replacement set.
During preliminary centering,
the rim was offset noticeably to the right side.
I wanted to identify this beforehand.
Unlike the front wheel, there was almost no lateral runout.
The current owner uses Campagnolo 12-speed,
so they wanted to switch to Campagnolo's N3W freebody.
What I call the DT-style rotor kit here
comes with right-side spacers in two varieties—
one for quick release and one for thru-axle—
plus a ratchet ring and a single-action pawl spring for the freebody side.
The reason I say "what I call the DT-style" is that
Giant's complete rear wheels used to adopt
DT's star ratchet, like Rovel and Bontrager,
but it seems the patent restrictions have been lifted,
and this CADEX uses an original freebody
with a flat ratchet design similar to DT's.
I'm swapping out the DT-style rotor kit
from Shimano 11-speed to Campagnolo N3W.
What concerns me is that the combined width of the freebody plus right spacer
may change depending on the standard,
which could affect the wheel center.
The center gauge maintains
the measurement I took from the left side of the wheel earlier.
After swapping the N3W rotor kit,
the center offset improved slightly.
When replacing the rotor kit,
the customer wanted me to reduce the ratchet noise as much as possible—
it was quite ear-piercing rather than just loud—
so I applied a generous amount of specialized grease
to the flat ratchet teeth.
It's not silent, but it's quieter now,
and the annoying harshness is gone.
I achieved center adjustment almost entirely through
tightening the non-freewheel side.
Since this isn't the original owner, they wanted a full inspection.
Let's start with the front wheel.
The hub bearing feels gritty, and even when I give the wheel a spin,
it stops rotating in less than 10 seconds.
It's performing worse than a typical commuter bike wheel.
I'm replacing the bearings with steel ball units.
Since the rear wheel's bearings look fine,
I suspect the extreme damage on the front
is caused by over-tightening the thru-axle.
The bearing inner race has
CADEX CERAMIC
laser-etched into it.
I'm not sure if it's made by Effetto Mariposa,
but the brown tubeless tape applied here
appears to be the same type
used on MAVIC wheels
(→here).
This tape's characteristic is the sticky residue left on the rim after removal.
To prevent bumps from forming under the next layer of tape,
I removed as much of it as I could.
In the image above, the dull areas are the rim surface,
and the shiny areas are tape adhesive residue.
When checking the preliminary centering after bearing replacement,
the rim was offset to the left side.
↑about this much
However, since there was a phase with significant lateral runout,
if I'd deliberately centered it at that exact phase,
it might have worked perfectly.
I thoroughly inspect all the carbon spokes for defects like splinters,
and I pay especially close attention to the spoke directly beneath the area of maximum runout.
The spoke cracks could be the cause of the runout.
In the end, both front and rear wheels
had no spoke issues.
I trued the runout and adjusted the centering.
Next up is the rear wheel.
It has a freebody for Shimano 11-speed (12-speed compatible as well).
At DT Swiss, the set of freebody and right-side spacer is called
a "rotor kit,"
and since the right-side spacer dimensions differ depending on the freebody standard,
each rotor kit requires a specific replacement set.
During preliminary centering,
the rim was offset noticeably to the right side.
I wanted to identify this beforehand.
Unlike the front wheel, there was almost no lateral runout.
The current owner uses Campagnolo 12-speed,
so they wanted to switch to Campagnolo's N3W freebody.
What I call the DT-style rotor kit here
comes with right-side spacers in two varieties—
one for quick release and one for thru-axle—
plus a ratchet ring and a single-action pawl spring for the freebody side.
The reason I say "what I call the DT-style" is that
Giant's complete rear wheels used to adopt
DT's star ratchet, like Rovel and Bontrager,
but it seems the patent restrictions have been lifted,
and this CADEX uses an original freebody
with a flat ratchet design similar to DT's.
I'm swapping out the DT-style rotor kit
from Shimano 11-speed to Campagnolo N3W.
What concerns me is that the combined width of the freebody plus right spacer
may change depending on the standard,
which could affect the wheel center.
The center gauge maintains
the measurement I took from the left side of the wheel earlier.
After swapping the N3W rotor kit,
the center offset improved slightly.
When replacing the rotor kit,
the customer wanted me to reduce the ratchet noise as much as possible—
it was quite ear-piercing rather than just loud—
so I applied a generous amount of specialized grease
to the flat ratchet teeth.
It's not silent, but it's quieter now,
and the annoying harshness is gone.
I achieved center adjustment almost entirely through
tightening the non-freewheel side.