Another wheel day (and so on...).
A customer brought in a pair of front and rear wheels—a complete wheelset called the Illusion Nero, made by Vittoria, the tire manufacturer.
It's a rim-brake wheel with a 2:1 lacing on the rear, and the brake zone has the same anodized finish and shape as a Shamal Mille.
Today I'm doing a complete spoke replacement on the front wheel, but when the customer brought it in, one spoke was already broken.
Actually, this wheelset has a chronic problem—spokes keep breaking one after another. We've repaired both wheels at our shop many times. At this rate, if we keep doing piecemeal repairs, we're going to end up spending more than a full wheel rebuild would cost. So we decided to just go ahead and replace all the spokes and nipples at once.
As for the wheel rebuild labor, we're offering a bit of a discount based on our past repair charges on this set.
The nipples are special—they can't be turned from the outside rim surface; they can only be turned from the rim's outer edge.
It's not the exact same thing, but I remember Ambrosio made a complete wheelset back in the day with a model called Diapason that used similar nipples.
By the way, "DIAPASON" is spelled the same way—it's "diapason" in French and "diapason" in English—and it's a word meaning tuning fork. Ambrosio is an Italian maker, but back then the Japanese distributors spelled it in katakana as "Diapasan," and the rim even had a tuning fork design engraved on it.
The places we've repaired in the past now have standard nipples on them. You can tell the difference this way, but interestingly, the spokes and nipples we've repaired have never broken again.
↑ (skipping ahead chronologically)
The broken spoke and nipple from this time
It broke right at the start of the threads, but the spokes are Sapim Race, which are the type that shouldn't be prone to this kind of failure.
The spoke length is on the longer side, and the threads are being used all the way to the end. I think that's the biggest factor making these spokes prone to breaking.
So I decided to replace everything—including all the past repairs—with standard black aluminum nipples and CX Sprint spokes, and rebuild the wheel.
All rebuilt.
Vittoria hub, 16H
All-black CX Sprint straight-pull spokes
Radial lacing throughout
DT 12mm length black aluminum nipples.
A customer brought in a pair of front and rear wheels—a complete wheelset called the Illusion Nero, made by Vittoria, the tire manufacturer.
It's a rim-brake wheel with a 2:1 lacing on the rear, and the brake zone has the same anodized finish and shape as a Shamal Mille.
Today I'm doing a complete spoke replacement on the front wheel, but when the customer brought it in, one spoke was already broken.
Actually, this wheelset has a chronic problem—spokes keep breaking one after another. We've repaired both wheels at our shop many times. At this rate, if we keep doing piecemeal repairs, we're going to end up spending more than a full wheel rebuild would cost. So we decided to just go ahead and replace all the spokes and nipples at once.
As for the wheel rebuild labor, we're offering a bit of a discount based on our past repair charges on this set.
The nipples are special—they can't be turned from the outside rim surface; they can only be turned from the rim's outer edge.
It's not the exact same thing, but I remember Ambrosio made a complete wheelset back in the day with a model called Diapason that used similar nipples.
By the way, "DIAPASON" is spelled the same way—it's "diapason" in French and "diapason" in English—and it's a word meaning tuning fork. Ambrosio is an Italian maker, but back then the Japanese distributors spelled it in katakana as "Diapasan," and the rim even had a tuning fork design engraved on it.
The places we've repaired in the past now have standard nipples on them. You can tell the difference this way, but interestingly, the spokes and nipples we've repaired have never broken again.
↑ (skipping ahead chronologically)
The broken spoke and nipple from this time
It broke right at the start of the threads, but the spokes are Sapim Race, which are the type that shouldn't be prone to this kind of failure.
The spoke length is on the longer side, and the threads are being used all the way to the end. I think that's the biggest factor making these spokes prone to breaking.
So I decided to replace everything—including all the past repairs—with standard black aluminum nipples and CX Sprint spokes, and rebuild the wheel.
All rebuilt.
Vittoria hub, 16H
All-black CX Sprint straight-pull spokes
Radial lacing throughout
DT 12mm length black aluminum nipples.