A customer brought in the rear wheel from a Trek Domane
e-bike for us to work on.
One spoke has broken.
The local Trek store said they don't have spokes
in stock and it would take a long time,
so the customer brought it to our shop instead.
It's a Bontrager Paradigm
aluminum complete wheelset rim, and
a Hyena (ハイエナ) hub with built-in assist motor unit.
It's 28H laced in 4-4 reverse Italian pattern, but
the spokes are, believe it or not,
Sapim Strong on both sides.
The neck is 13-gauge, and everything after the butted section is 14-gauge—
a single-butted spoke.
↑The butted section between 13-gauge and 14-gauge
About Sapim Black Strong spokes.
In Japan, distributors stock
a maximum length of 300mm,
and our shop's inventory in the photo above is also 300mm,
but currently the longest length available from distributors
is 256mm.
The spoke length for this rear wheel was 264mm.
In other words, we can't realistically source
spokes from Sapim distributors
within a reasonable timeframe.
So I looked into alternative channels,
and found that Trek's official online store
(this spoke is in-store sales only)
was actually selling 264mm Black Strong spokes.
I'll leave a link (here).
Starting from the homepage,
narrowing down through
"Accessories" → "Bike Parts" → "Spokes",
five manufacturers appear as options:
Bontrager
Alpina
DT Swiss
Trek
Sapim
Of these, Bontrager offers
two washers for Aeros wheels,
Alpina offers nipples that can be turned from the outside
in two types (aluminum in silver/black, and brass),
DT offers one type of black aluminum nipple
that can also be turned from the outside,
Trek offers one type of Bontrager 13-gauge nipple
(oddly categorized under Trek brand rather than Bontrager),
and Sapim offers only
the 264mm Black Strong for this rear wheel.
There's barely anything in stock.
The Trek-brand 13-gauge brass nipple
might work when building wheels with generic hubs and
old Cosmic Carbon rims,
but at 3,300 yen (tax included) for a box of 10,
it's extremely expensive.
By the way, regarding this rear wheel—the rim deformed from buckling,
and the Trek store told them "we can't guarantee warranty
without genuine Trek rims," so they had the rim replaced.
But whoever assembled it left two clearly visible mistakes.
One is center-line misalignment, the other I've mentioned to the customer
but won't write about here.
I corrected the center-line when replacing the spoke.
I told the customer
"Why don't you have Trek store fix it?",
but we ended up doing it instead.
What really interested me was whether, if I sourced
100 spokes in a box from the Sapim distributor,
I'd force the customer to buy the remaining 99 spokes.
If I sourced from Trek Japan,
the unit would be 10 spokes,
but I wanted to know whether, like most shops do with Mavic spare spokes,
we'd force the customer to buy the entire
10-spoke bag upfront.
Incidentally, at tax-included list price, Black Strong costs
15,400 yen per 100 from the Sapim distributor,
or 2,400 yen per 10 from Trek Japan.
This isn't the customer's first visit to our shop—
we've repaired Fulcrum wheels for them before, for instance—
so they clearly understand that the meaning of "repair"
differs between Trek store and our shop.
Actually, even that rear wheel with the replaced rim
wasn't assembled properly to begin with.
Fixed it.
Since the spoke length of 264mm came up short,
I cut the replacement spoke to 265mm.
↑The replaced spoke and nipple
The spoke broke at the threading start section.
It's rare—almost unheard of—for the 13-gauge neck
of a Strong spoke to break.
↑The broken spoke is jammed inside the nipple
in a way we can't recover.
Looking inside the rim with a light, all the spokes
looked like this (below the slot bottom),
so I made the judgment to cut the replacement spoke
1mm longer.
e-bike for us to work on.
One spoke has broken.
The local Trek store said they don't have spokes
in stock and it would take a long time,
so the customer brought it to our shop instead.
It's a Bontrager Paradigm
aluminum complete wheelset rim, and
a Hyena (ハイエナ) hub with built-in assist motor unit.
It's 28H laced in 4-4 reverse Italian pattern, but
the spokes are, believe it or not,
Sapim Strong on both sides.
The neck is 13-gauge, and everything after the butted section is 14-gauge—
a single-butted spoke.
↑The butted section between 13-gauge and 14-gauge
About Sapim Black Strong spokes.
In Japan, distributors stock
a maximum length of 300mm,
and our shop's inventory in the photo above is also 300mm,
but currently the longest length available from distributors
is 256mm.
The spoke length for this rear wheel was 264mm.
In other words, we can't realistically source
spokes from Sapim distributors
within a reasonable timeframe.
So I looked into alternative channels,
and found that Trek's official online store
(this spoke is in-store sales only)
was actually selling 264mm Black Strong spokes.
I'll leave a link (here).
Starting from the homepage,
narrowing down through
"Accessories" → "Bike Parts" → "Spokes",
five manufacturers appear as options:
Bontrager
Alpina
DT Swiss
Trek
Sapim
Of these, Bontrager offers
two washers for Aeros wheels,
Alpina offers nipples that can be turned from the outside
in two types (aluminum in silver/black, and brass),
DT offers one type of black aluminum nipple
that can also be turned from the outside,
Trek offers one type of Bontrager 13-gauge nipple
(oddly categorized under Trek brand rather than Bontrager),
and Sapim offers only
the 264mm Black Strong for this rear wheel.
There's barely anything in stock.
The Trek-brand 13-gauge brass nipple
might work when building wheels with generic hubs and
old Cosmic Carbon rims,
but at 3,300 yen (tax included) for a box of 10,
it's extremely expensive.
By the way, regarding this rear wheel—the rim deformed from buckling,
and the Trek store told them "we can't guarantee warranty
without genuine Trek rims," so they had the rim replaced.
But whoever assembled it left two clearly visible mistakes.
One is center-line misalignment, the other I've mentioned to the customer
but won't write about here.
I corrected the center-line when replacing the spoke.
I told the customer
"Why don't you have Trek store fix it?",
but we ended up doing it instead.
What really interested me was whether, if I sourced
100 spokes in a box from the Sapim distributor,
I'd force the customer to buy the remaining 99 spokes.
If I sourced from Trek Japan,
the unit would be 10 spokes,
but I wanted to know whether, like most shops do with Mavic spare spokes,
we'd force the customer to buy the entire
10-spoke bag upfront.
Incidentally, at tax-included list price, Black Strong costs
15,400 yen per 100 from the Sapim distributor,
or 2,400 yen per 10 from Trek Japan.
This isn't the customer's first visit to our shop—
we've repaired Fulcrum wheels for them before, for instance—
so they clearly understand that the meaning of "repair"
differs between Trek store and our shop.
Actually, even that rear wheel with the replaced rim
wasn't assembled properly to begin with.
Fixed it.
Since the spoke length of 264mm came up short,
I cut the replacement spoke to 265mm.
↑The replaced spoke and nipple
The spoke broke at the threading start section.
It's rare—almost unheard of—for the 13-gauge neck
of a Strong spoke to break.
↑The broken spoke is jammed inside the nipple
in a way we can't recover.
Looking inside the rim with a light, all the spokes
looked like this (below the slot bottom),
so I made the judgment to cut the replacement spoke
1mm longer.