I recently ordered a new road bike wheel set (rim brakes) from Modern Bike. I think they were manufactured by Wheel Master/JBI Bike. When the wheels arrived, neither wheel had a rim strip covering the nipple holes. I thought that was odd. Every wheel I’ve ever purchased new over the decades had them. And, once I got them on the bike I had purchased them for, I noticed they were slightly out of true. I know I could have returned them. It was a minor deviation, and instead of going through the hassle of returning them, and then waiting on the replacements…I put them on my truing stand and made the quick and simple corrections. Like I said…it wasn’t much, but just more than I’d expect from a professional wheel builder. The wheels seemed OK in all other aspects. But I’m just wondering if maybe a QA step was missed where the person doing the final precise truing would have also installed the strips.

Dan