In a message dated 9/10/2002 12:51:34 PM Eastern Daylight Time, tom_s_dalton@yahoo.com writes:
> Remember, even in their day Ergals had a well-deserved reputation for
> brittle failures on the inner face, around the ferrules.
FWIW: I wrecked an Ergal 36 hole rim a couple years ago after hitting a big crack in road. Had hairline cracks around ferrules, found after a couple spokes pulled entire nipple, ferrule, and dime sized piece of rim out. A couple weeks ago on a heavy braking downhill run the front rim/tire got hot enough to allow tire to turn on rim.(did not roll off - stem had asumed about a 30 deg angle where rim had slowed down a bit more than tire) Upon examination I found a crack in the Ergal rim along the braking surface. I'm 6'1" about 220 and have concluded that I should not ride Ergals! Disclaimer: wheel builder unkown, mileage unkown. Contrast this with a Weinmann concave that suffered a hard hit on a bridge expansion joint - several spokes blew a chunk out of Atom rear hub but rim lives on in new hub!
Pete Geurds
Douglassville, PA