Could this be a spoke-tension issue?
My limited experience with steel rims in general is that you can't use the high spoke tensions that are OK with modern rims.
I suppose it's possible that some hopeful soul responsible for designing these things decided that stainless steel is harder, so it could be drawn thinner, thus reducing weight by a few grams, and then overdid it. Certainly, since it's more expensive, there would be an incentive to minimize the use of materials as well.
Anyone have any hard info on that?
Steve Maas Nice, France (for the next week or so...)
Jerome & Elizabeth Moos wrote:
>
> I guess I've led a sheltered life, but I think I just rode my first pair of
> lightweight stainless steel rims this weekend. I posted pics of my ea
> rly Viking/Lambert a couple of weeks ago, including wheels with Lambert hub
> s, but Fiamme tubular rims of dubious originality.
>
> This weekend I installed some Lambert wheels with original lightweight stai
> nless rims I bought from another list member. I have of course ridden ch
> romed steel rims on Peugeot UO-8's and suchlike, but these are a different
> animal. After truing them rather well on the stand, I found that simply
> installing and pressuring up the tires pulled them significantly out of t
> rue. I also found that breaking one spoke tying to correct this pulled t
> he rim so far out of true that I had to detension it and retrue and retensi
> on almost from scratch. After finally getting the wheels true and riding
> a few miles, I had to retrue again. Most of this applied to the rear wh
> eel, although the front also had to be retrued after installing the tire.
>
> Are lightweight stainless rims inherently more difficult to keep in true th
> an alloy rims? Most rims of this type seem to have been made in UK, so p
> erhaps the British members can offer some insight.
>
> Regards,
>
> Jerry Moos
> Big Spring, Texas, USA