Jerry 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.
I have 3 sets of wheels with Dunlop S/S rims, all built by my friend Roy, and none of which have given me any problems. Roy is now 91 and has been building superb wheels since 1937 during which time he must have built just about every combination of hub, spokes and rims possible. I asked him if he did anything different when building with stainless to when he builds with any other rims from that period and the answer was no. He did add however add that the tension on the old 32/40 and 36/36 combinations should be considerably less than the modern wheels with as few as 8 spokes. He also pointed out that the tension on all spokes needs to be even, but also bearing in mind that the tension on one side of a dished wheel will be less than the other. It is of course possible to build a perfectly round wheel, but with greater tension on one side of the circle than the other and that will lead to problems.
Peter Brown, Lincolnshire, England