So I have this theory, that all 300 gram tubular rims are alike, all 350 gram tubular rims are alike, and all 400 gram tubular rims are alike, more or less. In other words, in the vintage era, if you take off the labels, all you can discern for a rim is (roughly) :
weight : 300, 350, 400 grams, production runs vary by +/- 10 grams. finish : polished, satin anodized, or black anodized ferrules : 0, 1, 2 per eyelet.
There are some other very minor things like track vs. road sidewalls and textured vs. smooth tire bed, but for road bikes none of these things are visible once the tire is glued.
So if I want to have XYZ rims that weighed 400 grams on my restored RALNAGO, would it be a "sin" to find PDQ rims of 400 grams with the right number of ferrules and the right finish, and swap the labels with the help of greg softley in Australia? For example, I could turn a bunch of MAVIC REFLEX rims into MARTANOS, right? ;-) { don flame suit... }
Seriously though, is it true that all that mattered for tubular rims in the classic era were the weight, ferrules, and finish ??
- Don Gillies
San Diego, CA, USA