For starters, get some heavy duty wire cutters and cut out the hub so you'll have a reusable rim... ;-)
Back about 1975 when I was in a brief weight weenie phase, I built myself a set of Hi-E wheels, hubs, rims, spoke nipples and all. I rode them with 250gm Clement silks on one 25 mile time trail where I broke 60 minutes (which I attribute it to a tail wind on the return leg).
After that ride, I removed all of the light weight stuff including the Hi-E wheels. I decided that at 175 Lbs. I weighed WAY to much for those kinds of foibles. One of the guys in the shop relaced the front wheel to radial spokes and commuted on those wheels for several years. He weighed 125 Lbs.
Last year I picked up a bike with a Hi-E front rim. Upon close inspection I found that the side wall had worn through in one place.
All kidding aside, I'm not sure that I would trust riding on a hub in which one flange had already failed. Aluminum has only about 1/3 of the fatigue resistance as even the weakest steels. Replacing the broken flange and relacing the wheel could further stress the original flange.
Harlan had a lot of interesting ideas but in todays market they would have been wrapped up with a lot of legalese caveats about maximum rider weight and so on.
Just my opinion.
Chas. Colerich Oakland, CA USA
Mark Pounders wrote:
> I recently bought a bike with an extra set of wheels thrown in. I realized
> that they were Hi-E Hubs, but the rear hub is broken on the drive side
> flange. I don't have any experience with Hi-E's and I haven't disassembled
> the wheel yet, but it looks like the flanges might be replaceable. I don't
> think this one can be repaired, but I hate to toss anything out. Any advice
> guys and girls?