Well, you've given me an opportunity to vent, so here goes:
The freeways around here are kept in an appalling state of disrepair.
This is scarcely surprising given the fact that they are used at 110% of
capacity for 16 hours a day, not to mention the legendary incompetence of
the state transportation agency (CalTrans). The immediate presence of two
of the continent's most notorious earthquake faults is also a
contributing factor. So here you are, just keeping up with traffic doing
75+, surrounded on all sides by great bloody SUVs so that your view of
the road ahead is limited to the 2 car lengths in front of you (never
more than that, since if you try to leave more, another bloody SUV wedges
its fat arse in -- without bothering to signal), and then you hit a 12 x
20 x 8 inch deep pothole smack on the left front tire, which turns out to
be merely the first in a series of several dozen over the next half mile,
cleverly arranged along a shallow diagonal moving slowly across the lane
so you can't dodge 'em (due to being caused by a deteriorating seam
between two former lanes now restriped). A further side effect of this
beating is the fact that every fastener on the underside of the car works
its way loose over time, requiring frequent attention.
I don't think I drive particularly hard, I certainly don't race, and I
don't weigh enough to put any particular stress on the components. But
the B is my daily driver, not just a pleasure cruiser, so it gets its
share of freeway miles as well as back roads. It would be really hideous,
no doubt, if I didn't work at home. Lots of folks around here commute
50-80 miles each way, but I don't suppose they have wire wheels, either.
But then again, there is a long standing belief that the chrome plating
process embrittles the spokes, making them more prone to failure. Since I
cannot recall a single spoke failure in any of the painted wire wheel
cars with which I have been associated (I haven't owned one, but many
aquaintances have), there may be something to this theory.
Aren't you sorry you asked?
; )
John Walker had this to say:
>(trying desperately not to be rude but...)
>What exactly are you doing that you are breaking spokes on your chrome
>wheels every year???
>My car has the original factory painted wires, I drive the car fairly
>aggressively
>and I have never broken a wire. (Knock on wood).
>
>If I bought new chrome wire wheels, barring an accident, I would expect
>them to last
>pretty much forever.
>
>What am I missing??
>
>-JW
>
>
>At 02:52 PM 8/18/99 -0700, Max Heim wrote:
>>It's true that even Santa Cruz Wire Wheel will tell you that, now (they
>>no longer accept wheels for repair, apparently). But just compare the
>>cost of 1 or 2 spokes and an hour's time to the cost of a new wire
>>wheel...
>>
>>...you pretty much HAVE to do it yourself. And I can't see buying one or
>>two new wheels a year, chrome ones at that... I'm not Bill Gates, yet --
>>jeez!
>>
>>MHO, of course.
>
>
>
>
>
> John Walker
> john@rmartin.net
> drone@d23.com
> ============
>~= Early 1974 MGB =~
> ============
> In Progress :)
>
--
Max Heim
'66 MGB GHN3L76149
If you're near Mountain View, CA,
it's the red one with the silver bootlid.
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