I finally got back to Mike at O'Connor Classics regarding having my
snake wire wheels rebuilt. I called O'Connor's rather than British Wire
Wheel (who does the actual rebuilding) because I needed to get a few
questions answered about the logistics of dropping my wheels off there.
I asked about the difference between the "show" finish and the standard
"straight" finish and he gave me exactly the answer I was hoping for:
come on down and I'll show you some samples of both. The show finish
better be pretty good since it will add $75 to the total cost (or $60 if
I decide not to have it done to the spare). Since I don't plan to buy
tires from BWW, my plan was to have them dismount the existing tires and
toss them but I didn't want to pay the $10 each that they charge for
dismounting/remounting and balancing since I'd be paying for that again.
Mike assured me that dismounting would only be $4 each. However, he had
a better suggestion that didn't even occur to me for some reason. Bring
along my own new tires and let BWW handle the mounting and balancing. I
don't even have to bring everything in all at once since the rebuilding
work will take 3-4 weeks. I have to admit I was concerned about where
I would get the mounting and balancing done. I didn't really want to
haul my rebuilt wheel around with me or take them back to BWW after I
bought the tires. Also this will be cheaper than have dismounting and
mounting done by two different shops. Now I have to make up my mind
about tires sooner than expected. I'm very tempted to follow Phil
Ethier's and Scott Fisher's suggestion to go with BF Goodrich T/A R1
road racing tires even though they will be on the car for a while. As sf
pointed out, I can take advantage of these super sticky tires for a year
or so before all the resins dissipate and they become "normal" tires.
Of course I probably won't be able to take full advantage of this
stickiness because the Fairlane engine in my snake is rather senile; on
the other hand, I've only have $75 (plus some personal labor) invested in
it so if it blows up the worst of it will be the inconvenience.
I did forget to ask Mike how the hell wire wheels were sealed for
tubeless tire. I don't plan to do this but I'm really curious about how
it done. Oh well, I'll ask Mike when I drop my wheels off.
Roland
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