Just got back to all these from a 550 mile trip to Cornwall, with another
two broken spokes.
Thanks Charley, that gives me some confidence. Thanks also to Gary and Max
for a source for the wrench.
As to various other comments:
I'm always amazed at the cost of parts and service in the USA. My rebuilder
has quoted me UKP75 to rebuild a wheel with stainless, parts and labour.
The cost of new wheels is about UKP120-140. I had five spokes changed last
week and I paid UKP15. From another place locally that will supply spokes
but don't rebuild car wheels polished stainless are UKP15 for 10. Strikes
me it would be cheaper for you to ship your wheel to the UK and back again.
He is a very small (just him and his Dad) back-street unit in an area with a
long tradition in metal bashing, Fred Dibnah would have recognised his old
workshop with its 'inch of dirt on the walls'.
A bit of a misnomer to refer to them as 'British' wire wheels, as Kelvin
points out they have been made in India for many years, as mine were,
however they are Dunlops. MWS is in Berkshire, although MWS were appointed
distributor and service agent for Dunlops in 1974, and manufacture spokes
(at least) and build wheels in the UK.
My 17 year old rims and spokes are perfect rust-wise, the hubs only very
slightly marked, visible only on very close inspection. This is why I'm
loathe to scrap them and buy new, only to find I start getting broken spokes
again in a few years time, I'd rather respoke these with chrome and have
*them* start to break again in due course.
When removing old spokes for the purposes of replacement rusted nipples is
not an issue, one simply cuts through them! But on a couple of the broken
spokes I tried just for the hell of it the nipple came undone just with a
pair of pliers. I would only need the wrench for fitting individual new
spokes, as with the tyre removed the old ones just fall out. I'd still have
to take them to my tyre place to have the tyres removed and replaced and
drop them a tenner, but it would save me the trek over to the rebuilder and
back if I could replace them myself.
I've had loads of problems with wheel balance on the V8, but when I first
had the chrome wires I said not to put weights on I'd see how they were, and
had no problem at any speed, right out of the box. When I had new tyres
some years ago I only found out afterwards that they had balanced and
weighted the inner rims, even though they can't properly mount a centre-lock
wheel on their (as with most) computer balancer, but still had no problems.
When I have spokes replaced I have been careful to get the same tyre on the
rim, the same way round, and in the same rotational position, again with no
subsequent problems. Neither have I had any need to true the wheels at any
time. My rebuilder did show me one wheel where on his jig the hub wobbled
for some reason, but the rim was true, and again I've never had any balance
problems with it. Flexing under cornering forces is a different issue to
trueness and trueing, and is what causes these spokes to break over time, I
suppose.
PaulH.
----- Original Message -----
> I've had chrome wheels with stainless spokes on my TF for more than 13
> years
> and several thousand miles with no broken spokes. You'd be hard-pressed to
> tell the difference between the stainless spoke and the chrome rim.
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