Ebay got meEbay got meI recently bought a real wheel complete with the tire for my latest CL77 project off of fleabay. I should have known not to bid because the picture quality was not great. It was advertised as good chrome and new tire. (Cheng Shin) I questioned the seller prior to bidding about the brake drum condition and was informed it was good. I won the auction with a total bid of $58.00 to include shipping. When it arrived yesterday, the chrome quality is great, very little rust and great spokes. It is sporting a brand new tire, but the drum looks like it went through at l least two world wars. There are deep gouges and in my opinion too far gone to be turned. The seller is refunding my purchase price in return for no negative feedback, but all of this leads up to my question. In all of my years of playing around with bikes I have never re spoked a wheel. I will be searching for a new center drum and try to reuse a great rim. Does anyone have any links or good instructions on re spoking a wheel, or is this a procedure better left to a professional. Looks like it would be a good project to drive me crazy this winter.
When I restored my CL77, I relaced my wheels by first taking some photos of the spoke orientation before I disassembled them. Working on my kitchen table, the first one took about 2 1/2 hours of futzing around. The second took about a half an hour. This was a great learning experience and I'm glad I did it. Next I tried truing; downloaded a simple design for making a truing stand and spent a couple of hours rubbing my head and patting my stomach, making no progress whatsoever. I ended up taking the wheels to be trued by a professional; still a great learning experience but I probably could have learned more with someone with me to guiding me through the process. Still, I recommend you try it yourself first; it won't cost you anything since you can't ruin any parts. Good luck.
George
I bought a pair of nice Union Cycle rims and a complete set of chrome spokes & nipples (3.3mm) from a Thai guy, TC at vintage_001, on eBay. Very helpful chap and nice quality merchandise; $60 for the rims (my Best Offer) and $45 for the 72 spokes. Maybe not for 'show' bikes, but pretty sweet all the same.
He also has cad-plated spokes (3.35mm) and can get stainless, although I wouldn't countenance s/s spokes if you ride in all weather conditions, especially on salted roads for you guys in the upper states or elsewhere it might snow, as the dissimilar-metals mix at the hubs would produce heartbreaking corrosion in the blink of an eye! Anyway, I haven't built my rims yet as I'm having the drums honed and then the hubs professionally polished. I also got a true stand from Tom Day at Apex and I've joined the SOHC4 forum -- thanks for the link, okie88 -- where there's a great article on wheel-trueing. It'll be an interesting project for me for those winter nights where here, in Majorca / Mallorca, the temp can plummet to a titty-numbing 10ºC (ha-ha-bloody-ha, I hear some of you laughing at me there...!). As an aside, what's the recommendation from some of you about treating the hubs against fading? Lacquer? Paint? Any ideas? I'm pretty certain they weren't ever painted (Ed?), but laquering gives me the willies! My RamAir 'zook GT380L's engine casings looked shite after a year on UK roads in '74, although it's predecessor -- a GT380J with the smokey-finish on the motor -- was still sweet at a year old when I traded it for the L with the disc brake and the LED shift indicator. Yada yada.... Any tips guys?
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