Wire Wheel Advise.

[MonsterMadMarty]

I picked up these bad boys today (only the rear wheel shown! The white spots are the packing material)

The guy I bought them from has had them sat in the garage five years without use. My question: Do they need to be serviced?




Cheers 

[WTSDS]

Ahhh, you are going back to the Old School Days  :-)

In 1969 a fellow called Friedel Munch released a motorcycle with 100 HP at the rear wheel. It had a 1200 cc motor derived from an auto, the NSU Prince,  but considerably tweaked. During development he found that spoked rear wheels could not handle that sort of power so he made the first ever cast rear wheel, it was made of electron, an alloy of magnesium and aluminium.

I have relaced spoked wheel on bicycles and motorcycles, it is a Black Art, and only those involved with vintage and veteran 'bikes would be able to do it for you these days.

Try hitting each spoke with a stout piece of steel, like a big screwdriver, and listen to the sound.

If all spokes make the same sound the wheel is laced and adjusted properly, if not, well, good luck :-)

[Cloner]

No mystery involved.  Ping the spokes (but not with something "big".....a spoke wrench is my personal preference).  If they "ring" they're good.  If they "thud" they're loose.  Tighten just enough to get a "ping".  You won't squeeze a wheel out of true unless you do a really ham fisted job of it.

I don't trust 5 year old tires under any circumstance, but that's your call.

My 2 cents,

S

[Speeddog]

If I'm reading that image correctly, that tire is 13 years old. 

Remove tires, tubes, and rim bands, and discard all.

Get a good quality tight fitting spoke wrench, and confirm that all nipples turn, relative to the *spokes*.
Nipples can be frozen to the spokes and will still turn a bit, as it'll wind up the spoke.
Just give 'em  ~1/16th turn one way, then back again, to confirm.
That wheel looks to be in very good condition, so likely no issues.

All spokes should 'ping' at roughly the same note.
If a spoke does not, confirm that it's not touching another spoke.
If it's touching, you can usually push the other spoke off, and ping again.

Spin the wheel and check for lateral and radial runout.
Dunno the allowed spec offhand, but if it was more than 2mm (and obviously not a localized bend or dent) I'd start truing it.

Keep in mind that the tubes do not hold air as well as with cast wheels.
So be vigilant on tire pressure.
I re-rimmed a front SC wheel after the owner taco-ed it on a pothole.
When the bike came in, the rear tire had 15psi.
The front wheel likely would have survived had it been protected by a properly inflated tire.

If you're using twin 320mm discs, the access to the valve stem is annoying.
You may need to get another chuck for filling, and another gauge for reading....

SC's use the floating front calipers, as there's not enough room for the standard 4-piston Brembos.

[NAKID]

Has that rim been modified? The tire says "TUBELESS".

[Howie]

Tubeless, manufactured in the 19th week of 2002.  I am NOT suggesting this, but folk braver than me have run tubeless by sealing the nipples with silicone.

[NAKID]

I know a DMFer from AZ did this to his wire wheels by using several layers of (I believe) black RTV silicone. His end product looked and performed quite nicely.

[ducpainter]

Is it even an OEM spoked wheel?

[Speeddog]

Yes, that's an OEM Sport Classic wheel, and it's the good one with an aluminum rim.

[ducpainter]

Yes, that's an OEM Sport Classic wheel, and it's the good one with an aluminum rim.

If that's the case and he's running a tubeless tire with sealed spoke nipples he might want to reconsider trying to turn the nipples with a spoke wrench.

I suppose it could have a tube in it anyway.

[NAKID]

If that's the case and he's running a tubeless tire with sealed spoke nipples he might want to reconsider trying to turn the nipples with a spoke wrench.

I suppose it could have a tube in it anyway.

So why would someone have a tire on it that was made years before the SC line even came out?

[DarkMonster620]

as said by someone earlier, all rubber parts must be replaced . . . sent email to friend at Bologna, no need to "true" wheel if it runs evenly, so you will need to set it up in a balancer with needles set up at 2mm at each side if and only if one of them touches, you should then true it . . . his english is not as good as my fat finger

[Slide Panda]

it's not crazy to run tubes inside tubeless tires.. or at least not unheard of. Common in the super moto set. KTM shipped years of their SMC model with Super Corse tires over tubes.

If you want to seal the spoke nipples, there's a product from a Japanese firm 'Outex' which works quite well if you do the prep. And there's a lot of prep.

I'll let you all look at on your own. But I've used it on my Orange machine and they wheels have happily held air for a couple years with no leaks

[Stuka Pilot]

Ahhh, you are going back to the Old School Days  :-)

In 1969 a fellow called Friedel Munch released a motorcycle with 100 HP at the rear wheel. It had a 1200 cc motor derived from an auto, the NSU Prince,  but considerably tweaked. During development he found that spoked rear wheels could not handle that sort of power so he made the first ever cast rear wheel, it was made of electron, an alloy of magnesium and aluminium.

Ahh, the Munch Mammoth. I had forgotten all about that old behemoth.

[MonsterMadMarty]

Thank you guys the wheels check out & all spokes sound the same & yes new rubber will be going on.  Look out for the build thread soon ('93 M900)