MGB: Wire wheels need trueing

The wheels of my 65B could use a good truing. Is it hard to do or should this be left to the experts? Is there anyone in the central/southern NY state area that can true wheels? I searched the forum without finding anything useful.

Hope someone can help!

Eric Johnson
Greene (near Binghamton)
New York

As far as I understand, it is a job you can do yourself assuming all your wheels need is proper tensioning of the wires. It's like truing a bicycle wheel. I have seen instructions on how to do it. If I recall correctly, you can make yourself a jig and it's fairly straightforward from there.

So if you have more time than money and are a bit handy at getting things adjusted "just right", you might give it a go. Good luck!

A task I'd absolutely leave to the pros (if you can find one). Try an old school motorcycle shop. Ther's a lot of old bikes with spoke wheels that have to be trued by someone.

Shawn

it is a very fussy job. very time consuming. so that having old wheel respoked and trued is more costly than buying new ones.

I agree with Mac. Consider new Dayton tubeless wire wheels. They are supposed to stay true (unlike my last girlfriend) and never need tweaking. They come in 14 or 15 inchers and either painted or chromed. They look very similar to the Dunlops and really aren't all that expensive (compared to a dental implant at least!).

Shawn

The big problem with wheels that are in your case are 43 years old is they will have spoke nipples that are rusted to the spoke and when you try to ajust them they will snap off. Also there's a real good chance the splins in the hub are in sad shape. I concur with the others. Bite the bullet and get a set of tubless Dayton wheels. The chrome ones have stainless steel spokes. They are very good whells. Another option is to do what I did and convert to Rostyle wheels and do away with all the drama of having wires.

Nahhhh, keep the wires! Nothing says "God save the queen" like good ol' wire wheels on your LBC!

Shawn

Problem is, that you don't want new wire wheels running on anything less than perfect hubs. If you are buying new Dayton tubless wheels (I love them), you don't want to toast them on worn hubs.

JimmyHilton Wrote:

What Jimmy says is the Gospel! Use new hubs with new wire wheels. They add to the overall expense but it's better than toasting your new wire wheels in a few hundred miles.

Shawn

BUY NEW

Tom,

As You well know, if they are fine, He should be good to go. It is just a worthwhile flag for someone that could be totally whacking their budget on new Daytons, and then hitting another obstacle and destroying a nice new wheel(s).

Shawn, I doubt that the vast majority of times I say something, that it could even approach gospel ;)

72mgb4me Wrote:

Well Jimmy, you're a Saint in many folks eyes on this site because of the magic you perform on our old, tired, sick SU's. Jeff's another one because of his amazing work on our distributors. Keep it up and I'll nominate you both for the next Pope slot! Anyway, back to reality. You and Shelia have a nice 4th weekend. Later.

Shawn

I've trued many wheels over the years. If you've never done it before, it's best to not experiment on the wheels you need for the car. Old wheels are especially tough because the rims can become physically warped or bent. This requires an uneven spoke tension to keep the wheel running straight, and putting spoke tension out of balance intentionally is more an art than science.

Car wheels are fairly forgiving because of their high level of rigidity. Try truing an ultra-light bicycle racing wheel sometime. An imperceptible change in the amount of spoke tension on a single spoke can through the wheel completely out of whack.

eajohnso Wrote:

OK, you guys have almost convinced me! I have built my own bicycle wheels for many years, for my racing bike, my tandem, and the track bike that I used to ride on the indoor track near Southampton (that's England, not Long Island). But the prospect of rusted nipples and 40 year-old spokes made me hesitate before just having a go.

I'll price out some Dayton wheels. Can one really go tubeless? Would you recommend staying with the stock size or going wider or taller? 60-spoke or 72-spoke? Chrome or painted?

My splines are very good as I've followed the rules about regreasing every year. There's no perceptible slop.

Thanks again for all of the recommendations.

You have to request them to be tubless. What they do is put a huge bead of silicone over the spoke nipples. I would stay with the stock size with 72 spokes.

If you're comfortable building bicycle wheels and have a good grasp on spoke tension balance then you can true car wheels. It's the same principle, only there are more spokes and they pull in different directions. Keep in mind you have to retain the proper dish as well.

You will get several differing ideas on what type of wheel is best but it comes down to how you drive and what pleases your eye. Personally I like 15" 72-spoke for both looks and crisp handling. 14" will ride a bit smoother and are a little lighter. I've never liked 72-spoke 14" wheels because they look so busy. Regardless, you should consider 5-6" rims unless you plan to run narrow tires or are going for lower overall weight.