Hi guys,
I'm on top of the moon today. Last night I picked up a pair of '40s track bikes, that had been raced by a Sydney racer (W. M. Bigley - his name is painted on the top tube of each bike). One's a Speedwell, with beautiful pinstriping all over it's Reynolds 531 DB frame, and wheels with Conloy singles rims and Airlite hubs. The other's called an "Airlite" (yes I know, like the hubs) and is chromed with lots of beautiful hand painting, and the name of the builder, M. B. Bigley, Concord NSW on the seat tube. I suspect the builder and racer in this case may be related.
Anyway, this one has gorgeous wheels with small-flange Airlite hubs laced to Kundtz wooden rims. The rear wheel is pretty much perfect (save some rust on the spokes and the hub barrel), but the front rim has a section about 6-7cm long where it's delaminated, around a spoke that's different from the rest. The wood hasn't cracked, and the rim is in totally beautiful condition otherwise.
Anyway, how to fix? I was thinking of machining a pair of curved clamps from wood that fit the inner and outer rim profile, then injecting epoxy into the delaminated bit and clamping... Is that the right thing to do?
Otherwise both bikes are in extraordinarily good condition. Some rust on chromed bits, but the Speedwell in particular has spectacularly good paint. Once I get my act together, I'll post some pics up on the web. Regards,
Suzy Jackson
Sydney, Australia