Jerry, In my experience, the stainless steel rims were very light and responsiv e, but relatively delicate. They seemed to combine the worst traits of hea vy steel rims and lightweight aluminum rims. It's possible that in Britain , they knew all the proper tricks for building strong wheels with those rim s, but that didn't seem to be the case at my local bike shops. Cheers, Fred Rednor - Arlington, Virginia (USA)
--- On Mon, 11/10/08, Jerome & Elizabeth Moos <jerrymoos@sbcglobal.net> wro
te:
> From: Jerome & Elizabeth Moos <jerrymoos@sbcglobal.net>
> Subject: [CR]Stainless Steel Rims?
> To: classicrendezvous@bikelist.org
> Date: Monday, November 10, 2008, 8:48 PM
>
> I guess I've led a sheltered life, but I think I just
> rode my first pair of
> lightweight stainless steel rims this weekend. I posted
> pics of my ea
> rly Viking/Lambert a couple of weeks ago, including wheels
> with Lambert hub
> s, but Fiamme tubular rims of dubious originality.
>
> This weekend I installed some Lambert wheels with original
> lightweight stai
> nless rims I bought from another list member. I have of
> course ridden ch
> romed steel rims on Peugeot UO-8's and suchlike, but
> these are a different
> animal. After truing them rather well on the stand, I
> found that simply
> installing and pressuring up the tires pulled them
> significantly out of t
> rue. I also found that breaking one spoke tying to
> correct this pulled t
> he rim so far out of true that I had to detension it and
> retrue and retensi
> on almost from scratch. After finally getting the wheels
> true and riding
> a few miles, I had to retrue again. Most of this applied
> to the rear wh
> eel, although the front also had to be retrued after
> installing the tire.
>
> Are lightweight stainless rims inherently more difficult to
> keep in true th
> an alloy rims? Most rims of this type seem to have been
> made in UK, so p
> erhaps the British members can offer some insight.
>
> Regards,
>
> Jerry Moos
> Big Spring, Texas, USA