New Rims?

The last two old bikes I've built I went with stainless rims and spokes from Devon Rim Co. No regrets whatsoever. Look good, wipe clean and no rust. Sod chrome. With the amount of salt they put on the roads round here, never mind the cowsh the local farmers spread all over our tarmac, chrome won't last a year. Any more wheels I do will be stainless too. It's not difficult to do them yourself. I bought a decent spoke key and made a simple wooden jig to spin the wheel on.

I had mixed luck with new rims., The rear rim  has gone rusty despite regular splatter with chain oil, the front rim is ok  (it has a little union jack on it (british chrome).Central sent me a rim with a different spoking pattern than the 1960 Norton build, I did manage it ,but my carefull sketch was no use!. I'm guessing that Norton and AMC did things differently. So now I have different patterns on the wheels. If using just new nipples be aware they need to match the rim holes ,new and old may be different diameter. 

If you glass bead blast the new SS spokes they will simulate the look of galvanized spokes .

For the rear wheel on my Mk.III Commando I had a WM3 made up in 19 inch size by Central Wheels.  I paid extra for Elite Chrome and stainless steel spokes and nipples and it is money very well spent.  A wipe over with ACF50 before the winter and a wipe down around April and they still look like new.  I ride all year on back lanes and B roads which can be muddy but the ACF does its job providing you don't wash it off when you clean the rest of the machine.  You might find that a thin layer of GT85 on the inside of the rim when fitting the tyre can slow or prevent corrosion; it doesen't seem to affect the tyre or the inner-tube.  The most likely area of corrosion would be around the holes for the spokes; ACF or No.1 Rust Blocker under the rim-tape can help here too. 

hello  well, some time ago I have used New Devon rims and two years After  the Chrome fell off bit by bit So I never use  Devon Rims again  Jones rims and  Birmingham rims  are a lot better,  And I never use stainless spokes  some are very dangerous  and will break, I only use galvanized spokes   that Norton and other Makers used originally If they were good enough for them there good enough of Me with brass nipples,  Do your research before buying your Anna  J       

It's not easy to say what spoke material is better. Stainless might (or might not) have different strength from galvanised. But when I cycled, I had regular fatigue failures in galvanised spokes, but no such problems when I went to theoretically weaker stainless. Probably most spokes break through fatigue (lots of cycles of moderate stress) not through overload. And corrosion makes fatigue problems worse.

Sudden massive loads (from potholes etc) cause a big reduction in the small number of spoke tensions at the bottom of the wheel, and a small increase in tension in all the other spokes. Which is why spoked wheels work so very well. 

Hello, David, There was a case in MCN some time back of a New type Triumph T100 that had broken a number of spokes on the rear wheel on the Motorway and throw its rider at 60 mph but he was in the slow lane at the time the rear wheel had broken up  and collapsed    the rider was ok  but very  distorted and shaken, the machine was taken back to Hinkley  to find out why this had happened  and they found a  number of weak stainless spokes  and MCN had made a report on this to warn other owners of this danger , Me I have never had any trouble with Galavized spokes over the last 50 years of owning motorcycles  so be careful out there  on what you use in wheel building   now safe riding  yours    anna j

I specify my own stainless spokes and other than 8G always up the gauge by 1 and sometimes 2 where the factory got it wrong eg T140 disc rear wheel, never had a spoke break. I also use Stainless rims with no issues but do not use under size on the nipple diameter as some professional builders do for an easy life as pull through is a possibility.