After the restoration: 12000-mile service [page 2]
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Wednesday, Oct 12, 2005 (continued)
I put the wheel on a spare axle, clamped by a 2x4 in my bench vise.
Out came the spoke wrench, aluminum polish, and rags. The wheel looks
good when spun, no obvious out-of-round or side-to-side motion. The spokes
checked out OK. I gave maybe 1/8 turn to 2 or 3 spokes to bring them
to the proper tension. The aluminum polish and lots of elbow grease when
into making sure the area where the tire bead sits was good and clean.
With old rubber and other grunge cleaned away the rim manufacture date
can easily be seen. This rim is almost as old as I am, having been
made in 08 of 51. It's a lot older than the bike (made in 12 of 65).
It's got 50+ years of dings in it, but still looks pretty good.
After more cussing and fussing the new tire was mounted with the old
tube. Air was added after bouncing the wheel on the floor a few times.
Then I noticed that I'd forgot to check for balance dots. Sigh.
There is a white dot close to the valve stem, but a yellow circle on
the other side of the tire from the white dot. Usually a yellow dot
goes next to the valve stem. Color me confused. I'm just going to
check the balance before I worry about it too much.
I grabbed the hub cap and put it back on the wheel. It and the rim were
then polished, now that I've hopefully finished messing it up. Now it's
ready to balance. The tire was put on the balancer and I found I could
get it balanced, albeit with a bit more weight than I like (1 1/2 Oz).
I'll try it this way for a while.
The wheel was put back on the bike and the axle torqued. The brake
cable hasn't been connected yet as I want to lubricate it first.
The pinch bolt won't be tightened until I can bounce the front end a
few times. That's all for today. Tomorrow I'll do the rear tire.
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