Finally, and it seems to have been a long time coming, it's time to start on the wheels. I've got the tyres now though I have had to compromise with a 90/90-19 front tyre rather than the 325-19 that I wanted, but at least I have everything.
It doesn't take very long to remove the rear wheel from these bikes despite the fact that I have complicated matters by fitting indicators, and these need to come off before the rear of the mudguard can be unbolted.
The first step is to measure the offset using a straight edge across the bearing housing. With that in place we can measure 7/8" to the edge of the rim.
These are quite common wheels so finding someone that could help with the lacing pattern of the spokes wouldn't be difficult. Nevertheless it is good practice to photograph your wheels before dismantling such that the peculiarities of the spoke pattern can be recorded for the rebuild to come. These Ariel full width hub wheels are simple in that the spokes are of two types - those that fit from the outside, and those that fit from the inside; this results in similar lengths but different head angles for the two types. For the half width hubs fitted to all my other Ariels, there are four types of spokes in each wheel.
When you have all the components delivered, and you have recorded your spoke pattern and your offset you can dismantle the wheel. I've done this a few times now and have discovered the quickest and easiest methods to my mind.
Let it be known that we are not going to reuse any of these components other than the hub. Therefore the best way to remove the rim is to cut through all of the spokes on both sides; Iuse a bolt cutter for this job which makes short work of snipping through each of the spokes.
There we go. The tyre has not even been deflated yet!
Here is the hub with the remains of the spokes. It's sensible to cut the spokes as near to the hub as possible because it is much more difficult to remove the full length of the spoke from the hole in the hub.
You will find most of those little bits of spoke are stuck in their holes through corrosion and dirt. Just wiggle them a bit to release the gunge, and thread them back through their holes.
Removal of the rim and tyre is equally brutal. All I have done here is to take a hacksaw to the tyre, lubricated with some WD40 and sawn through both the tire and part of the rim such that I can cut through both beads and the tyre will just fall off.
And that's it. Apart from a trip to the dump with this scrap metal and rubber the next job is to start polishing the hub.
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