Greeves Scottish Wheels and spokes

[Eddie Smith]

I am soon to rebuild both wheels with new spokes, nipples and rims and would like to clarify hub types. My hubs are single sided steel as most trials Greeves are of that era 59 to 62 but an ebay advert for s/s spokes mentions to fit conical hubs. I have a road bike same year and that has paddle hubs which are obvious, so were conical ever fitted to competition bikes and are the spokes the same as mine. The other question, got a quote from Central wheels ( for the parts only) and its very pricey would like members who have rebuilt their own wheels to give alternatives. My old spokes are in fairly good condition so Zinc plating them is a possibility , anybody done this and how did it work out. I have a lot of small items that need zinc plating so a kit might save a lot of money. I doubt if s/s spokes were ever fitted by Greeves and not too fond of stainless items anyway.

[cray]

Hello Eddie,
I'm fairly sure that conical hubs where only fitted to the later scramblers i.e late Challenger and Griffons.
Trials Scottish went to full width BHC hubs from 63ish onwards to the TFS & then Anglian.
As I say not 100% sure, but others will soon correct me.

Colin

[Eddie Smith]

Thanks Colin I had in my mind that it was the Scramblers that used Conical hubs so lets see what the experts say.

[Dogsbody]

I restored a Honda CT90 and used a Gateros plating kit. I did the spokes and nipples after running them over a wire wheel and was pleased with the results. A lot of other parts came up really well, saving a small fortune. Yellow passivate replicates cadmium plating for a different finish.
Dogsbody

[Eddie Smith]

Today gone through all the spokes and I am now convinced that they can be reused after plating. Would welcome any more comments on what rims have been used and any further experiences with plating.
Two rims at the moment including postage are £235 which is from a company that most people use; are there any other suppliers that are worth considering, would like to know - Thanks

[dave higgins]

Today gone through all the spokes and I am now convinced that they can be reused after plating. Would welcome any more comments on what rims have been used and any further experiences with plating.
Two rims at the moment including postage are £235 which is from a company that most people use; are there any other suppliers that are worth considering, would like to know - Thanks

Hi Eddie, i don`t think you are going to get rims any cheaper than your £235 quote, most quality rims are £110 - £130 a piece.
Anything new, under that price, is gonna be a budget rim, & why would you want to fit cheap lower quality rims on a bike of your own.
The same goes for the spokes really, old & fatigued, stress cracks you can`t see, its a false economy, in my opinion, fit new rims & new spokes & they won`t want touching for another twenty years.

[scott151]

Conical hubs first appeared on the 360 challenger mx4 in 1967 (rough cast finish)

They were also used on griffons..(polished finish with revised brake plates and a thicker spoke flange on the non sprocket side of the rear hub)

Greeves never fitted these hubs to production trials bikes.. A few works Anglians had conical front hub with the full width motoloy on the rear..

I do know that rims from conical hubs will not fit an earlier hub as the angles etc are wrong..

Scott#151#

[floydbassman]

I know stainless spokes are not original, but they are great for a bike that is going to be trialled regularly. I got them on my TFS, together with alloy rims, they come up shiny every time after the worst mud and water thrown at them. I am going to get some plating kits from Gateros this year for my other bike (Kawasaki z650). There will be some bits from the TFS that will get done too.

[Eddie Smith]

Thanks for your comments, very good advice and I take it on board. I have searched the net for rims and I cannot find any comparable to the quote from Central so I shall order from them. Regarding the Zinc Plating I am going to set up a small plant as soon as I get some space organised but still welcome comments about what other members have archived and maybe the pitfalls but like any process involving chemicals as I found years ago with Photography you need to be thorough.

[floydbassman]

Regarding the chroming, there is some new legislation coming in next year which will affect the chroming industry. Reading some articles in some classic vehicle journals, it means that a lot of the processes and chemicals presently used will be banned. the alternatives will be lower quality in looks and durability. I dont know how the diy kits will be affected, but I am getting stocked up this year. The only old type chroming permitted will be for engineering purposes, eg fork sliders and the like.