A couple of months back I posted here about a shake in the front of my bike, mainly under deceleration, and I thought it may have been due to my forks being due for a fluid change.
Anyway, I did the fork service, and when I removed the wheel I noticed a ding in the rim which I had not noticed before, but I know was not there when I bought the bike, however looking thru photos I have taken, I saw it had been there for a few months.
I got the wheel checked for balance, and seeing it wobbling on the balancer, it was clear that this was the cause of my front end shudder. I did some checking around and found there was a company in Cambridge,( about 300 miles north of me) who were able to repair my wheel and told me it would cost between $120 and $250 depending on whether they would have to repaint it after.
Since an over abundance of funds hasn't been a problem of mine lately, I let the matter rest for a while, but with the very generous help from my friends here,(thankyou guys, you know who you are, even though I don't ) I removed and stripped the wheel last weekend and shipped it of for repair.
The dent in the rim ( at the 9 o'clock position )
close up without tyre
Me poor old bike going nowhere fast ( the back wheel was of for a new tyre while the bike was down )
Anyway, 2 days after I sent the rim off, the nice man calls me and says its all straightened up and he is about to send it of to the painter, and did I want to pay a little extra and get the whole rim painted as there were a few extra garks and scratches which were unrelated to the repair.
I told him to go ahead as it was a good deal, but thinking on it further, I figured that a repainted rim was always going to be prone to damage , and I fancied the idea of a polished rim, so I called him back and told him to send it back as it was.
The rim arrived back the following morning, and with the aid of some paint stripper and polishing pads and about 10 hours hard graft, I got it looking like this. Much better than paint me thinks.
and back on the bike and ready to go
I'm that happy with the result I'm thinking about doing the same to the lower forks. :happy:
BTW, took it for a test ride, and the dreaded shudder is no more.
cheers guys
:y18:
Anyway, I did the fork service, and when I removed the wheel I noticed a ding in the rim which I had not noticed before, but I know was not there when I bought the bike, however looking thru photos I have taken, I saw it had been there for a few months.
I got the wheel checked for balance, and seeing it wobbling on the balancer, it was clear that this was the cause of my front end shudder. I did some checking around and found there was a company in Cambridge,( about 300 miles north of me) who were able to repair my wheel and told me it would cost between $120 and $250 depending on whether they would have to repaint it after.
Since an over abundance of funds hasn't been a problem of mine lately, I let the matter rest for a while, but with the very generous help from my friends here,(thankyou guys, you know who you are, even though I don't ) I removed and stripped the wheel last weekend and shipped it of for repair.
The dent in the rim ( at the 9 o'clock position )
close up without tyre
Me poor old bike going nowhere fast ( the back wheel was of for a new tyre while the bike was down )
Anyway, 2 days after I sent the rim off, the nice man calls me and says its all straightened up and he is about to send it of to the painter, and did I want to pay a little extra and get the whole rim painted as there were a few extra garks and scratches which were unrelated to the repair.
I told him to go ahead as it was a good deal, but thinking on it further, I figured that a repainted rim was always going to be prone to damage , and I fancied the idea of a polished rim, so I called him back and told him to send it back as it was.
The rim arrived back the following morning, and with the aid of some paint stripper and polishing pads and about 10 hours hard graft, I got it looking like this. Much better than paint me thinks.
and back on the bike and ready to go
I'm that happy with the result I'm thinking about doing the same to the lower forks. :happy:
BTW, took it for a test ride, and the dreaded shudder is no more.
cheers guys
:y18:
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