I was out riding my Coker yesterday to meet some friends, arrived, tuned into the driveway and hit a hump (only a little one). Thankfuly I was just about to dismount as the uni stopped dead and I landed gracefully on my feet feeling slightly silly.
Looked back at uni to see the wheel with a lovely saddle shape in it.
After leaning it against the wall and pushing on the hub I managed to get it flat enough to push along but did not fancy riding it as the wheel rubbed against the frame.
What do I do now?
New rim? New Airfoil rim? Take it to a bike shop so they can laugh and overcharge me?
The Coker wheel is notoriously weak. This is an inevitable result of its diameter. With a standard hub, the spokes are much nearer to parallel than they would be on, say, a 20 or 24. That means it doesn’t take much to knock the rim out of line, beyond the point where the spokes can hold it straight. (Very simplified hand waving type explanation…)
Add to that a rather mediocre rim and poor build quality (spokes are not accurately tensioned at the factory) and a collapse is much more likely than on a smaller better wheel.
But the good news is, if it will fall out of true quite easily, it will fall into line more easily than a smaller better wheel. Think of the old reed bending where the oak tree snaps parable.
So, if the rim is not kinked or dinked or dented, then a good wheel builder may well be able to pull it back into line. I had this done on mine a few months back. It had reached the stage where the tyre scuffed the frame with only a small amount of mud on the tyre. I payed the local bike shop about £17 (US$25?) and the wheel has been reliable ever since.
Take the wheel off; remove the tyre, tube and rim tape. Replace the wheel. Remove the cranks. I left the seat on and suggested the wheel builder could rest the Coker upside down on the saddle and use the forks as a truing (trueing?) jig. The wheel is too big for a normal jig.
Pu it this way, you’ve nothing to lose by asking.
Unless this is all an excuse to buy the new aero rim ;0)
how many hell’s angels are in Carlton, Nottingham, England? as for Moped gangs,we’ve go those “the guardian angel’s” i dont know if their around though.
looks like Fool lost all that yesterday right in his driveway ;0)
I vote for the fancy rim! The stock Coker rim is just too heavy, the pot metal they use must have a high lead content. If you do the bike shop route ask about getting ALL THE SPOKES TIGHTENED. I did this before I ever put mine together and it has taken a lot of abuse.
This is not quite true, Mike. It’s a result of increasing the diameter of the wheel without increasing the width of the hub, together with a very weak rim which does not permit sufficiently high spoke tension.
Even if you have your stock wheel tensioned and trued, the wheel is not strong and, even under unreasonably low tension, can spontaneously taco. See the attached pic.
Uni Fool, if you are convinced that a 36" uni is for you, you might consider investing in a wheel that corrects both the design and component flaws, as described here at the end of the thread.
Perfec’ly true. I was keeping it simple - a later part of my post referred to the spokes being nearer to parallel than on a smaller wheel. I was ‘assuming’ a more or less standard hub width.
JAGUR wrote:
<<how many hell’s angels are in Carlton, Nottingham, England? >>
Since you ask, few if any, in Carlton. But in and around Nottingham, and in England generally? More than enough. And yes, I’m talking real HA rather than HOG members - HA with chapter colours, “1%” tattoos, drug deals and weapons and so on. The All England Chapter gets its occasional “shotgun feud” headline in the national papers, and I claim the dubious honours of having been threatened by a HA in approx. 1980, and of of having been robbed by another in about 1987 - although the amount involved was small.
JAGUR went on to comment:
<<Looks like Fool lost all that [elegance, power, majesty, mystique… ] yesterday right in his driveway ;0)>>
As we fencers say (although hopefully not too often) “touche”. :0)
(Calling fellow pedants: I was too lazy to find an acute accent, OK?)
