Finely - the ultimate totally maintenance free wire wheels!!
 

http://www.imagewheels.co.uk/wp-cont...E-WITH-NUT.jpg

Nice aren't they?

Now take a closer look.....they're alloy wheels!!

Made by Image.

Cheaper than new wires.

Any offset you want so you get a nice dish without any arch extensions.

No rust and no bloody shoe strings and autosol to clean the spokes.

And you can have black centres.

And even splined centres if you want

http://www.imagewheels.co.uk/db3-alloy-wheel/

Gagh! Samsung auto correct - finally not finely!!

Nice!

Love the idea want to see some in the flesh.

My wire wheels from the '50's are also zero maintenance...


...at least from my perspective :-)

Snow foam and then a babies bottle brush mounted in your battery drill.
Quick, easy and effective.

Snow foam and then a babies bottle brush mounted in your battery drill.
Re-evaluate your opinion of what they should look like. Embrace 'road used' as the correct look and you are back to zero maintenance

Good call. I used the brush manually but when the foam turns grey- you know it's working. A pressure wash rinse after is best too.

MWS tell you not to use a power washer, don't know why. I have been known to use it on wire wheels but stand well back so the pressure is not too strong.
Avoid alloy wheel cleaners, I used to use them but diluted down, even diluted they damage the chrome and it goes "yellowish", don't ask me how I know!

I only suggested it because after my brush rinse, there was some dried residue which a pressure wash would have removed.
Best to keep the splines well greased anyway.

[i]MWS tell you not to use a power washer, don't know why[/]

I think that they basically spray some latex (or similar) on the inside of their rims to seal the spokes.

If you pressure wash the wheels you will push the latax off the rims and it will bimble around inside your tyres as the air gradually leaks out.

The guys at Classic Tyres at Bealieu say they keep getting arguments from owners of leaky MWS wheels because their tyres go flat.

I got new tubes and rim tapes with my new tyres. They've held air as well as any tubeless tyres I've had.

My MWS bolt on wires have a thick silicon coat over the spokes where they attach to the rim. They were blasted, powder coated and baked and still the silicon stayed on. They haven't lost any pressure since they were fitted and have the advantage that as they are tubeless you can use puncture sealant on them.
My spined wires on the jag just have rim tapes and so have to have tubes. I've had to replace a couple of tubes due to punctures and you can't use puncture sealant on them.
I can't see why you couldn't convert an old set with rim tapes to a silicone sealed set up.

Punctures aside, I think I see a coated rim as having 73 potential points of failure instead of 1 per Nick's comments above. Having said that, I do intend to replace the existing wheels (with wires again) and will explore the options when I get a round tuit.

On the MWS rims the silicone is probably about 6mm thick so is very tough.
A few people on the Triumph/BMW motorcycle forums have converted standard spoked wheels to tubless by using the silicone method. Obviously, it has to work well for safety reasons on a motorcycle.

OK right- I had visions of 1.5mm like a rim tape...