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I'm sorry to hear about your crack problem, but I'm afraid I've come to see rims as expendable - just like tyres and chains.
The good news is that there should still be plenty of secondhand 40 hole sprint rims around, just not too many Constrictors. For me, when it comes to old kit, I use what's available and what will work - for this reason I don't bother too much about having things in pairs, especially if it's something I can't see or feel when I'm riding.
When 700's came in a lot of hubs that had been used with sprint rims were converted to the new wired on formula, and since many old cyclists hate throwing things away, I think there will still be many of these rims around.
It's not that difficult to change a rim, as long as the spokes are the right length, and I doubt if there would be much difference between a Conloy and a Fiamme. I recommend taping all the spoke crossovers together before dismantling - this will save getting in a muddle.
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clubman
Bit of a mechanical question to you all....Whilst setting up my Sturmey ASC rear wheel earlier I noticed that the Conloy Sprint rim on the rear wheel has a crack around 2 of the spoke holes-just on one side of each hole not both but one is quite long and a little open-around 8-9mm I'd say long. The wheels have only just been built up so I guess this has happened when the spokes were tightened up by the builder (I assume there must have been a weakness already as I did not see it when I picked them up but only noticed it now the tubs are fitted and inflated on closer inspection. My question is it safe to ride these rims for a bit if I keep an eye on it?-I am not particularly heavy -maybe 69 kilos (11 stone in old money) give or take, and I never really ride the bike in anger as such, more pootle around generally. I just don't want to totally destroy the rim as It took me an age to find these and quite a bit of cost to get built up (Especially as the other set of wheels I has built at the same time round a Sturmey AC hub are out of action as the AC Hub has stuck fast and failed-, so needs fixing, but that's a different story), but equally I don't want to have to rip off the newly fitted tub to try and strengthen the rim straight away as I am desperate to try this hub....
At some point I will of course remove the tubulars and was planning to araldite a washer or a strip of steel around each split spoke hole and over the crack inside, as I think this will hold it long term for the relatively light use it gets (Maybe I am wrong here but I can't think of what else to do and I really want to keep this wheelset in use)
Any advice, thoughts, anyone with a similar experience?