Vintage Wheels
01-09-11, 06:06 AM
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Vintage Wheels
I recently got a set of free vintage lightweight wheels, with the able facilitation of Khatful. There's a lot in here that's great, old, and odd: Nisi Moncalieri wing-logo tubular rims (with the little vertical hash-marks on the brake tracks), no-name steel/aluminum 36-hole large-flange QR hubs, and non-stainless double-butted spokes.
Refurbishing is under way. Everything has washed-up pretty well, the rims are capable of running true and taut, and I just got a Cyclus puller I will use to gently rectify a rim dent. No polishing planned so far: I had these rims as new (probably NOS!) back around 1970, and they were not polished or anodized. I'm replacing both axles and cone sets. I've cobbled up good matches for the rear, and am still looking for new or usable M9x1 cones for the front. The fronts came with 9 3/32 balls per side. The original axles were of very low quality, so I don't think they were original - not any clue to nation of origin. The Nisi rims suggest Italian origin.
The Nisi rims had no eyelets, and the nipples are all installed with washers as they should. The Nisis are a little wider than most tubular rims out there. I'm going to use them with Challenge Parigi-Roubaix tubulars in 27 mm width. They'll first be used on my UO-8 and later probably to be switched to my PX-10 whenever it gets built, if the frame has clearance adequate for the 27s. Talk about frankenbikes!
I don't know what the hubs are, but the flanges look like the old Normandy hubs from a UO-8 and contemporary lower-end Raleighs. I have seen photos of '50s stage-race bikes with large aluminum flanges and steel axle quills (correct term?). The Nisi rims and non-stainless racing spokes suggest a similar vintage.
Today's question is spokes. What vintage spoke had an "S" marked on the spoke head?
I'm envisioning these wheels as having been supplied for a '50s race bike.
Refurbishing is under way. Everything has washed-up pretty well, the rims are capable of running true and taut, and I just got a Cyclus puller I will use to gently rectify a rim dent. No polishing planned so far: I had these rims as new (probably NOS!) back around 1970, and they were not polished or anodized. I'm replacing both axles and cone sets. I've cobbled up good matches for the rear, and am still looking for new or usable M9x1 cones for the front. The fronts came with 9 3/32 balls per side. The original axles were of very low quality, so I don't think they were original - not any clue to nation of origin. The Nisi rims suggest Italian origin.
The Nisi rims had no eyelets, and the nipples are all installed with washers as they should. The Nisis are a little wider than most tubular rims out there. I'm going to use them with Challenge Parigi-Roubaix tubulars in 27 mm width. They'll first be used on my UO-8 and later probably to be switched to my PX-10 whenever it gets built, if the frame has clearance adequate for the 27s. Talk about frankenbikes!
I don't know what the hubs are, but the flanges look like the old Normandy hubs from a UO-8 and contemporary lower-end Raleighs. I have seen photos of '50s stage-race bikes with large aluminum flanges and steel axle quills (correct term?). The Nisi rims and non-stainless racing spokes suggest a similar vintage.
Today's question is spokes. What vintage spoke had an "S" marked on the spoke head?
I'm envisioning these wheels as having been supplied for a '50s race bike.
01-09-11, 08:00 AM
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You mentioned possibly Italian, I wonder if the hubs are Gnutti?
01-09-11, 08:16 AM
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It's possible, of course, but I've found no markings. One of the QRs is Gnutti with a straight lever, but in up to 50+ years both of them could have been lost and replaced.
01-09-11, 07:29 PM
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ok, been out looking on other lists. Sapim is SAP, Stella is a Star, and S seems to be Alpina ACI. Nothing about whether Alpina ACI were zinc clad steel, stainless, or something cheaper. My spokes could be non-polished stainless, they're at least not corroded. It also appears Stella may have been double butted in the 40s.
01-11-11, 02:52 PM
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There's been a wild discussion on this out on Classic Rendezvous. Latest seems to be that they are Alpina ACI.
Anybody have good info on the history or vintages of Nisi tubular rims?
Anybody have good info on the history or vintages of Nisi tubular rims?
