[Healeys] Wheels/Tires

[Max Byers]

I'm comfortable that a wheel is not going to collapse with a couple broken spokes, especially as my experience with more than one broken spoke at a time has been vibration from the wheel.   When I investigated the tires and wheels and found the damage, I installed the spare.  Some of those single broken spokes were found while washing the wheels, and could have been there for some time.

The last occasion I recall was during my return home to North Carolina from Conclave in San Diego in 2008.  About 50 miles out from home I began to feel a vibration and my traveling companion saw that it was the right rear wheel "bouncing" slightly. It had two broken spokes.  Whether the first spoke broke two miles from San Diego or shortly before the vibration, I don't know, but there was a signal that there was something wrong. If one is not sensitive to the signals and keeps driving, sure, it's possible a wheel could collapse and 72 spokers would give some additional margin; but the cost and diminished visual esthetics of 72 spokes, to me, do not justify more spokes.

Steve Byers
HBJ8L/36666
BJ8 Registry
AHCA Delegate at Large
Havelock, NC  USA

-----Original Message-----
From: Healeys [mailto:healeys-bounces at autox.team.net] On Behalf Of Bob Spidell
Sent: Saturday, January 4, 2020 12:41 PM
To: healeys at autox.team.net
Subject: Re: [Healeys] Wheels/Tires

If you're comfortable driving even a short distance on a deficient wheel, fine by me.  I'm not.  And shipping a broken wheel from, say, Lillocet, Canada--yes, I've driven there--to Allen Hendrix, and waiting for its return, is not appealing to me in the slightest (nothing against Lillocet).  I'm glad I didn't have tire/wheel issues when driving through Mexico.

I don't know how much a wheel is compromised by even one broken spoke--I didn't do well enough in integral calculus to calculate it--but it would be more significant on a 60-spoker than a 72.