Rebirth of a Lightweight Panther. 6. The Wheels.

Wheels are a problem in that I don't have any! A front hub came with the Game Changer and this looked usable with a 6 inch brake complete with oily shoes. It is fitted with cup and cone bearings although the spindle is missiing.

Front |Hub

          I found a spindle with cones in my piles of bits although the cones are chipped and useless. Examining the hub it was clear that the cups were a tight fit in the hub shell so I knocked them out to leave two bearing recesses 42mm in diameter, just the size for 6302 bearings. I had a pair on the shelf complete with seals. These have an internal diameter of 15mm and a thickness of 13mm, so are ideal, especially as they fit the spindle in hand. I altered the spindle to space the bearings as per the hub and made up nuts and spacers in stainless to suit.

          I also had a couple of rims laying about and selected one that appeared to have some chrome left on it. I then needed to determine what spokes were required for this hub/rim assembly so I turned to the internet where there are many programs for calculating spoke lengths. These are aimed at cyclists but I found a couple for motorcycles and surely a wheel is a wheel! Several of the programs gave very similar answers so I ordered the spokes on that basis from Central Wheel Company who were very helpful. I then decided to polish up the chrome using 0000 grade wire wool and Coca Cola as recommended on Youtube. This works well and soon I could see the logo Dunlop, and the size, WM3 - 18. What! 18 inch, I need 19! I paused the spoke order, found another rim, rather more rusty this time, recalculated and reordered. I cleaned up the rim, painted and lined it,painted the hub and brake plate and sat back to await the spokes. 

         Sadly, though not for me, the spoke makers failed to heed my instruction to stop and a package of spokes duly arrived. The Company were very understanding and sent me a second set, these to my new dimensions, with no charge.

          With the correct (?) set of spokes I laced the hub to the rim. something didn't seem right so I took it all apart and turned the rim over. Things went much better then although some spokes seemed to be a bit too long. I retrieved  some from the first package and found they fitted well. So by using spokes from both packages I achieved a very smart and fairly round wheel with the rim nicely centred in the forks. I then relined the brake shoes and assembled the hub and brake.

Front wheel in position.

         I had no back wheel until Jerry Fox responded to my appeal on Facebook. Duly collected the wheel was complete with brake, spindle and nuts but was rather rusty. I offered it up to the frame and it was clear that the rim was about 17mm off-centre when the sprocket was lined up with the gearbox sprocket. I took lots of measurements and removed several spokes as patterns then cut the rest out. In order to shift the rim over toward the brake I took a couple of millimetres off the spokes on the brake side and added the same to those on the other side. With my spoke order in I cleaned and painted the rim, hub and brake plate. The built wheel looks good, the rim is dead centre and the chainline correct. Just need a rim tape, tube, tyre and some spacers to complete the rear wheel. The hub has an internal speedo drive gear and I have the external angle drive finish it off.

Rear wheel completed.

My thanks to Richard Hoyland at Central Wheel Components and Jerry Fox..

Now I need to have a look at the pile of rusty tinware.