swampyankee2

The 27" steel rims on my 67ish Robin Hood Lenton Sports 10 speed appear to be mismatched. The rear is stamped Dunlop Made in England ans has smooth flanges and is laced to the Atom freewheel. The front is on an original looking wide flange hub but has stippled flanges. I've seen the texture before but not sure where. I can't imagine it would be original to the bike. But could it be? If not, should i find anothe similar rim for the rear, or matching smooth for the front? I'm trying to keep it period correct for now anyway.

dedhed

Rigida Chromix rim most likely and probably a replacement.

verktyg 

Those embossed surfaces in steel rims are designed to retain water when riding in the wet to lubricate the surfaces so that your wheels don't lock up when you hit the brakes....

I know very little about British steel rims except that Dunlop made some out of stainless steel rather than the standard chrome plated steel found on most clincher bike wheels. They're highly regarded.

There's some information stamped into the "modulator" rim. What does that say? Any other info in either rim?



In the US most 27" steel clincher rims for "light weight" bikes are or were called Box Rims because if you look at the cross section it looks like a rectangular box. The braking surfaces are on the sides usually with a slight inward taper. Commonly used French made steel rims were that way too.



These are/were made by rolling the cross section shape into a thin wall steel tube then bending it round and welding the joint. This was followed by polishing and chrome plating.

The British had Endrick rims with a different cross section with square side walls.



Your 1967 Lenton is 55 years old. Steel rims are nowhere near as strong as most aluminum alloy clincher rims. The thin side walls in the steel tubing could be easily damaged by slightest bump in the road causing the rim to flare out making braking impossible. At some point in time, one of the Dunlop rims was replaced, probably for that reason. Also steel rims taco'd easily too.



Hope this helps a little.

BTW, back in the early 70's I HATED working an steel rims. They were so cheap... It was easier to sell a customer a whole new replacement wheel. By the mid 70's replacement wheels with alloy rims became readily available and we used them instead as a "customer service".

verktyg "50"

billytwosheds 

When Eki Cyclery closed after a long long run, the coop I manage inherited a lot of tools including...a steel rim roller. Was told that customers loved having their rim dent/flare rolled out, but that it wasn't good for business. It fits.

cycleheimer

Ditto. They were almost impossible to "true". Then you'd get the cheapo kids bikes with those dented rims from curb hopping. You would have to tap them back in using a block and hammer before trueing them up. The walls were never right to begin with anyway. Kids bikes, especially, drove alot of shop mechanics to drink back then. I really liked Ukai alloy rims when I first saw them on a Fuji "Special Road Racer". The walls were nicely formed, and they were easy to true.

bikamper

The Chromix would be the original rim. Unfortunately, my Robin Hood had two of them.

randyjawa 

The stippled rims do enhance stopping efficiency in my opinion but they are so noisy. Every time I grab a handful of brake lever, buzzzzz, go the wheels. Truly annoying and these ones are getting swapped out when I get back to my lake cottage in a month's time or so (still three or more feet of snow here in the Thunder Bay area)...

Mr. 66

We called them cheese graters bitd.

swampyankee2

Beautiful bike! Are those stippled rims on your bike steel?