Who Straightens Bent Borranis or Akronts?

xbacksideslider, "No, that tire is not too old, yet"
you may be on to something, don,t forget Bert Munro filled the cracks in his 60 year old tyres with black shoe polish then went straight out and did 200 mph at Bonneville.

Hello a little late but nonetheless,

First off, borrani, akront etc wire "rims" are ten times easier to fix then cast wherls due to the fact that they are made out of of extrusion drawn aluminum and not hi Si content somewhat (depends) brittle foundry aluminum.

One can fix such bends/distortions with a huge led hammer pounding it straight just like on an old car body. You could use also a huge tool kinda like a tuning fork to tweak it back.
Friends of mine with a repair shop in austria do such repairs on a regular base.
In case the wheel gets outta round of course one would need to put it in under some sort of roller bender (snd roll it back and forth) in order to get the wheel running centric again.

Best regards

Christian

Ps: good news are that borrani is for quite a while again business on the outer skirts of milano (milanofiori asago)

There it is. I'm into it about $300, including shipping x 2. I could have had a new wheel for about that. Retained my stock spokes but with new nipples. Steel, size for size, is stronger than stainless. On wheel balancing stand, I checked run out, axial and radial, with dial indicator, at worst spot 10 thou. Really good job by Woody's.

In my quest, Christian, I found that Italian source, got sent back to an American group that sells Ferrari parts, including Borrani automobile wheels; they sent me to Buchanans' as the exclusive dealer, saying they'd dumped the MC wheel side.

Yes, the fact that the alloy is soft/extrudable was a factor in straightening as opposed to going with a re-pop.

In talking with the old guy who did my Excel wheels a short while back, he had had his fill with the poorer quality of the new Borani rims. He had to return most of the ones he took delivery of as woefully oblong and very poor seams. He noted that he was told that they were manufactured in China and assembled and QC'd in Italy.

KiwiNeill said:

xbacksideslider, "No, that tire is not too old, yet"
you may be on to something, don,t forget Bert Munro filled the cracks in his 60 year old tyres with black shoe polish then went straight out and did 200 mph at Bonneville.

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I was there in the mid '70s and at that time there was a tire shortage for the LSRs. They all had Firestones from a lot that had been custom made during the 60's and which were cotton fabric/cord under gum rubber. The racers kept them in sealed 50 gallon drums. SCTA deemed them "good" but all showed cracks and cord. Shoe polish was ubiquitous. There were so many layers of cord; there was nothing better; and, even one run would spin through the dipped gum rubber. When cars came in, out came the polish. Dirty little secret - it wouldn't be good if the general public saw cord and cracks.

Xb
brilliant war story! No stranger to visible cords myself but mainly due to apprentice poverty and priority beer budget.
I think all those LSR / Bonneville folks are legends, will get there in the near future as a sightseer, probably do a split with the Reno Air Races as they overlap in 2019.

Glad you got it repaired OK - I've had a few bikes with Astralite wheels, and their race-weight stuff gets quite out of shape, but also straightens out OK.
The right amount of heat and the structure of the alloy remains sound. The old trick is to smear soap on the alloy and heat until it turns brown.

The early Bevel SS Ducatis run 18" Borrani 4777 rims, and they've been changing hands for upwards of $1k each - seriously!
So Borrani got out their old tooling and stamped up some new ones which are around $300 a pop.
The profile isn't the same as original, but only a real anorak would know that.
I've heard a rumour that the new Borrani rims are Chinese, but just a rumour...

http://www.motocicliveloci.it/inglese/catalogue/cerchiborrani_uk.htm

B+Bogus said:

Glad you got it repaired OK - I've had a few bikes with Astralite wheels, and their race-weight stuff gets quite out of shape, but also straightens out OK.
The right amount of heat and the structure of the alloy remains sound. The old trick is to smear soap on the alloy and heat until it turns brown.

The early Bevel SS Ducatis run 18" Borrani 4777 rims, and they've been changing hands for upwards of $1k each - seriously!
So Borrani got out their old tooling and stamped up some new ones which are around $300 a pop.
The profile isn't the same as original, but only a real anorak would know that.
I've heard a rumour that the new Borrani rims are Chinese, but just a rumour...

http://www.motocicliveloci.it/inglese/catalogue/cerchiborrani_uk.htm

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I think they have been making them in Italy again, after a 30 odd year layoff
Hopefully someone will correct me here?
I read they were made and welded in China then stamped in italy ??
It'd be nice to know exactly!

@B+Bogus @baz made in China is what the local distributor told me.

You can see them on Alibaba the Chinese factory sellers site at $5 to $50 per rim depending on volumes and specs.

So 'Genuine Borrani: Stamped in Italy' - reminds me very much of the stainless rims which have 'WASSELL ENGLAND' stamped on them.
Doesn't say they were made in England
In fact they were actually not bad, and better than some stainless rims which definitely are made in England.

For history geeks - the Borrani logo is the same as the old Rudge logo, as they were originally 'Rudge Whitworth Italiano'. They clearly outlasted the parent factory...

as i wanted within next months to get a pair of hi shoulder/vallanced rims i planned on stopping by there anyways (i live somewhat close) withing the next months to also check their production.
If its really chinese (hard to believe in italy) than im also off to other producers.

kind regards

Christian

Hudriwudri said:

as i wanted within next months to get a pair of hi shoulder/vallanced rims i planned on stopping by there anyways (i live somewhat close) withing the next months to also check their production.
If its really chinese (hard to believe in italy) than im also off to other producers.

kind regards

Christian

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Please let us know what you discover Christian !