Brucey wrote:Actually on a Pashley, through accident or design (I suspect the former...), several of their bikes use an inexpensive single-walled endrick type aluminium rim. Although not a super strong rim, this usually lasts for ages provided the spoke tension is good; there are no eyelets to rust, the material is soft and doesn't suffer SCC, and the hub brakes don't wear it obviously...
This rim also has the inestimable benefit that it has a deep well (like Super Champion Mod 58 rims used to have) and most tyres come on and off quite easily. I still use tyre levers (with a robust puncture-proof tyre fitted) but with some tyres they would definitely be optional.
This makes puncture fixes (with or especially without wheel removal) a fair bit easier than they might otherwise be.
So with a roadster, I'd suggest that the type of wheel rim is more important than with some other bikes; although the rims on 26" wheeled Sovereign models have been good this way in the past, they may have changed them; most westwood rims are terrible for getting the tyres off, and some modern double-walled rims are not great either. The Guvnor and some other current Pashley models are fitted with aluminium westwood style rims (in 635mm BSD) and they are an absolute pig to get the tyres on and off of.
cheers
What do you think about their frame production quality control? IRMCML