Safety Fast June 2017

I am writing this at the beginning of May after a fortnight of glorious weather here in Cornwall, bar last Saturday which was horrible. I am also cheered by the fact that my BGT just passed its MOT, again with no advisories, and is fit for purpose. So, I must use it rather more than I have this past year with only 1,600 miles achieved. It is my intention to use it for my trip to MGLive! this year, where I hope to spend some time on the Register stand. I have been sent an interesting article by Roger Boys which I will now share with you:
It’s a while since I wrote a few lines for you on a technical subject, so here goes. When I removed the winter wire wheels in the spring from the Boneshaker, I noticed that the flexing of the spokes, coupled with the salt, has caused the dreaded rust to make an appearance. This was not sufficient to damage the structure of them but has made them unsightly, so I decided to give them a spruce-up. Many of you will know I am not the greatest with the spanners but cleaning and tarting up is right up my street. So I got the wheels out of the shed and carefully cleaned all the grease, brake dust and mud off. Then when dry I applied a liberal dose of Kurust to as many places as I could. When this was dry and had worked its magic, I was ready to spray them with Promatic Silver Wheels paint. A single can was sufficient for all four wheels, but before I started I had to mask up the tyre – not an easy task. It was as I was applying the masking tape that I remembered a technique that I had read about many years ago. This involved completely letting the tyres down and inserting small pieces of card between the tyre and the rim, making the masking easy and very effective. A set of playing cards would be absolutely ideal, if available. Then it’s possible to carefully spray the wheel without getting loads of paint on the wall of the tyres. Give it a try – you will be pleased with the results.