Twin leading shoe nave plate

[Dunc Milne]

Hi new question ref nave plate on my A50. I've purchased a fully rebuilt front wheel with twin leading shoe and no nave plate is fitted and no tappings to secure one on. Is it really necessary to have it fitted? Or is it purely cosmetic? The new wheel is stainless with stainless spokes. Drum has been powder coated so looks great. I'm not bothered about originality more usability! Many thanks

[Spaceman]

It's purely cosmetic - I've always fitted the nave plate but I can imagine the hub looks ok without them if newly powder coated.

[Mike Farmer]

 

I have a newly rebuilt wheel powder coated etc in a bike under resoration. Its doesn't yet have the plate fitted. Personnally I dont like it as it is cos definitely looks unfinished.

Just opinion

Mike

[Spaceman]

I dug out an old TLS wheel I had in the shed to see how its nave plate was attached. Unlike all the ones I've bought in recent years, this nave plate had small tabs cut into the outer edge which were then bent over the rib on the wheel hub to retain the plate. However, non of the aftermarket nave plates I've bought in r3cent years had the tabs and I therefore had to crimp the outer edge with a punch which was slightly more difficult. For the SS ones, I could have cut the tabs as an alternative but, for the chrome plated ones, this would not have been sensible because of the danger of the cut metal subsequently rusting.

However, the bigger problem I had with all these aftermarket nave plates (non for an A65) was that the central hole in them was the wrong size making it difficult to fit over the centre of the hub. All of them required a considerable amount of careful panel beating to enlarge the hole sufficiently which was far from easy. Hopefully, any on sale now for a A65 will be made to the right size but you will still have the slight problem with the tabs.