It's No Joke When Your Spoke's Broke!

[Iron Head]

I had wondered what might have happened to the inner end of the spoke likely broken some time in the late 50's on my '54 G80CS whilst desert racing in the US. Also explained why the brake shoe was rubbing on the back face of the drum.

Nice little Mud Dauber wasp nest on the other side. The 5th nest I have now found on the bike - surprisingly heavy!

Iron Head

[Rob Harknett]

That's just a baby starter, abandoned Wasp nest. I have seen them in my shed. I wondered why so many Wasps were going in my shed. I eventually found the main nest, size and shape of a rugby ball, built in the rear wheel of a moped. It was multi Straw coloured, with streaks of Maroon from my James and Green from my New Hudson auto cycles. A woven straw coloured picnic basket was stripped clean. Then I noticed a little leather tool bag that hung on the rear of a saddle in bits. All the stitching had gone. This huge nest was light as a feather. Check the main nest is not in your petrol tank

[Iron Head]

Nothing in the tank Rob which luckily is spotless internally apart from one annoying pinhole in the bottom edge of the ally - likely night time condensation corrosion from Texas. Did have wasp activity in both fuel valve unions and the exposed ends of the fuel pipes were both plugged with very fine silt.

Iron Head

[Rob Harknett]

Probably were wasps were getting in for material to make a nest. Its amazing what they do. The wicker basket looked brand new after they had cleaned it up getting material for the nest. That was about ten years ago. Amazing how they used the paint. all in one place making patterns. I really had to get rid of them. I emptied a spray can of Wasp killer under the shed door. Couple of days later the wasps had gone. Shed floor covered with the dead. The nest was very light. Just the thin outer shell. Nothing inside. Its now fell off the Moped wheel spokes. No it was not a Raleigh Wasp. It was a Bown Bambi.

[pkr87]

A neighbour had a large wasp's nest in his garage and using a broom handle poking through a window he broke it up. Next morning the nest had been rebuilt exactly as before with the material from the original nest.

[Dave T_LAPSED]

I had a hornets' nest in the roof space of my house here in Normandie. I gave the inmates the Malchie with a couple of aerosols of fly spray in the summer but was too chicken to go sort out the nest 'til one -5° day in winter. I took a panel off the roof and the nest I found was about three feet high and two and a half wide, it just fit nicely in a big bin bag! It was beautifuly made with bands of different colours in the papier maché and each cell was about half an inch across, I was very brave now the inmates were dead or dormant!
The mud dauber wasps here fill anything with a little hole in it with a cap of dried mud, the screw recesses on barbecue lights, radios, my bellows for the barbecue were stuffed full of mud and ruined, they are amazing.I often see the wasps dragging a stunned spider across the patio floor to be stuffed down a hole somewhere to be left as a titbit for their offspring, good job they're not our size
Back to the original post, is that spring-looking thing in the brake the remains of the bespoke broke spoke? Lucky it wedged itself and didn't go "walkabout" in the hub if it is!

[Iron Head]

Hi Dave. The spring-looking thing is indeed the inner broken end of the spoke neatly coiled up and, as you say, it was very lucky it ended up residing where it did!

Iron Head