I relaced my front wheel on the Honda CB125s back in 1975 because the front spokes were really rusty & in danger of failing the next MoT if I hadn't done anything about them. I replaced them one at a time & checked for any rim distortion as I tightened them up. I worked my way around the wheel in the same way for each so that I could not go wrong with the pattern. Once they were all done I remounted the front wheel, then spun it to check for straightness. It only needed a tweak here & there and it was perfect for the next 45,000 miles that I did on the bike before I sold it to a friend. He did another 15,000 miles before he sold it on, but at no time was there any problem with the wheel. Yes it is an art to relacing a bare wheel, but not impossible for the home mechanic.
In later years I needed to have the spokes upgraded on my XR400R. The standard ones were quite thin & I wanted some heavier duty stainless ones fitted. So I took the rear rim & cleaned hub up to Hagons when they used to be in Leytonstone. The wheel came back to me perfectly done. About a month later (after they'd moved up to their present location in Essex) I took the front rim & cleaned front hub up to their new factory for the same treatment. With the rear wheel i'd checked the tightness of the spokes by giving them all a tap with a small screwdriver while I was standing at the counter when picking it up after the job had been done. But when I did the same thing with the front wheel that had been done on the second visit, some of the spokes were distinctly loose. When I mentioned this in the public area, I felt that the people who all worked there took it really badly that someone was complaining that a job had been done badly by them. But I stood my ground & said that if the bike was presented for MoT with spokes this loose then the tester would fail the machine. When Martin Hagon puffed up his chest & proclaimed 'what would you know...are you a wheel builder?' I was apalled by this verbal tirade. i said that I was not happy with it & that if they were not prepared to get it done properly then a visit to Trading Standards would occur. About a week later I picked up my front wheel. I was far happier with it this time, but the people who worked in the place were very silent when I went back in there. I duly paid up what I had been asked to pay the first time, but as I left the premises I said that I would not ever return & that I could never bring myself to recommend other people to use their services. I do know that other people have used Hagons in the past & may well have had good service from them, but this was just my bad experience of them.
