Burnt Down Garage!!

[Lost Again]

Thats right folks, my flatmates bike decided to spontaneously combust last monday taking the garage and contents with it.
My question is thus..
My wheels were in there at the time and while they look to be fine except for being covered in soot I'm sceptical as to whether or not I should bin em. They were at ground level about 4 feet away from the bike that was on fire and theres a few plastic items around them which while look a bit droopy havn't burnt or melted completely.

Any advice from any budding metallurgists would be much appreciated.

Cheers.

P.S. just to make it ok there was a Harley in there too.

:fiery: :fiery: :fiery:

[Pugi]

Considering that wheels get heated up to high temperatures when people powdercoat them they might be ok? Tyres etc. should probably be exchanged though.

[Lost Again]

No tyres on at the time. They'd been stripped to bare rims ready for powder coating. Good point though, powder coating needs at least 180 C if I remember my GCSE D&T correctly.
Hmmm.... maybe its not time to buy some new ones just yet.

[Paranoid Dave]

very lucky

when you said your wheels, i thought that was another way of saying your bike was in there, thankfully in this case wheeels actually meant wheels.

There would have been a lot of heat (obviously)on the fire but you didn't say what the damage was to the rest of the garage, was there alot of other stuff lost or was there simply a couple of bikes and thats it. If the fire stayed well away I'd be shocked if the heat did a lot of damage.

[Lost Again]

There was my mates GSX-R sat right in the middle of the garage and a harley behind that, just inside the main door. The fire seems to have started in the back of my mates gixxer, possibly his alarm, as all the damage is round the back end of his and the front end of the harley. the front end of the gixxer seems almost undamaged and my wheels were leaning against the far wall of the garage about 4 feet away from the front of the gixxer.
I'm sure they're fine but don't really fancy taking chances.

[Yorkie]

Check these out on e-bay!!

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/SET-OF-DUCATI-WHEELS-AND-TYRES_W0QQitemZ8042177772QQcategoryZ10448QQrdZ1QQc mdZViewItem

Might be worth a bid later on!

Yorkie.

[Duncan]

Powder coat is burnt on between 170 and 220c depending on the type and at temps above that goes all horrid. if the wheels clean up OK then they havnt been exposed to that high a temp and will be OK. Knock out and regrease / replace the bearings and make sure the cush rubbers are OK and should be fine.

To check for buckling set up your spindle in a workmate or similar, spin the wheel and check for run out. Buckling will be obvious, a few mm of run out is normal.

[STIVH]

Been there done this just get them checked for straightness and balance as long as they have no obvious excesive heat on them at one specific point you should have no problem. In all honesty you would be amazed at what can be recovered from a fire damaged bike I have seen total wrecks receive just a good paint job, replacement plastics and replaced electrics and a new lease of life back on the road. Just get them checked by someone without prejudice.

[Lost Again]

Cheers for the advice. I was worried about the possibility of them shattering while riding but from where they were in the garage in relation to the other stuff I'll check em for balance and straightness then off to the coaters.
Question is, what colour to get them done........

[madhatter]

Any advice from any budding metallurgists would be much appreciated.....

Generally speaking annealing is done at just below the hardening temperature of the metal and then slow cooled in air to effectively soften the metal, however you would need to do this at temperatures of above 730 degrees and maybe as much as 820 degrees. Hardening requires heating to around 920 degrees for a sustained period (2 hours or so) followed by quenching in oil, water or nitrogen. It's this quenching that changes the austenitic structure of steel to effectively harden the material. Lower temperature heat treatments are carried out between 150 degrees to 300 degrees to stress relieve metals. In short, I would say that it is highly unlikely that your wheels were "heat-treated" as they were not subjected to the high temperatures required nor were they quenched at elevated temperatures.

If there is no significant sign of discolouration or burning and they just clean up, I wouldn't worry too much.

Steve (Budding Metallurgist)