MWS 12" Rosepetal replicas...

[YMJ]

Rich's caught between the devil and the deep blue....on this one.

I have to do this all the time at work - defend high prices for my goods and services against some little gobshite who buys my stuff at trade, laser etches his name on it and flogs it on as his own design. When I stopped supplying him, he just took my stuff to China and got them to copy it, laser etch, etc....However, it's just business. Unless I pay a fortune to protect my IP, I cannot do anything about it

At least he cannot get my service from China, which is how I can make a proper living

I'm waiting with baited breath for the gospel according to Mark 1, before I buy a couple of spares for the racer. For what it's worth, I emailed MWS to ask if they were compatible with the MS ones I bought last year and got a quick reply from a Margaret Brown promising that they were!

[Pete]

Can't see any argument here.

Works Wheels in Japan copied the original design which Vortz still made exclusively in small batches for less than Vortz were charging.
Minispares saw a market (rightly so) and put the work in to copy that design, producing a smiliar (some would say better) wheel at £50 less again.
Now MWS want a piece of the action and as an alloy wheel specialist shifting large volumes should be able to produce a cheaper wheel again I would have thought (quality unknown by me) and that's what's happened.

I'm no expert on market forces but that makes sense to me. Had any of that been the other way round I could see a reason for people to argue, but it makes sense and I can't.

Anyway, if any of those that have just bought MS wheels feel hard done to (can't see why ?) spare a thought for those of us who spent double what MWS now charge when we bought ours from Japan a couple of years ago.

Incidentally, I have seen quite a few sets of MWS's BRM syle wheels on VDubs looking very poor after only a couple of years with water getting under the laquer, hope they've sorted that issue out.

Anyway, sorry to interrupt, back to the arguing, roooooouuund twoooo !

sorry for the edit, some shocking speeling mystakes.

[Gray]

Not only that Pete, we can't change our brake pads through the large centre hole either!!

[LDR209H]

In the words of Ron Jeremy,here's the 12" one







According to a salesman at MWS the 10" wheels are the same as MS ones,but hey don't
shoot the messenger eh !!

[tomkidd]

I think the only way we will find out whether they are the same is to try and catch out the person making them... maybe MS should have someone phone up or email pretending to be another company?

[mk1]

What a load of nonsense this is causing.

This type of wheels were made by Vortz for donkeys years, they were VERY EXPENSIVE & almost impossible to obtain. Minispares saw an opportunity to offer a very similar (but not identical wheel) at a more competitive price than those offered by Vortz. Most of this price advantage was achieved by buying in bulk & having the wheels made abroad.

MWS saw how well the MS copies of the Vortz wheels sold & decided they too wanted a piece of the action. I think its called market forces.

I have now had a chance to compare 1st hand one of the new MWS ones with a MS one & I can categorically say that they are not "The same wheel" & have not come out of the same mould. The MWS ones are very similar to the MS ones & certainly appear to have been very closely based on the MS offering as opposed to the Vortz "original" but there are a number of very obvious differences. To my eye the MWS ones are certainly not finished to quite as high a standard as the MS either in terms of the base casting, standard of machining or the painted finish.

Having said the above they are also somewhat less expensive that the MS ones.

As far as I am concerned people can pay their money & make their choice. Vortz, Minispares, Japanese offerings & now MWS too. as I said above, its called the market. We are certainly not spoilt for choice regarding this particular "rare" wheel now, are we!!

On a slightly different note, I think the MWS 12" version is very "wrong" looking. Which is a shame as if they had got this one right it would I am sure have been a excellent seller, being the only current offering in this size. I can only assume that the reason the 10" looks correct & the 12" looks wrong is to some extent due to the fact that they didn't have a correct 12" wheel to copy

Finally, although I sympathise with the odd person who has bought MS 10" rosepetals & now thinks that they could have saved a few quid by buying MWS if only they had a time machine. It strikes me as a bit rich blaming MS for this.

[mab01uk]

They certainly look pretty yummy. I'd be VERY interested to know though how the tyre fitting goes.

I have a set of 10" MWS wheels that my tyre fitter gave up on after nearly wrecking his machine & destroying a new A032.

#

We had the sa'e problems fitting tyres to MWS wheels - in the end we sent one back to them to have a tyre fitted, which they did, and a short while later it bulged - the steel wires had broken!

The previous tyre fitting problem on some 10" MWS wheels (Minilite style) was caused by the tyre fitting 'well' being almost central in the 6" rim width rather than offset to the side, making it almost impossible to fit a tyre without damaging it. Not sure if the MWS tooling for the casting was corrected for later batches of the rims from China.
http://www.theminiforum.co.uk/forums/in ... opic=94463

[Vegard]

I don't care how "wrong" the 12" wheels are, they are nice wheels. Shame about the width again...

[GPBK]

Hello everyone, first time posting. I've read with interest the thread on Rose Petal replicas. I am one of those who would very much like to find an original set of 12" rims for the restoration of one of NZ's most successful racing Minis.

This car had one of two sets brought down to NZ in 1970, the other being on the Arden Poole car recently restored. Since finding an original set in any condition is both highly unlikely and likely highly expensive I opted to try and source a set of repros out of Japan since it appeared that this was the next best option. I managed to find 3 Black and one Silver, all unused.

I can say that while they appear to be a well made rim and resemble reasonably closely the originals they are different in both width and in the shape of the spokes in particular, not as 'meaty' for want of a better word. They were made by Works Wheels ( apparently no longer available ) and I wouldn't mind betting one of these served as a pattern for the MWS wheels mentioned in this thread which look very similar. To my eye the silver tends to highlight the difference more than the black. I've attached a couple of photos. Hope that is of some interest.

[GPBK]

Ooops, rookie mistake.

Files too big, try again ...

[Sean1380]

I must admit, i am a 10" fan, but the silver 12's are growing on me, BUT like Vegard, if only they were a bit wider.

6x12 with a wee bit of a dish.

[GPBK]

Works made a 6" but to me they looked a little less like the original than the 5.5, spokes look shorter, still nice though. Everyone I tried had no stock.

See here.

http://translate.google.com/translate?j ... ml&act=url

[Austin Costin]

Hi Greame

Nice to see you have joined the MK1.

Not wanting to put you on the spot or anything but I think its fair to point out that Greames dad Barry Phillips was a NZ legend in mini racing and also the owner of the Equipe Arden S and many other very successful racing mini's, like the one that Greame is currently restoring.

[GPBK]

Thanks for the Welcome. Been lurking in the shadows for a while but didn't feel I had anything of great value to contribute until I saw this thread. I'll drop you a line soon.

[mk1]

I hadn't planned on commenting on this further, but I have been contacted by a couple of members who asked me about the comment I previously made about being puzzled.

Well here goes, I ordered 2 MWS Rosepetals to see what they were like & to use as spares. These arrived very promptly but to my amazement they arrived in Minispares boxes & were obviously Minispares wheels! I spoke to Chris Brown the MD of MWS about this & he was happy to explain that they bought 4 Minispares Rosepetals to copy, used 2 of them & sold me the spares as I only needed 2. He also sent me a further 2 to evaluate.

It was this second that I based my last comments on.

[Prooij]

Hi there,

Is 12"x6J delivered as an original size for rose petal wheels?

Yesterday I saw 3 of them for sale, but never knew they have existed (original)...

Regards,

Peter

[UHR850]

Well now we have to wait for the 6x13inch.

[Austin Costin]

13" rose petals have been available for years, Vortz.

[Prooij]

http://www.marktplaats.nl/a/auto-onderd ... ousPage=lr

Second picture, original ones.

[Nevsmini]

I don't know how i missed this tread until now . I bought a set of MWS rosepetals and i found no problem with the quality of the wheel. Tyre fitted with no problems, the car drove well on them. The only criticism i might have is the lacquer is not as good as the mini spares wheels. Alot of £ for better lacquer in my opinion. Anyway neither of the copys come close to the originals. Below is a photo of Original magnesium rosepetals on my Tweed grey 970.