Sharman Wheels withdrawn

You would think that they would start off by mentioning this fact on their web site. At the very least it ought to prevent them wasting time turning away orders.

Kevin Martin

Kevin Martin said the following on 11/01/2006 13:57:

They will be downing the website, although I do agree that there should be an announcement there *NOW*.

Seems a good time to repeat a request I made on P4_talk - anyone got a pair of Sharman's 7'9" plain drivers for P4 available?

responsibly - my

Hmm, they "are withdrawing from the marketplace for between 6 and 9 months due to severe supply problems 'within an associate company'.", what, all there range?

I hope what I'm thinking is well wrong.... :~(

:::Jerry:::: said the following on 11/01/2006 14:26:

If you're thinking what I think you're thinking, I think you're wrong :-) Trouble is, you never know what may really be going on, and we shouldn't really speculate here. When I get home, I will OCR the announcement and post it so everyone else can see what we're on about.

Yes, the original message from Sharman Wheels did indeed say that the website would be suitably edited, and I rather assumed that this had already happened; clearly it hasn't yet, so no doubt more people will send in orders and be disappointed as I was.

Those of us who remember the first incarnation of Sharman Wheels, sold from Mike's 'hot-dog stand' during exhibitions to the utter fury of the strange people running Studiolith, will be hoping that the range does return soon; I have better things to do with my scarce modelling time than making wheels from scratch ;-(

John M Hughes West and Wales Web at

As promised, following is the complete text of the announcement,so everyone else can see what we're talking about, and come to their own conclusions.

Sharman Wheels P.O.Box 8238, Chelmsford, Essex, CM1 7WY January 1st 2006 Dear Customer,

As you are probably aware Sharman Wheels have been experiencing some difficulty in supply, particularly, over the last 6 months or so.

This has been caused due to severe problems, that were beyond our control, within an associate company.

This has unfortunately meant that 95% of our time and effort has been directed at getting this associate back up and running, consequently we have almost `run out' of stock and as many of you may have noticed this is helping neither you or us.

We have therefore taken the decision to withdraw Sharman Wheels from the market place for a period of between 6 and 9 months, to allow us the time to build up stocks.

The website will be taken off line for rebuilding and will be uploaded again once we can supply wheels.

Please therefore find enclosed your returned order together with your cheque/ card details

To be fair, although Sharman wheels are the 'Rolls-Royce' 4mm scale wheels, there are other sources available which are up to 'Bentley' standards IYSWIM.

:::Jerry:::: said the following on 11/01/2006 17:20:

Not for 7'9" plain drivers for a Midland Spinner there aren't, certainly not in P4 :-(

Actually, I would consider Ultrascale the Rolls Royce of wheels (shame they don't use steel tyres), with Alan Gibson and Sharman at the Bentley level.

Thinking about it, the Exactoscale wheel system must be the absolute tops.

absolute tops.

Things might have changed since I last modelled in P4 but you are quite correct, assuming that one was actually able to get your hands on them! The words teeth and hens always came to mind...

":::Jerry::::" wrote

Providing you don't mind a very long wait (many months I'm regularly told).

John.

The great virtue of the Sharman wheels is that they were 'available' in the sense that they existed for almost any reasonable prototype one might want to model (a model of Locomotion No 1 might be difficult!) even if they weren't always available in the sense of being there on the counter at any particular moment - at least you could order before you actually needed them and expect them to appear at some point.

They aren't completely free of problems (I've had a few wobbly ones, for instance, and the Ultrascale wheels have IMO a better crackpin system) but the range has always been fantastic.

Certainly a lot of modelling will become a lot more difficult if the current production problems don't get solved reasonably soon. So here's hoping!

John M Hughes West and Wales Web at

John Turner said the following on 12/01/2006 10:15:

I know Ultrascale can be 16 weeks, but I *believe* Exactoscale ones are available readily. Just a smaller range though. The news owners of Exactoscale are working hard to keep the products they advertise available, which is partly why they've reduced the overall range of products they sell.

"Paul Boyd" wrote

Sorry, I read Ultrascale rather than Exactoscale - need to change my glasses I think! :-(

John.

So did I, perhaps we could get bulk discount from Specsavers! :~(

On 12/01/2006 10:22, snipped-for-privacy@aol.com said,

I did notice a very slight reduction in quality with the new owners, but at least you could get them, unlike when Steve Hodgson (I think it was) owned the brand. Wobbly wheels are usually down to the way they are put on the axles, unless you mean they are not concentric. I do wish the manufacturers would agree on whether to use M1 or 14BA threads for their crankpins - it would make mix'n'match much easier!

Like converting my Midland Spinner to P4, where I need 7'9" plain drivers. If I mention it often enough, perhaps someone who has a spare pair in P4 will take pity on me!

And for those that want "Ford" wheels, even those are getting hard to come by, as Markits are not replacing the worn out Romford tooling in the immediate future. Many of the 14/15/16mm wheels are pretty much unavailable now - but I do know one trader who has a secret stash!

Cheers, Mick

scale

'Bentley'

unavailable

Ford wheels? Surely you mean Lada [1] !

[1] it gets you there, it can even operate where on other will, as long as you're not after the looks - unless they are of derision....

I'd got the impression that a 'new' range of Romfords was now available

- I've seen some finished in black and without the useless vestigial integral balance-weights, and they do look like new tooling.

Regarding the odd set of wobbly Sharman wheels, I've certainly had the odd one which hasn't been quite concentric (a fact which usually doesn't show up until I test the chassis under power), so now I generally buy one axle's-worth more than I actually need. As a result I've built up a collection of unused wheels over the years which have proved very useful from time to time. Sadly I don't have a P4 set for a Midland Spinner!

John M Hughes West and Wales Web at

On 13/01/2006 10:13, snipped-for-privacy@aol.com said,

Bug*er!!