New wheels on an old bike?

You might consider replacing the axles with hollow ones and Q/D's. While
you are doing this repack the bearings, true the wheels and tension the
spokes. Replace the old tires with new 27" tires, and you should be in
good shape.

HTH,
EJ in NJ

Bill Henry wrote:
I bought this old-school Takara road bike recently and have been fixing
it up to the best of my ability. All the little problems and things
that needed fixing were kind of charming until I came to the wheels, and
the back wheel in particular. Here are some of the problems:

1) Some spokes are looser than others have have a different "tone" when
plucked. Not a great sign, as I understand it.

2) They're 27" rims, which makes finding tires a little more difficult,
though not impossible. However, as the years progress, finding tires
may be more and more difficult.

3) The hubs are Joytech, a brand I'd never heard of and upon a quick
inspection need a good strip and lube.

4) To top it all off, the rear wheel is a bolt-in style and doesn't have
quick release levers. It is a royal PITA to remove and replace, which I
have been doing a lot lately.

5) Oh yeah, and the tires are almost shot.

I see two options he

1) Replace the tires and tune up the spokes. Strip and clean and
re-lube the hubs. And try to deal with the bolt-in wheels as best I can.

OR

2) Just buy all new everything. That would mean going to 700c wheels
most likely, with matching tires. I hope that doing so wouldn't be a
problem with my current brakes (SunTour Cyclone). They have plenty of
clearance, but if the 700c wheels are SHORTER than the 27", it's
possible the brake pads won't reach the rims. They're at their lowest
position now, and that just barely can reach the rims and clear the tire.

That's about it. I'm weighing my options here but right now am leaning
toward the whole new wheel purchase.

Meh, I'd grab a cheap set of wheels from nashbar or similar. You can
usually find something servicable like a mavic/sora set for a hundred
clams or so. They always need to be retrued, but for the price, so
what.

If and when you get a modern bike, you can throw some different rubber
on them and have a spare set for different conditions.

Cold setting the frame isn't really necessary, just spring it apart. If
you do want to spread it, Sheldon's string and 2x4 method works great
and will greatly annoy any engineers in the room.

On Sun, 09 Oct 2005 19:04:45 -0700, Bill Henry wrote:

2) They're 27" rims, which makes finding tires a little more difficult,
though not impossible. However, as the years progress, finding tires
may be more and more difficult.

True


3) The hubs are Joytech, a brand I'd never heard of and upon a quick
inspection need a good strip and lube.

Probably not worth the trouble.


2) Just buy all new everything. That would mean going to 700c wheels
most likely, with matching tires. I hope that doing so wouldn't be a
problem with my current brakes (SunTour Cyclone). They have plenty of
clearance, but if the 700c wheels are SHORTER than the 27", it's
possible the brake pads won't reach the rims. They're at their lowest
position now, and that just barely can reach the rims and clear the tire.

Then you will have trouble, since 700c rims have the braking surface 4mm
below where the 27" rims would. You'd need to find long-reach brakes.
Not easy, but not impossible. Plus, after that you could put wider
tires, and fenders, on the bike.

--

David L. Johnson

__o | Enron's slogan: Respect, Communication, Integrity, and
_`\(,_ | Excellence.
(_)/ (_) |

Most brakes on 27" bikes *are* long reach, and I've yet to encounter a
set that didn't have room to drop them a couple mm. You can always file
the slots a bit (at your own small risk).

And yes, you do get marvelous fender/tire clearance when switching to
700c, my old racer does 28mm/fender with room to spare, or I can fit
cxtires up to around 35mm.

maxo wrote:
Most brakes on 27" bikes *are* long reach, and I've yet to encounter a
set that didn't have room to drop them a couple mm. You can always file
the slots a bit (at your own small risk).

And yes, you do get marvelous fender/tire clearance when switching to
700c, my old racer does 28mm/fender with room to spare, or I can fit
cxtires up to around 35mm.

Re-read the OP's first message:

" it's possible the brake pads won't reach the rims. They're at their
lowest
position now, and that just barely can reach the rims and clear the
tire."

He barely has enough reach now, the additional 4mm is not going to
happen without filing the slots the way it sounds. Or he could look
for longer reach brakes. I agree extra clearance is a good thing :-)

- rick

Hmm, I've always encountered that even if they look like they're at the
lowest position, they almost always plop down 2mm anyway. :P Weird.

A set of long reach Tektros, if they're long enough, are a cheap and
cheerful solution.

http://www.lickbike.com/productpage.aspx?PART_NUM_SUB='1314-00'

57mm reach.

Replace the crap stock pads immediately.

On Sun, 09 Oct 2005 19:04:45 -0700, Bill Henry
wrote:

2) Just buy all new everything. That would mean going to 700c wheels
most likely, with matching tires. I hope that doing so wouldn't be a
problem with my current brakes (SunTour Cyclone). They have plenty of
clearance, but if the 700c wheels are SHORTER than the 27", it's
possible the brake pads won't reach the rims. They're at their lowest
position now, and that just barely can reach the rims and clear the tire.

700C wheels have 622 mm rims whereas 27" is 630 mm rims. In other words,
the braking surface will move centerward by 4 mm and your brakes won't
cope.

Jasper