Thoughts on 27 inch wheels

Almost all the old ten-speeds I work on come with, or are set up for, 27 inch wheels.  Since wheel building is not a skill I have acquired, yet, I have two choices when it comes to wheel-sets 1) work with the existing wheel-set or 2) purchase a new wheel-set.

New WheelMaster wheel from Amazon

The good news is that original 27 inch wheels on old 10 speeds, built with steel/chromed parts, are pretty bullet proof and in combination with most of them spending long periods hung up in a garage/shed/barn/basement means they are probably in decent shape.  This means that with some TLC they can re-used.  While I am no wheel smith I have learned some skills to put an old wheel back into service.  My usual process is to;

• Open up hubs and clean axle, bearings and races.  (replace bearings as needed)
• clean up rims and spokes -remove surface rust and any grime on braking surface
• Grease and adjust hubs - no slop-no grind as my friend Hugh says
• Drop of oil (I use 3-in-1) on the joint between the spoke nipple and spoke to prevent them freezing up
• Put wheel in truing stand to check for true and adjust as needed

The steps above also will reveal if a wheel has any problems that might have escaped your first look.  I use Zinn and the art of Road bike maintenance as my basis for this work.

The exception to the rule of re-using the existing wheel-set is if a wheel has rust issues, I am not talking about surface rust on the rims I mean deep rust on the inside of the rim (if water has collected there) or on the spokes/spoke nipples.  If you do have rust issues then a new set of wheels is a good idea.  There are pros and cons to going the new route;

Pros

• shiny and new
• allow rims, alloy hubs, stainless spokes make the wheel lighter and more rust proof than the original steel wheels
• factory trued
• new parts haven't endured the stresses of 30 or 40 years of use
• not too expensive

Cons

• Tend to come with hubs adjusted waaaay too tight even a novice could tell that they are tight and not spinning smooth
• They are miserly with the grease
• added cost to the rebuild

With new wheels I always plan that I will need to open up the hubs to add grease, which is fine because I would have had to adjust them anyway.  Two birds with one cone wrench.  Since the bike I am working for my Niece had no wheels at all I bought new ones for the her campus bike project.  And of course the hubs on both wheels were too tight and additional grease was needed.  SOP.

Hub tools

And after a little extra work and some new rubber I ended up with well greased and adjusted new wheels for my nieces campus bike project.

new wheels and rubber and some other goodies

Ride.Smile.Repeat