vintagerando

I have a number of wheel sets from the 1970s. Most are marked "Normandy" and they are laced, most of them, to Weinmann rims. I don't have a use for them. Ebay values are all over the place. I also noticed it seems that there are a greater number of hubs for sale versus the hub with the rim still attached. Due to the age of these wheels, most have rusted spokes. Should I be cutting these free of the old wheels and selling just the hubs? I have a concave set of Weinmann's I believe are sought after, wheel and hub together. But not sure about the other rims.
I guess I am asking, what is there a market for? It seems predominately just the hubs. Does anyone have experience selling these items?

Senior Ryder 00 

Most sellers cut the spokes and toss the rim because both are trashed, rusty spokes, bent rim, etc. Also, wheels can be expensive to ship. The hubs have some value particularly if the races and cones are in good shape. The hubs laced to the concave rims should be sold complete.

wrk101

Shipping hubs can cost about $5, shipping wheels can cost about $35. Many wheels complete don't bring much more than hubs. Much easier to polish hubs when they are unlaced. Shiny and polished = higher prices. Don't have to worry about whether the wheel is true, minor rim damage, etc.

In addition, as a complete wheel, rims can show a lot of wear. Meanwhile, a polished hub set can look like NOS. The last ones I delaced and sold, complete looked like total crap. Hubs polished looked terrific and internally were spotless.

Regardless, you need to open them up, verify cups and cones are good, document with pictures, and rebuild.

+150,000 to below: Asking prices or SOLD prices? People can ask any price they want for an item on eBay, its what stuff sells for that matters. Then separate out NOS items.

oddjob2

Are you looking only at ebay sold transactions as opposed to asking prices?

daf1009

I have had much more success in selling just the hubs...and...as others stated, you get almost as much, with a lot less hassle. Shipping whole wheels often costs as much as shipping a frame! Also, finding good boxes to ship a wheelset in is quite difficult...most boxes I find are for just one wheel...

zukahn1 

As said you well get about as much for the hubs as the whole wheels. Yet there isn't much value in rough looking basic used wheels nicely cleaned up 50-70 a set locally and no real market on ebay. If you take the wheels apart and clean up the hubs and everything is good you will get around 25-35 a peice with skewers if there shiny nice with scewer's on ebay. Also you can get about $20-25 for a nice vintage freewheel cleaned up maybe a bit more if it is a pro level Regina or Suntour.

FastJake

Do cut out the rusty spokes. You can sell the rims and hubs separately. MAKE SURE YOU REMOVE THE FREEWHEEL before cutting out the spokes. Otherwise you will never get the freewheel off.

vintagerando

Yes, I looked at sold listings. I guess I am having a problem distinguishing between hub make/model. The listing will say Normandy/Maillard sold $40 and another with same description (same shipping $) sold $15. They both appear to be same vintage, condition, shipping cost, etc, but one sells for twice the cost. Maybe different skewers? I will have to look closer.

zukahn1 

This is pretty common you often see huge variances in sold price of vintage parts the are the same of 50% or more. Usually when figuring a value don't pay attention to the out liars the execptionaly high or low prices

juvela

might be a good idea to check if the Maeda Pro-Compe freewheel has the same thread as the Normandy/Maillard hub on which it is mounted. metric thread Maedas have an "M" stamped on the innermost ring of the freewheel body. if the hub exhibits a groove just inboard of the freewheel threads it is BSC/ISO thread. if that area is smooth it is Metric/"French" thread.

vintagerando

why would i check this?

mparker326

Vintage Normandy hubs aren't worth much. They were on practically every bike boom bike. I doubt it would be worth your effort to cut all the spokes, shine up the hubs and overhaul them. You might get $20 for both and then ebay takes 15%.

Metric french threaded hubs might be worth something as might the freewheel due to rareness.

I went opposite approach and found frame donors at the coop and put my spare wheels on those bike frames. I was able to sell those bikes at a decent price on CL.

desconhecido 

Poked around a little on the USPS site today and it looks like the problem with shipping wheels is that the girth added to the length is likely to be more than 84 inches and if it is, than the package is charged as if it weighs 20#. I can't see any way to get that down to less than 84" with a wheel.

But, if you can fit the rims into a box that's 26" X 26" X 3", you can get them mailed for what the package weighs. Might be worth it to ship the rims in separate boxes to get under 3", for sure if your box is a little more than 26" square.

I agree with those that are not great lovers of ordinary Normandy hubs. They're ok and shine up nice. But, the Normandy Competition appear to be pretty decent, though not nearly as common.

juvela

so that you know what you have; whether for re-use or for sale.

vintagerando

I would like to learn to identify the freewheel, I just don't follow what you are writing. Do you mean on the smallest cog?

juvela

here is one where it is fully written out. more commonly there is just an "M."



absence of a marking means it is BSC/ISO.

ThermionicScott 

Big +1!