bonutz

I have an old schwinn collegiate that needs a new rear wheelset, and it is the kind where the gear shifts inside the hub. I don't know if it is a sturmey archer, but my understanding is that most from the 60's/70's were? How easy are wheelsets like this to come by? I havent had luck in the past with ebay.

Scooper

You say you need a wheelset, but are both the rim and the 3-speed hub unserviceable?

If you only need one or the other, it might be easier to look for just the bad part and rebuild the wheel. I notice Cyclart has a 36 hole S-A 3-speed hub on eBay for $30.00 https://cgi.ebay.com/36h-AW-69-3-spee...QQcmdZViewItem.

spider-man

If the hubs are good, definitely just rebuild with new rims and spokes. If you need new hubs, try your local co-op. I got a Sturmey Archer three-speed hub for $3 at mine.

If you don't know how to build wheels, either take this as an opportunity to learn how or have your LBS do it.

I built a wheelset recently using the original Sturmey Archer hubs for a Raleigh Sports three-speed. The new rims are 700c alloy, and they work terrific.

Everest

If you really cant find one let me know, my local bike shop has SA for 15 and I should have the rims and spokes to build you one.

bikemeister

I can't remember the dealer off-hand, but I just (within last week) saw some guy with overflowing BOXES of 3-speed hubs for sale on ebay.

bonutz

You're right, I just don't know how to build up wheels. I'm pretty positive the hub is good. When I talked to my LBS a year ago, they said it would be more economical to find a brand new wheel. How much SHOULD they be charging me to track down a rim and rebuild it?

cudak888 

Typical bike shop "That's old. We can't do anything for it" attitude.


Well, I seriously doubt that any shop will track down an original rim for you - that's something you usually do yourself, on eBay, then you present the shop with your new rim/hub, and have them lace it with stainless spokes.

One thing though, you have yet to detail to us exactly what is wrong with your wheel. Is the hub malfunctioning? Or is the rim damaged? Or both? Let us know, and we'll be able to better advise you.

-Kurt

bonutz

Sorry. The rim is bent real bad. Someone in her (it's a friend's bike) apartment building ran over it with their car. That's the only thing we can come up with, other than someone with some serious anger managment issues taking a baseball bat to the damn thing.


The guy who I was talking to is even the resident schwinn restoration guy...

The bike shops in my town all blow, we have one hole in the wall place run by a really knowledgable guy who can be really reasonable in terms of prices and such (back when I knew nothing about bikes, I took him a wheel I needed trued that the other shop said I'd need replaced, possibly to tske advantage of my ignorance and put it on another bike, but this guy trued it for me 10 bucks) unfortunately he's an unbearable condehascending ass.

Back to the point. Thie hub should be fine, I put it on a makeshift stand and disconnected the brakes/took off the fender to get the chain going and see if it would shift and it does. I am just really unschooled about wheels. Were I to look on ebay, what do I need to know besides the size of the wheen and spoke count? Do I need to find out what particular hub it is as I know they didn't just make one?

I appreciate everyone's help.

cudak888 

Looks like you're in luck. If the spokes haven't snapped, and if the hub is intact, all you need to do is locate another rim (check the rim for stamping "Schwinn Tubular S-6 or S-7" - would also help if you could relay the numerical size of the tire), and simply re-lace the original hub into the new rim.

...for either Schwinn Stingrays/Krates or balloon-tire bikes, I'd put a guess. Probably the former, for more often then not, the Krate folks don't give a rat's @$$ about anything that doesn't have a banana seat and 20" wheels on it. I'm not saying all of them, but there's an odd number of unfriendly folk in that sector of the hobby.


Well, here's my suggestion: After you let me know what type of rim it is (or if the hub is damaged as well), I'll try to put you in contact with someone who'll have the original for sale. Once you recieve the replacment rim, simply go to the LBS of choice (or 'no-choice') and have them re-lace the rim.

Better yet, if you want to save money, and to avoid possible LBS morons saying that they can't re-lace it, re-lace it yourself, then take it to the shop for them to do the final truing.

By the way, re-lacing is not hard. Get a spoke wrench (preferably the cheap round kind that accepts many spoke gauges), but the rims up next to each other, unscrew one of the spokes next to the valve hole, screw it into the corrisponding hole on the new rim, and repeat until all 36 spokes are laced in the new rim. You don't even have to worry about crossing the spokes right if you do it via this method.


Well, to find a rim, specifically one of these Schwinn rims, you need the size moulded into the side of the tire. If you don't have that, the model name of the bike should suffice in cluing us to the correct wheel.

The important bit, however, is that the flanges on the hub for the ends of the spokes are not bent or cracked, for if they are, you should start tracking down a complete wheel.

P.S.: The model of hub should be stamped on the hub. Either AW for the freewheeling model, or S3C for the 3-speed + coasterbrake model.

Take care,

-Kurt