treebound 

What do some of you do with old wheels that you don't need? I've accumulated a variety of a bunch of wheels from various project and parts bikes. Some have come in handy if I get a bike that needs one or if a grandkid tacos a wheel. I've got 20", 24", 26", 27", some smaller, some road, some MTB, 5speed/6speed/7speed/1speed, most are steel, a few alloy.

I'm temped to run a CL ad, but I'd probably be better off just donating them to a co-op (limited hours so hard to get there when they're open), or maybe the pay-it-forward thread (shipping would be a hassle and probably not worth it). I'm about to just throw 90% of them in the trailer and taking them to the scrap yard, except that a lot of them are usable and I don't like throwing away good parts if someone can use them.

Quantity is somewhere north of 50, they're everywhere, in the garage, in the basement, in the car, aaaiiiieeeerrrgehhhhh they're taking over, Invasion Of The Wheels From Mars ....

Sorry for the rant, just looking for any options or just an affirmation on scrapping them. Tell me it's okay and they'll be in the trailer before dark, tell me your local and will take them and I'll buy you a soda.

C&V relativity: the wheels are in the way of my working on my C&V keeper bikes.

Is anybody up for aa game of rim toss**********

Thanks for any help.

Mos6502

Weld them together, make some yard art.

wrk101

Keep the alloy rims, fire sale or toss the rest.

I came across a guy selling his bicycle part collection (he was moving). He had a large stack of wheels (at least 100). But he only kept the steel rims!! Why? Because he cut up all of the alloy rims and sold them as scrap..... I ended up getting six alloy wheels from him (that hadn't been cut up yet), plus a variety of other small parts.

On the steel wheels, if you have Schwinn chrome wheels, you could probably sell them by the set. People like the Schwinn parts, even the low end stuff.

Myself, I have a handful of steel wheels that I will be donating. Not worth the hassle of selling them.

I would remove any decent freewheels first, as they are easy to reuse/sell/ship.

Bianchigirll 

I don't generally have old wheels lying around, but I do keep a few old tubular rims around for 'stretching' or storing tubulars on, the rest get the hub stripped out for parts/reuse and the rim tossed.

do any of those wheels have a 32h high flange front hub? most anything QR is fine, i am looking for one for a 'street' wheel for my MTB

raverson

Last fall I responded to a local CL ad for a guy with a garage full of bike parts that was going to scrap them unless someone came and hauled them away. I responded with my pickup and took as much as it could hold. An amazing amount of usable small parts, close to 300 lbs. of parts that were scrapped and about 60 wheels.

Most are an assortment of bike boom Schwinn and French steel wheels. All of them had various issues, yet alot of the hubs are Schwinn Approved Normandy and regular Normandy hubs that are worth saving. As time allows I plan to sort through each wheel and salvage what is usable including any rims, spokes and nipples.

I agree, old wheels are the most awkward component to store efficiently and take up alot of space.

prettyshady

I sell alot of bike parts and frames, but for some reason have not had luck selling wheelsets, hubs or rims.

So I currently I have just pile the useable ones up. The bad wheels and steel rims get trashed, but there is still a large disorganised pile of them.

cyclotoine

I recently cut up a whole bunch of wheels (scrap aluminum prices aren't great but you don't get anything for steel). Most of them were unusable... but unless the steel wheel is immaculate and has an alloy hub I toss 'em. I say put a free ad on CL... wait a week... then take them to the scrap yard. You'll feel a lot better once you do. I recently did a scrap metal clean up and just started digging into the bike junk boxes (where I keep usable parts of no value) and started tossing cheep cranks, kickstands and handlebars... probably should have tossed more than I did, it felt good to do it and still hardly put a dent into the accumulations.

randyjawa 

A lot of old Ten Speed wheels are pretty much junk. Those that are not, the higher end stuff, I tend to strip for hubs, spokes(if stainless steel) and rims, if not pooched. This takes up a great deal less room and makes for much easier selling. And, you can always put the wheel back together if you ever have to do so. That said...

You might ask the question, why strip good wheels? Well, they are not all that many that are good.

Generally, one or both wheels have either mechanical or cosmetic issues. There is no sense keeping a complete wheel around, if the rim is shot. Or the spokes are corroded. Or the hubs are worn out. Salvage what you can, tuck the good stuff away or sell it, and recapture space in your workshop.

That said, I should get back out to the bicycle pile. I gave away about two dozen Peugeots, Raleighs, Renegades, Nishikis, Sekines, Norcos and who knows what else. The bikes all went to Bicycles for Humanity. I finally have some more room in The Old Shed. But not for long!

The Spring Bicycle Hunt doth fast approach.

CMC SanDiego

I vote for the co-op, it may not be convenient, but if anyone can and will use them, then its worth your time.

that_guy_zach

I gave away all my steel wheels to a local who could use them at some point. A co-op would be a great idea, Anything that does not involve scrap or trashing them.

leftthread

Treebound, maybe the Milwaukee Bicycle Collective? https://bikecollective.org/donate.html
I thought they were in the Third Ward/Walkers Point area, but it says W. Clybourn...

miamijim

Dpending on the wheel I'll:

1. Trash the entire wheel
2. Remove and save the axle then trash the wheel.
3. Remove and save the spokes then trash the hub and rim
4. remove and save the hub then trash the rest

randyjawa 

The Co-op idea might prove worthwhile, in some situations, but I can say, from the receiver's perspective, that junk wheels are just that, junk. At Bicycles for Humanity (B4H), we get about a thousand bicycle a year donated to our endeavor. You cannot imagine how many junk wheels that will produce.

One wheel takes up a lot of space, be it sitting around in your workshop or stuffed into a 40 foot long shipping container. At B4H, we are now completely stripping the wheels for good: hubs, spokes, bearings, rims, axles, spacers, nuts and what ever else a bicycle shop would need in the way of spare wheel parts. These useful (still sound mechanically) parts are boxed and included, in our shipments to Africa. In Africa, those spare parts are like money to a new bicycle shop.

But we still throw out a lot of wheels. By throw out, I mean take to the scrap metal dealer and get the cash for the metal. Steel hubs with corroded or busted spokes, steel rims are automatically passed on to the metal yard, unless in really good shape.

Anyway, I thought that an opinion from a co-op kinda guy might shed a bit of light on the subject.

sailorbenjamin

I bet the coop would come to you. On the other hand, hubs are pretty easy to sell on ebay. I like to keep a variety of spokes around. Once or twice they've been really handy.

EjustE

Put an add on CL asking $5 per wheel, $20 for 5, $35 for 10, with first come first served as far as getting their choice of wheels. They'll be gone in a week.

bikemore 

I sold a few steel wheels in December and January for $5. And I just sold another for $5. So people (at least in Boston) do buy them.
One person even said she was going to make a single speed out of the set. The guy I sold to yesterday came with a truely trashed
wheel. I just took it apart for the hub and spokes.

Around here you see a lot of bikes with tocoed wheels. You would think more people would be interested in replacing them.

treebound 

Thanks for the fresh link to the Bike Collective, I'll have to check their site later from home and wil try to give them a call. I've got a frame to take down to them anyway if I can figure out a time to be there that works for me.

I'm in the process of filling the trailer with steel wheels, alloy stuff I'll set aside for closer consideration.

The yard art would be fun but I need to stay in purge mode in case we have to relocate when the current job ends.

Thanks for the comments.

mickey85

Wanna unload a pair of alloy 700c or 27" wheels?

noglider 

I sometimes harvest the spokes from them for repairs.

Homebrew01

Same problem here. I've got old 1980's tubular race wheels sitting around too. I guees I'll strip them and sell the hubs. Seems a bit of a waste though. The problem is that shipping $$ is a killer for wheels & rims, and I don't live in a big city for much chance of local pickup.

Primitive Don

I just donated a couple decent wheels along with a complete bike (Chicago Schwinn Sprint) and an a--load of usable tires and tubes to Working Bikes Cooperative, which sounds similar to your co-op in Milwaukee. The folks at WBC were delighted to receive such a big stash of tires. Since they've moved into their new larger space, they have HUGE bins full of parts (albeit low end), so I grabbed a couple clean centerpulls, a vintage Suntour MTB 6-speed shifter, and an ancient 5-speed SIS shifter (they do exist). The first guy I talked to tried to charge me $5 each, but his helper only charged me a buck each since I'd made such a large donation.

As for damaged/deteriorated wheels, I have collected them and taken them to a scrapyard a few bucks. But given the gas involved in transporting them, I think i'm just going to start leaving them for the scrap trucks that roam our alleyways. Decent matched sets of steel wheels are kept for future low end bike builds.

Cyclist0383

I keep mine for emergency use, or give them to a friend who needs a wheel do to an accident or whatever.

thenomad

I'll take a set of those 27 or 700s off your hands.

Chombi

I never would have imagined that people would be looking for any steel rims after the 80's. People used to look at steel rims with utter disdain and the horror stories about zero braking in the wet was common. I still remember the dimpled braking surfaces on the steel rims on my brother's then brand new Peugeot P8 and how we scratched our newbe biking heads back then on whether to worry about them or not. The P8 did not last over 6 months with my brother anyway. He graduated away from the "death rims" as quickly as he could find his new replacement Motobecane...........so our next big "problem" was his FFS drivetrain on the new Moto and the craptastically horrid Shimano Adamas Aero gruppo it came with...........Oh, brother!

Chombi

jamesj

im looking for a 27" front schwinn wheel...
mine is bend....