Originally Posted by
wrk101
Helicomatic is a big turn off. In my experience, the best way to get value out of spare wheels is to put them on a bike, build up a frameset, and sell the finished product. Or use them to upgrade a bike that originally came with steel rims, and sell the finished bike. Or use them as trade bait, trade them for something you need.
If you have a set to sell, I would not sell the individual wheel, as then the front wheel becomes an "orphan" with even less value.
Freewheel and skewer are probably worth that $20 price tag.
Yes Helicomatics earned a clouded reputation as it did not really solve enough problems to make them worth it, specially if it reulted in less than proper bering sizes that made the hub bearings wear out prematurely (mine did). Not entirely unusable for most but certainly not bullet-proof in any way. but surprisingly I have noticed some resurgence in intrest on the Helicomatics in the second hand market, thus a little bit of a rise in the market price on the Helicomatic, specially NOS sets, but I suspect that it's more of people trying to replace what they had already and not really knowing that they can do much better with a more standard design like the Maillard 700 hubset in the long run.
JMO.
Chombi