Originally Posted by
cny-bikeman
Rebuilding/upgrading a bike is greatly overrated as a way to learn more about maintenance, moreso when it involves a bike with obsolete equipment. You are also way ahead of yourself as far as being ready for such a project, judging by your questions and terminology (the bike is missing the entire wheels, not "tires"). I like alcjphil's advice - overhaul what's there to see if there's any potential for creating a working bike without a big parts investment, and definitely steer clear of steel wheels. They are only useful if one it recreating a classic bike with original equipment.
I understand that I could probably buy a used bike on craigslist for less than I would spend in parts fixing up this bike and I'm ok with that. I haven't started purchasing any parts yet, I just wanted to gather information on how best to proceed given the state of the bike. I am a bit afraid of purchasing parts that will not end up fitting so that is why I posted here first to get the opinions of others more experienced than I am. There have been some great replies which got me thinking about other ways to get things working.
I like the idea of going with used parts so I did some research and I found that we have a bike co-op close by. I'm planning on cleaning up what I have and taking the bike there to work with the volunteers to see if we can find acceptable replacement parts. I like this idea better than purchasing parts online because I can take the bike with me and see if new rims will fit so I don't purchase something that is incorrectly sized.