Old 04-17-21 | 01:49 PM
  #8  
27inch
vintage rider
5 Anniversary
 
Joined: Jan 2018
Posts: 113
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Bikes: 1937 Roadmaster, 1972 Schwinn Typhoon, 1972 Raleigh Sports

Your likely to spend the same amount or more whether you mail order new rims and pay for shipping, vs. buying a set locally

I've had several Letour and Traveler models over the years, most Travelers came with steel wheels, the plain Letour came with nutted hubs and alloy rims, later models got a front Q/R axle. The hubs at first were steel, then when the Super Letour came out they got the large flange "Schwinn Approved" alloy hubs with a Q/R axle up front.
I've converted the older hubs over to Q/R by simply changing the axle and cones. All of the Letour models I've owned over the years had Araya w/o rims.
So that $60 pair is likely a dead match for your bike.
Its been kind of a feeding frenzy lately when it comes to bikes and bike parts.
Last summer I sold off a whole bunch of my extra wheelsets, none went for under $120. I like to keep a few new old stock wheelsets around just in case. I just laced up a pair of new old stock Araya rims on Shimano h/f hubs with DT Stainless spokes for just over $290 in cost. (I paid $50 each for the rims, I had a shop in Philly cut and thread the spokes for me at $2 each, and the two hubs cost me $50. It was still less than what I sold a similar set for last summer.
Bike parts prices have shot way up lately and the parts for these old bikes are getting scarce. Its been 28 years since they made any version of that rim, bike shops don't stock parts, and they haven't made the H/F hubs since the late 70's. The two hubs I bought were new in the package Shimano 333 with Q/R axles and skewers. All of this is not counting the gas to drive to Philly to get the spokes or my time putting the wheels together. Then I bought two new tires and tubes for them, a set of Michelin 27x1 1/4" tires and two Kenda tubes for another $88 The tires were $31 each, the tubes were $10 each plus sales tax. They were the only decent 27" tire I could find in stock anywhere. (I actually bought four pairs to have them in the future because several shops told me they were not making them anymore).

A friend of mine who works at a Dick's store said they sold out of bikes back in June of last year and have only had a small trickle of new stock since then, and when something comes in, its gone in minutes. He said a few buyers were buying everything and taking it up to NY to resell. They since put a one bike limit, and a two tire limit in place.
I had one buyer on CL show up and buy 12 pair of wheels I had, he even talked me out of a few I didn't really want to sell but cash talks.
He left me with some new found storage space a big chunk of cash in my pocket.

Its slowed down a bit lately but I'd figure those wheels on CL you posted won't be there for long.
Have you contacted the seller to see if he even still has them?
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