Hmmm......it looks like I will be resurrecting this thread one more time.
A buddy of mine is looking for a rear wheel for his 1979 Canadian-made Raleigh Grand Prix that he recently acquired.
The bike is in pretty good nick EXCEPT someone along the way has replaced the rear steel-rimmed 27 x 1 1/4
wheel with an aluminum-rimmed 700C wheel. The poor GP looks like it's riding uphill when standing still.
The front 27 x 1 1/4 wheel looks like the correct item with a Rigida steel rim dated 1979 and a Normandy hub dated 1-79.
I've exhausted all my local sources trying to find a suitable steel rimmed wheel for him. A big seller of used parts said
I'll be #3 on his list of guys looking for steel-rimmed 27 x 1 1/4 rear wheels !!! Even obscure guys in the loose "network" of
vintage bike guys in Calgary laughed their heads off at my request. Hmmmmm.....I sense a shortage ocurring here.

Now the fun part: I have in my stock of project bikes a 1980 Baycrest men's 10 speed which I posted about
in another thread while trying to identify it. Turns out, it was made in Quebec, Canada by an outfit called
Procycle (and that's a whole 'nother story). A true "department store" bike made for the Hudson's Bay Company group
of stores to cash in on the tail-end of the 10 speed craze. While looking for a suitable wheel for my buddy's GP, I looked
at the Baycrest and, amazingly, it has VERY nice 27 x 1 1/4 steel rimmed wheels with Rigida dimpled rims date coded 1980.......
and 3 piece chromed steel NEW STAR low-flange hubs stamped "Made In France" but no date code.
So it appears that NEW STAR was still in business up to 1980 at least.
Now the question is: do I sacrifice the Baycrest to put his GP back on the road ?? Or go ahead and refurb the
Baycrest and let my buddy scramble around for a rear wheel on his own ?? Decisions, decisions !!!

UPDATE: Well, my buddy Too-Tall Al finally got organized and opened up his garage after getting home from a weekend M/C rally .
We searched through the various spare wheels he has and, lo and behold, there's a rear wheel with chromed steel Rigida rim (no date code)
and a Normandy one piece high flange hub (with no date code). It also had a real almost miniature road race Cyclo 5 cog freewheel on it so
we figured out it must have come from one of the 4 or 5 Peugeot hulks he has hanging around. We tried a Shimano UG 5 cog freewheel on
the wheel to make sure it'll take modern equipment and the Shimano spun on nicely so the hub apparently has modern ISO threading.
It looks like my GP owning buddy will get his back wheel after all and I'll keep my Baycrest intact.......if the OLD works out on this replacement wheel.