Originally Posted by
mihlbach
Those wheels look pretty low end. I'm sure they'll work, but they are going to be heavy, and the bearings are probably not going to be very smooth or last very long. Depending on how well the spokes are tensioned, they may go out of true rather quickly. Finally, I don't have high hopes for the cog or the hub threads.
However, they cost very little, so you have little to loose. At the very least, I would replace those junky locking nuts for some real track nuts, and have a shop give the spoke tension a once-over.
These comments apply to both wheelsets.
Whats your budget?
Because this is my first fixed gear project, I'm not sure where to set my budget. This bike won't get a ton of use (unless I end up loving the outcome...which I just might), but I don't still don't want to put crap wheels on it. I live in Nashville (where just about everyone lives in the suburbs), so this won't be a commuter bike. It will either be an afternooner or a weekender.
So far, I've spent a whopping $40-50 on the project. Luckily, several people in my family are deep into restoring cars, so I've had a lot of resources available for free. I bought the bike for $30, and the other 10-20 was spent on sand for the sandblaster, sandpaper and primer. Because I've spent so little so far, I didn't want to spend 150% more for the wheels than I did for the bike.