ACHiPo 

Looking for suggestions to restomod a 70s touring bike with tubeless 700c wheels to replace the 27” road wheels. The tubeless part is optional, but I do want 38mm - 40mm gravel tires, and they need to have 36 spoke holes to pair with vintage Sunshine hubs. I prefer silver, but would consider black with a machined brake surface.

I’ve found a couple options, but they are priced well north of $100 each—doable, but kinda breaks the budget.

I appreciate any suggestions, including replacing the 36h Sunshine hubs with modern 32h QR hubs.

Jeff Wills

If you’re looking for budget-friendly 700C rims, it’s hard to go wrong with Sun CR-18. Easily available in 36-hole and either polished or silver anodized.
I don’t know if these can be made tubeless-compatible.

Piff 

Dt Swiss r460. Wide, tubeless ready, not a boat anchor, and highly regarded despite being lower in cost.

You will have to replace the 36h hubs unfortunately, the highest they manufacture is 32h.

ACHiPo 

Jeff,
Thanks. These indeed look great. It does not look like they are tubeless, however. That maybe an unobtanium combination. Thank you!
Evan

ACHiPo 

Piff,
Thanks. That’s a possibility. I’d like to keep the vintage Japanese Sunshine hubs and have silver rims, but something may have to give.
Evan

Piff 

One of our own is selling a pair of nice quality 32h hubs.

SHIMANO 600 EX hubset HB-6207, 32 hole, 100/127. Skewers and Freewheel 6208 included

ACHiPo 

Thanks for the lead. I need to get the frame and parts in hand to figure out the best way forward.

cyccommute 

Velocity Quill or A23 or A23 OC. They come in silver or polished silver. I’d use the A23 OC for a rear wheel. Carson City Bikeshop has silver A23 for $75 which is a steal. Don’t be too concerned about the narrow width. They work just fine with the width tire you want to use.

ACHiPo 

Looks like they check all the boxes, especially if I can find them for the Carson City Bikeshop price (the listed rims are 32h—I’ll call them to see if I can get a similar price on 36h)

mstateglfr 

Not many options in 36h, rim brake, and tubeless for under $100.
While a couple exist and were mentioned, just drop the tubeless part or the 36h part. It opens up options and you aren't forced into basically one rim.

ACHiPo 

Thanks.

RiddleOfSteel

Pacenti Brevet or H Plus Son TB14 for polished rims that are strong, light/light enough, build beautifully, and look the classic part. Thanks to post-Covid and inflation, a lot of quality-yet-not-expensive stuff is going to be around $100--it's just the reality of new rims these days. Brevets were $90 a few years ago, and can be had for that if a sale is right, but they're in high demand now, and go for $120. 28h, 32h, and 36h drillings. 455g, eyelet'ed, classy, and tubeless ready (aka use tubeless tape for the rim/spoke bed). TB14s, looking at them, are unfortunately not tubeless ready, but they do tick all the other boxes, including being various degrees of less than $100/rim. 36H, eyelet'ed spoke holes, classy as all get out. Dimensionally essentially identical to the Brevets, and about 50g heavier. I personally find them prettier than Brevets because their polish is actually mirror-like vs the Brevet's softer anodized polish/glow.

I have both rims on my bikes right now (amusingly, both on Trek 620s), with my '85 620 running 700x40mm brown wall Donnelly X'Plor gravel tires on TB14s. The TBs are laced to Ultegra 6500 hubs with straight gauge DT Swiss Champion spokes. The 620 rides like a Cadillac, yet is still plenty responsive. 35 PSI front, 40 PSI rear. I really enjoy it.

abdon 

Another plug for Sun CR-18. I built a wheelset with them, they are an amazing bang for the buck with boxed construction and eyelets. The 22mm width puts it square in the middle of the tire size you want.

ACHiPo 

‘Thanks. I like the looks of the Brevet. Unfortunately they don’t seem to come in 36h (plus they are over $100.). The H Son look cool, too, but as you say not tubeless. Something may have to give, although so far the Velocity rims on sale look like they’ll work well if the shop has them in 36h.

repechage

I have ordered from Carson City, transaction went well. A little light on communication but timely.

cyccommute 

Here’s an Aileron in 36 hole for $70. Velocity says this one is tubeless ready as well.

ACHiPo 

Interesting. I can't tell if these are set up for rim brakes?

Thanks.

cyccommute 

D’oh!

That said, I think you may be making too much out of the need for “tubeless ready” rims. Early tubeless set ups used regular rims, regular tires, and duck tape. This article details how to use a regular rim to do tubeless set up. That would open up your range of rims.

ACHiPo 

Agreed. I'm liking my tubeless set up on my other bike (35mm), and figure it'll be even better with 40 mm tires. Will check out the link on converting.

Thanks!

RiddleOfSteel

The Brevets in fact do come in 36H drilling, as I said.



A23's are a well-regarded rim as far as performance, but they are not and have never been an attractive design. The silver versions do come cheapest, but to obtain a polished version is +$50 per rim on their site or simply well over $100 from other vendors. So that's out of the question for you, even if they come tubeless compatible and match the TB14/Brevet external width of 23mm.

Quills are a beautiful rim, but are expensive to start, and even more so if wanting polished (which I'd want if I wanted to pony up for them in the first place).

DT Swiss R460s are a great rim, as suggested, and have a nice profile, too.

Velocity Dyad's are the A23's beefier brother, and come with the touring and tandem spoke drill counts to back it up. Polished ones for just $65 each! Alas, not tubeless compatible as per one of your preferences.

cyccommute 

Eye of the beholder, I guess. The Dyad and A23 are almost an exact match in terms of profile and width and are similar to tons of other rims from other manufactures. I don’t find either one particularly ugly. I’d opt for the A23 just because of the weight. The added weight of the Dyad doesn’t really make much difference in terms of strength and really isn’t needed.

RiddleOfSteel

Eye of the beholder, agreed. I have found that a 23mm external rim deals with really wide tires just fine, and the A23 is more than strong enough to deal with things. I've had up to 48mm (measured 45mm) on rims this wide and the ride was fine. If anything, it's the tire cross-section--in my observed case, the presence of tread lugs at the border of the main tread and the sidewall--that can help or hurt steering feel when pushing tire size beyond the stock size range.

masi61

Velocity Quill rims are slightly higher internal volume than the A23 and just as light. They roll really great when running full tubeless. The lower rolling resistance when running full tubeless is pretty noticeable - as the full tubeless tires are grippy, shock absorbing & fast all at the same time. You can order them in 36 as well. The polished ones are worth the upcharge if you are interested in them having a mirror finish to be showy. Just be aware, if you go that route, they are not clear anodized. This means they are going to be higher maintenance than anodized ones & cost more too. I’ve learned to re-polish mine after riding in the rain without too much drama. I have found that I can polish them to a higher luster & remove water spots or potential corrosion spots or minor scratches (from a tight tubeless bead install for example) when the wheel is removed from the bike & mounted in a truing stand. I use Mother’s Mag Wheel Polish which has a faster cutting abrasive in it compared to the Meguiar’s Cleaner Wax that I do the finish wax with (for some protection from water spots when riding wet roads).

tkamd73 

I dunno, I kind of favor the look of the Velocity A23s on a vintage bike, I’ve been using them on all my builds, since my source of nos Campy 36h rims dried out. Not running tubeless though, and all the rears are OC.
Tim

ACHiPo 

Beautiful. I’d be happy with any of those in my garage or between my legs. Well, maybe not the latter—they’re too big for me and I suspect could be painful.