What are these things?
 

I received a 27" alloy wheelset in the mail today, and on the front rim these silver steel things were on it, between the cones & nuts, any clue of their purpose? Never saw such a thing before. I believe the wheelset came off a mid 80s schwinn lightweight, possibly a Le Tour.

They're wheel retainers. They snap on to screw heads on the insides of each fork leg. It's a Schwinn thing.

Yup - commonly referred to as "lawyer tabs".

That's what keeps your wheel from falling off after you incorrectly install it. Ingenious, aren't they?

Oh thanks, I was thinking it was something like that.. but by the size of em I thought "who knows".. All the bikes ive ever came across with such a feature had versions which looked and acted as a washer with a little tab on the end which slid into a lil cut out in the wheel drop out.

Those washer tab things suck ass. I like the schwinn dealies much more. With the tabs you have to loosen the nuts almost all the way off to get the tabs out of the slots, grrrrr.