Its mostly that I've put so much work into it and the original wheels are garbage. I now realize I should have stuck with EA3 wheels but I've already bought the other parts, (rim etc.)

So I bought nice stuff, lets say its 90$ in total. To switch to the other better braking method with crappy parts will be 80$. So since i own the 90$ of stuff, to use the other method its 170$ and im doing this to 2 bikes simultaneously so its 340$.

These bikes have been nothing but headaches.

I don't follow yet. What bikes do you have, and what parts have you bought? If we have a complete inventory, we can make some suggestions. For instance, if you have a place to put the new 559mm rims, you can buy a set of 590mm rims for the Huffy.

We know that he has a Huffy Sportsman - which, hopefully, is the Raleigh-manufactured variant - and that he has a pair of new 559mm rims.

-Kurt

My girl and I own 2 road bikes and these 2 bikes im fixing, I have the 40h 559 rims, tires and spokes. One of the bikes is a real MTB so it should be fine. I have access to lots of other things (usually crappy) via my co-op.

I just tried the brakes currently on the bike and they do work with the 559 wheels... well they reach anyways. I think... apparently the axle is too thick for the fork but it looks like they'll fit with room to spare.

The fact that they dont fit makes for another headache becuase all the front hubs I have have the same axle size. Ill make another post about this

Presumably, these "2 bikes im fixing" are the Sportsman and...?

-Kurt

You could take your front hub and file flats into it so that it'd fit the fork.

My utility bike... its not pretty but it works.. its a rigid MTB, I wanted something nice like the sportsman but didnt find anything big.

OK so I threw on 26" wheel and it works pretty well. The braking is quite nice... and i didnt even align the brakes that well. I think I'll just plow ahead with this... I do plan to change to drums someday... I really like drums.

And the filing went well, everything is peachy.

Great- I 've discovered that some really really cheapo looking white brake pads that come on cheapo long reach side pull calipers actually brake fairly decently. The flex feels "funny" but they brake OK-not great like a V- brake or cantilever, but not bad.

Charlie