I've got a 1975 Motobecane Mixte. Very pretty, rides well, though a little heavy. Everything is original except the tires, saddle and handlebar tape. I posted a pic last week in the Show Me Your Motobecane thread.

I've been told a number of times that the best upgrade I could make would be alloy wheels in place of the current steel. I've also heard that the old French Normandy hubs are impossible to find parts for, so the obvious choice is to just replace the entire wheel, not just the rim, front and back.

The LBS guy (who focuses on vintage rebuilds) says he can put a set of cheap alloy wheels on there for about $100 including labor.

Here's the thing - I'd love to try to do this myself. My wrenching skills extend to adjusting modern derailers (once I took my rear shimano 105 entirely apart and put it back together out of frustration and anger), adjusting seat posts and clamps, lubing chains, and... that's about it. But I just bought my second steel bike (1988 Trek 400T in beautiful condition), and I'd like to learn more.

I have a decent set of allen wrenches, basic tools, and I think my husband might have some bike-specific tools hiding in the basement. No work stand. And I'd probably be starting from scratch with things like grease. But there are a couple of local shops that host self-repair nights, with tools and help available. That's probably where I should start.

So.... am I just asking for trouble? Where should I begin looking for 27" alloy wheels? Buy them new? Strip them off a CL beater? Check with the shops that sell old/recycled parts? How much should I expect to pay? Is there a secret to figuring out if the rear wheel is threaded correctly for my old French sprocket cluster/cassette? Am i just making a fool out of myself by asking stupid questions and not knowing the proper names for things like "sprocket cluster/cassette"?

I was just reading another thread on cleaning and repacking pretty much all bearings, but especially hubs and headtubes when you acquire a new old bike. What about the bottom bracket? Just *reading* about trying to take apart an old cottered crank is a little scary.

Am I trying to start way too big? I don't want to spend a couple hundred on someone else breaking down the bike and cleaning and repacking all the bits, but I don't want to ruin the bike by not taking care of it properly, either.

Thanks for being nice to me (in advance). The people on this forum seem really cool and helpful. And knowledgeable. Very very knowledgeable!

I have a 1985 Peugeot with classic steel rims

to be frank
''The LBS guy (who focuses on vintage rebuilds) says he can put a set of cheap alloy wheels on there for about $100 including labor.''

if i could get such a deal - i would snap it up [ i'm told my steel rims will be deadly in the wet]

then put my steel rims aside should i ever [yer right] want to sell the Peugeot

wheel building is fun, and it sounds like you have the motivation to do it yourself to take pride in riding wheels you, yourself built. you can build them easily with a screwdriver, lube, a rubber band, an extra spoke, a cheap spoke tool and your upside down bike frame that serves as a truing stand. just use sheldon's wheel building page, and follow it like a cooking recipe.

but the $100 deal is hard to beat.

if nothing's wrong with your hubs, you won't need parts for them. old hubs are the coolest. polish 'em up before building 'em up.

you might see if 700c rims will work with your current brake reach before choosing rim sizes.

i like sun m13ii rims, panaracer paselas and sapim db spokes from danscomp.com.

I would just take the new wheels for $100.

niagaracycle.com has five and six speed rear wheels in 27. You will need a freewheel too, because your old one won't fit. The new ones should all be of a compatible threading with any new wheel you're likely to find. Installing a freewheel is as simple as greasing the threads and screwing it on by hand. You may need to add some links to your chain if you buy a freewheel with a larger biggest sprocket than your old one. Someone may want the old freewheel and the wheels on ebay; I don't think anyone sells new French thread freewheels in this country and they wear out. Make sure you measure your rear spacing because most five speed wheels required a 120mm distance between the dropouts and most six speed wheels required a 126 but there are exceptions; I am not sure about French bikes specifically but it's easy to measure your rear spacing.

Going to 700c wheels is an option provided you can move your brake pads down 4mm because a 700c wheel has 4mm less diameter than a 27. The payoff would be a much wider selection of tires although the choices for 27 are by no means weak.

You could get a modern rear wheel for an 8-9-10 speed cassette. They are 130mm wide. It would be stronger. You could respace the frame to 130 which is a job people do at home, or if you're lucky, the hubs in the wheels you buy will allow respacing by removing some washers. It is best to go with an 8 speed cassette because the chain for 9 or 10 speed will be so narrow that it may stick on the teeth of your front chainrings. I know at least some older rear derailleurs will easily cope with eight speeds, partly because the sprockets are just closer together. Five or six speed rear wheels are probably plenty strong, though.

I have used steel wheels and they are not so bad. They may be a little heavier and they don't stop well when wet but yours may have an embossed pattern in the brake surfaces which may or may not help.

Aluminum rims will also be lighter and may make the bike feel faster especially if paired with a light inner tube and a kevlar beaded folding tire because they're lighter. The aluminum rims will also have a hook bead, a design feature that lets you use much higher pressure.

When you get your wheelset I would consider learning how to adjust axle cones because the cone adjustment on a low end hub may loosen as it breaks in due to the fact that the bearing balls are wearing or pressing a smooth wear ring into the cones, which will not have the smoothest finish. If the cones go out of adjustment, the hub can wear out quickly.

Oh, and wheels are consumables. I would be careful getting used ones. Anything which is loaded, then unloaded like bicycle spokes will eventually fatigue. I suspect some people sell their wheels when the spokes start to break. The rim can also get fatigued around the spoke holes and might have a badly worn brake surface.

Learn to build wheels later. Snatch the $100 deal now.

A better upgrade would be some fancy tires.

The best upgrade would be both wheels and tires, and maybe you can do that, too.

It's probably pretty hard to beat that price if you can't find wheels in the correct width or respace the hubs yourself.

Yes, snatch that 100 dollar deal from the LBS. Just make sure they use good quality rims, spokes and hubs.....then build your own wheels later, using your LBS built wheels as reference.....

I'd be leery of $100/set wheels including labor.

I also still run 27" wheels. They're getting hard to come by these days, but there are some decent choices out there in factory-made wheels.

Niagara Cycle has some extremely cheap wheels available - as well as some much better wheels. The low price cheapies means cuts have been made somewhere - usually in quality of components. If the spokes are plated and not stainless, if the hubs are cheap and gritty, if rims are weak single-wall, etc. Stepping up to a set of decent-quality wheels is not all that much more in the grand scheme of things.

As noted above, you'll likely need a new freewheel so that is another $10-30.

These are just $62 for the pair: Wheel Master Weinmann 219 Wheel Set - 27" x 1-1/4", 36H, QR, All-Silver and would be fine for neighborhood riding.

A much stronger rim, less likely to get bent, with sealed bearing hubs and a step up would be these at $96/pr: Wheel Master Weinmann LP18 Wheel Set - 27" x 1.0", 36H, QR, 5/6/7-Speed, All-Silver

And these are twice as much as the cheapies at $120/pr : Wheel Master 27" Road Wheel Set - Sun CR18 Rim, 36H, 5/6/7-Speed FW, QR, Silver Strong wheels!

These are a narrower polished Sun M13 II rim, and are more suited for a go-fast ride and about $130/pr: Wheel Master Sun M13 Front Wheel - 27" x 1.0, 36H, QR, Silver , Sun M13, 5/6/7 Speed 126mm OLD, 36h, 27x1 Rear Wheel They require the smaller Presta valve tubes.

I already put new Kenda gumwalls on there (K35, I think). When I first bought the bike, I had a horrible blowout while test riding it. Not only were the original tires still on there, complete with rubber rot, but the rim liner was shredded and half gone, allowing pokey bits to eat holes in the tubes. I cut new liner out of the old tube before installing new tubes and tires.

Do I need to open up the hubs and repack the bearings? I (a) don't have a hub tool and (b) am nervous about messing up a serious load-bearing part.

LBS guy said he had wheels with the proper threading for my existing freewheel.

It's uninstalling it that's scary.

They are the embossed, pitted rims, so stopping is not... bad when it's dry, and I'm putting new brake pads in the original Weinmann 610 brakes. The original rubber is hella dry. I doubt I'll take the bike out in the rain (intentionally) since it's steel, with dings, and I put a Brooks saddle on there...

Good advice, thank you!

Thanks to everybody who took the time to comment.

I'll ask LBS exactly what wheels he was planning to put on there, and I'll take a look at the cogs on the freewheel, see how worn they look. I wouldn't say no to 6 speeds instead of 7.

This is definitely a neighborhood bike, though. No plans on pushing this one very fast! If I can get a rack and panniers on the back, she might be my go-to grocery bike, but I need to figure out how much money I want to put in to this project!

Thanks again!

A decent solution. Rim strips are cheap though so your own time to do the cutting was probably worth more! As you discovered, old tires are, shall we say, highly unreliable.

I'd be more nervous about riding without having repacked the bearings. They won't go bang! and leave you stranded like a tire might but they could wear out quickly, and in the meantime perhaps create a lot more drag which you'd really like to avoid. They could be in fine shape with good grease and everything, but you never know. If you pick up the wheel and give it a spin and it slows down quickly then you really must rebuild it. If you spin the rear it might slow down because of drag in the FW, so that's harder to judge. BUt if the front needs repacking then the rear probably does too. Aw, what the heck, just do both on a rainy Saturday.

In any case, it's an easy job, contemplative and satisfying. You'll need grease to repack them. You'll need a cone wrench of the right size, which could be 13mm, 14mm, or even 15mm, depending on the hub. You'll need a wrench to fit the locknut but that usually doesn't have to be thin like a cone wrench. A cone wrench is a useful tool to have if you repack them more than once, and they aren't expensive.

Take apart only one side. Unscrew and remove the locknut, remove the keyed lockwasher (you may not have one, but probably do), and unscrew and remove the bearing cone. You may have to pop out a dust cap too. That will give you access to the bearings which you can pick out. Then flip the wheel over and lift out the axle to get to the bearings on that side. Remember which side the axle came out, though it probably doesn't matter for the front. Clean it all out. Re-grease that second side and reinstall the bearings and axle. Flip the wheel back over and re-grease and install the bearings on the first side. Screw in the bearing cone hand-tight, replace the keyed lockwasher, then screw down the lockwasher.

Now comes the fun part, getting the adjustment "just right". The bearing cone should be just tight enough let the bearings spin freely with no roughness but with no free play. You need to tighten the locknut without upsetting the bearing adjustment. This may take several frustrating attempts. It's a "feel" thing but not hard.

I've had hubs where after I tightened down the QR skewer on the bike the bearings got tighter. Check that yours don't. Perhaps err a hair's width on the side of loose if you tend to crank your QR skewers. But check for free play once it is back on the bike.

Go for a ride!

Didn't have strips, and I wanted to RIDE IT! I have no patience.

Thanks for the step-by-step. I think I'll give it a go. Maybe Sunday if it really is snowing/raining in Minnesota on Sunday.

take your bike where $5 parks cone wrenches are sold and ask which one or two wrenches you need.

you will also need an adjustable wrench found in any tool box or a socket set.

then just visit sheldonbrown.com for instruction on adjusting hubs. it's really easy.

I assumed you were talking about getting a new wheelset. A used wheelset should already be broken in and should hold its cone adjustment pretty well especially if set up by a pro.

Then again, I thought $100 was his price for a new set.