More Progress on Schwinn Superior 3 Speed and Talking About Wheels

 Another weekend means more progress on the Schwinn Superior 3 speed. I spent pretty much all of my free time this weekend on the wheelset.

Wheels tend to be among the slowest parts to clean, adjust, and prepare. They're important parts on the bike, and they're also one of the more complicated parts for a bike like this, being composed of many smaller parts that all must balance one to form a good set of working wheels.

This wheelset has a January 1949 Sturmey Archer AW rear hub, Schwinn script hourglass front hub, 36 count of 11 3/8 double butted spokes, long spoke nipples, and Schwinn S6 stainless steel rims. The lacing pattern is 36, cross 4. Spoke tension is relatively low by modern standards. 

Triage: Hubs, Rims, then Spokes

So this brings up the inevitable question of how to address old wheelsets that aren't in the best shape on earth, but still are worth fixing. I'll go through my triage of how to deal with old wheelsets:

• Are you keeping the original hubs? The first thing you need to know is whether the bearings on the hubs are in good shape. Are the cups still good? Usually you can replace bearings and cones, but on certain hubs, cups may be integral to the hub shell. On other hubs you might be able to swap cups. But before going further, ask yourself if the hubs are in a condition that you would keep them and just clean them up.
  

• So you know now that you have good enough hubs, and that you're keeping them on the wheels. That is great. Next, how are the rims? Are they badly rusted? Badly dented? You can work dents out of rims using a ball peen hammer and crescent wrench. Or you can work them straight using specially design "rim pliers". To the clever and the willing, almost any repair is possible. But is it worth keeping? That depends on the condition and rarity of the rim. In any event, the second factor to consider is rim condition. 
  

• Last comes the spoke set. Spokes can be replaced individually or entirely, it's up to you. How rusted are the spokes? Are they badly bent? Surface rust isn't a big deal, but the spoke surface should remain smooth and not have craters. Replace any spokes that have deep pitting. With old-style, plated or galvanized spokes, you can use bronze wool, very fine steel wool, or a brass bristle brush for clean up. If the rust is modest, try to preserve as much of the plating or coating as you can. If the surface rust has eaten up the coating, but the underlying steel is still good, you can use the metal bristle brush to go down to steel. Just be sure to check for re-rusting frequently if you have to do that. You can use the butt of the spoke wrench to straighten slight bends or kinks in a spoke. But very bad bends or cuts should lead to replacing the spoke. Don't try to stick with really bad spokes - it's a safety issue.

Below is a photo of my working the spokes with a metal bristle brush. These spokes are structurally sound, but have considerable rust on the surface. The plating/coating is basically gone, but the underlying steel is still good. I could buy spokes and replace these, or I can try to clean them. The part is "only original once", as they say, so I cleaned these and will periodically put a little oil on them and check for re-rusting. It's worth keeping as many circa 1949 parts on the bike as I reasonably can do while still keeping it a safe ride.

 Truing of the wheels, at least as part of the restoration should be done on a truing stand. Don't try to do it on the bike if you can help it, especially when working with old wheels that are new to you. You can true on the bike once they're all good and you need to do an occasional, minor re-true. But for that first tensioning and truing of wheels for your project, use a proper stand. I use a budget model "Wheelmaster" wheel stand. Park makes an even better one. You can even make your own out of an old bicycle fork and some spare parts if you're creative.

Tires and Tubes

My philosophy is that tires and tubes are basically "wear items" and that safety is paramount. If you can source good original tires, great. But don't force yourself to ride damaged tires, or tires/tubes with numerous patches. Buy yourself new tires or at least new-ish tires in good shape. They don't have to be brand new, but they should not be fossilized either. On these wheels, I'll be using new Kenda tires in the 37-597mm size. This is correct for the Schwinn wheels. Older tires tended to be of higher quality than new Chinese production tires, but these aren't bad and the will work for the bike. I wish a US-based company would produce good quality tires for these old 3-speeds again.

Below are the wheels with plenty of greasy thumbprints still on them, but new rim tape, tires, and tubes. They are tensioned and trued. The spokes are a dull, grey color - steel. The surface rust is gone, but then so is the anti-rust coating they would have had when new. I'll have to keep an eye on them to keep rust at bay. But they are much better now.

A note about dry rot: people often say when they see a few cracks in the sidewalls of a tire that it's "dry rot". Technically this is not so. True dry rot is the degradation of the core of the tire over time. This is where the inner core of the tire breaks and delaminates. The external/superficial cracking of a tire is something different - it's the elastomer slowly leaving the rubber and superficial cracks starting. Below is an example of true dry rot - notice the inner core of the tire is broken and totally delaminated in this spot. A tire with this kind of true dry rot can fail spectacularly and lead to serious injury if you're riding (especially if it's the front tire).

Rim Strips

Don't overlook the strips that protect the tubes from the spoke nipples and rim. I like heavy cloth tape, such as is produced in France today. There are a couple of brands, and they all work pretty well. Just make sure you get the correct width for your bike. Rubber rim strips also work, though I prefer the tape. I advise against using masking tape or duct/"duck" tape. They are not nearly as well-suited for this kind of work as the heavy cloth tape or the rubber strips.