Pre-WWII Lobdell Three Speed Rims

Finally we have a truly cold weekend here. The winter has been fairly mild so far, but this weekend has been cold. That means indoor work building wheels and cleaning and organizing parts. 

 

This weekend I am building a set of three speed wheels using a pre-WWII set of Lobdell rims. These rims are reasonably well-made, but simple. They are a single piece of steel stamped to shape, with the old style "hooked" beads. They take tires with either 599mm or 597mm bead seat diameters (that means they can take 26 x 1-1/4 tires or 26x1.375 tires).

 

I have some old stock Torrington spokes, a Sturmey Archer AW rear hub, and a Schwinn hourglass front hub to build the wheels. The rims are in pretty good shape, considering their age. They aren't perfect, but should make a nice set of wheels for a relatively early (1938-45) period Schwinn three speed bike.