General Category => Wheels & Tires => Topic started by: lostinidaho on July 20, 2011, 11:25:20 AM
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I am working a basket case project. But that means the fun will last longer. ;D
I am currently working on the frame and forks, but I am gathering information for the wheels.
The rims are perfectly good except for the pieces that have rusty away in to oblivion. ;)
What rims do you guys use to replace old, missing or unsafe rims? I was thinking about re-lacing the front wheel with a drum brake for added stopping power. Is this a good idea?
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What year is the bike? Different years use different size wheels. Depends if you want to go stock or not. Stock wheels can be found, they are usually pretty rusty and take work to fix, and run from $50-200 each. New spokes can be had from Wayne Mahaffey, around $40 per wheel. Having rims blasted and powder coated run around $100-125 per wheel. A front brake setup is another $300 or so. Put this all together and it gets expensive fast but looks great when done. Look at the photos below for a pair I did recently.
If you want to adapt something, look at Worksman wheels. These are really well built, heavy duty bike wheels that approach motorcycle wheels. They can be had with a front drum brake for about $100 and look pretty decent. Check the replica bike in the last photo of a worksman wheel with drum brake.
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Thanks for the help. That will get me started.
I am not sure what year the bike is. Like I say it is a basket case.
The rims appear to be close to a 26 inch bicycle rim. I have to admit I like the profile of the original rim. But mine are swiss cheese.
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All the rims are the same diameter, the difference is the type of rim or width. The earliest 1" rims were bicycle wheels, the later 1" are simplex built drop center rims, and the last rims are 2" wide. These are the most desirable and therefore the most expensive to buy. IIRC, the simplex tires will fit all 3 rims properly.
Post some pictures of your bike!
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Does anybody know if the Corker tire 74778 fit on the Workman wheel.
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If that is the simplex 26 x 2.5 tire, then yes.
Rick
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I was cleaning up my rear wheel pully, the more I wire wheeled the pully the more rust holes did I see. Looks like I am going have to get a rear wheel pully from Wayne. Here is a picture of it I do not think it is worth saving. If any one is interested in it let me know. Bill Marcum
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Bill, is that the only area of rust thru? If so, I'd say it's very fixable. Might need to tig it rather than mig to keep down the warpage. I wouldn't be afraid of it.
Mike Sal
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Better shape then the one I took off , LOL
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there is holes all around might be fixable , but not me. I will try the earlier model that wayne is selling. Bill Marcum
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The earlier one will bolt right on. I read that simplex changed to the clip on model as it was much easier to R&R.
Rick
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I to am going to have to go with an earlier style from Wayne,mine was so far gone it folded in half when I tried prying it off.
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I pulled the front wheel off & took the bolt cutter to the spokes tonight. I'll pull the back wheel off tomorrow for the same. I did notice that the clip on pulley on my rear wheel had some pitting on the surface (where crap had accumulated years ago & caused rust). The former owner just sanded it down & painted over most of the rust (including the spokes). I hope I don't find any holes in mine when I strip it down. I'll know more tomorrow (If my concrete guy shows up to finish my garage floor, it may be later tomorrow). The rims themselves seem to be in pretty good shape and they ran really true.....time will tell if I can get them trued up as good.
Mike Sal
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As much as I wanted to resist taking the whole bike apart before I heard it run......well I'm down to a bare frame now....
I took the back wheel apart today (after loading a 16 foot trailer full of scrap metal, which has my back aching) & found that rusty clip on sheaves must be the norm. take a look at mine. Hopefully you'll be able to see in the photos the yellow braze material in one area where the guy had patched up the holes in it. He did a decent job on the other side, but left this side looking crappy. Other than this 8 inch wide area, the rest of the sheave is in good condition. You can tell the bike set somewhere a long time with water & crap setting in that spot. I'm going to use filler to smooth out this side & put it back on. It (and the wheel) had virtually no runout.
The brake drum has a lot of rust pitting also. I wish now I would have bid on that rear hub that was on ebay a few weeks ago....
Also is a shot of how I removed the old rusty spokes.
Mike Sal
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Mike
If you see a front hub and brake assembly let me know. I would like to put one on my bike instead of buying a workman wheel, if the price is right. Looks like your bike is coming along pretty good. Got my old sand blaster working , just going to take me a while to do it with a small compressor. Seams to work ok just a little slow building up the pressure. Bill Marcum
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sand blasters are hard on compressors. be careful not to overheat it (most home versions have a duty rating of 50....meaning it should rest 50% of the time).
I wouldn't mind to have a front brake also, but won't spend the money to get one (unless I can steal a deal somewhere).
Mike Sal
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Bill, just to give you an idea on a front brake conversion cost, around $300. This includes everything from front hub, shoes, backing plate, brake lever and cable. Those front hubs are pretty hard to come by. You could convert a rear one, but it would take some machining. You would need to narrow it 1", and then slot the holes for the spokes on the small side. You need slots so you can angle in the spokes past the brake drum side.
BTW Mike, didn't you say you were a machinist?
Rick
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I have enough equipment here to be dangerous.....
Right now I'm re-arranging the shop & moving the mill & lathe to another building. I don't have 220 in that building, so I've got to do some wiring before the big band saw or the mill will be running again. I'm leaving the lathe move till last since I use it the most.
I was looking the back hub over the other night when I removed the bearing races from it so I could clean it up. It wouldn't be too much trouble to cut the short side down, & reweld the small flange back on, then machine out the pocket for the bearing race. I suspect the trouble is that back hubs aren't much easier to find than the front ones are. If there were a plentiful source for back hubs, then a batch could be converted to front hubs.
Mike Sal
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Mike, I would think finding rear hubs wouldn't be that hard. A lot of rims get bent beyond repair, but nothing really happens to the hub. I bet Wayne has a big stash of rear hubs attached to bent rims.
Rick
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I'm pretty sure my back wheel is not original to the rest of the bike. The rest of the bike is in remarkably good condition (no rust or rust repair). But the back wheel had a lot of rust pitting on the brake side of the hub (the small flange wasn't rusty at all) and the spokes were rusty. I wonder if this was a replacement for a bent wheel.
Next time either one of us talks to Wayne, we'll have to ask him about the population of rear hubs (I don't remember them being on his parts list he sent to me, but I'll have to look again when I get home). The brake backing plate is a little different also, isn't it?
Mike Sal
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Wayne has a lot of things that are not on his parts list. He has a bunch of used parts as well, from what I understand.
I have also heard that Gary had a big pile of old wheels. Probably not a lot of good rims, but I would bet plenty of good hubs.
Rick
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Wayne told me he got into the Simplex business in the early to mid-80's. I guess that's plenty of time to collect up a lot of stuff.
Mike Sal
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I bet he bought whole bikes back then for $200!
Rick
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Rick and Mike
Sounds like you two have your gears moving. A rear hub used on the front wheel. I would like to know if you guys follow up on this thought. I will be needing a front and brake some time in the near future. If Wayne has the hubs and you do this, let me know the cost for I can decide if I can afford it or go with a after market wheel and brake assembly. Thank Bill Marcum
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I'd need to know some dimensions & some more details on the backing plate. I'll be needing to call Wayne in about a week for a few parts (maybe). I'll ask him for some info on them. He has the front backing plate listed at $50 on his price list.
Mike Sal
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The bikes that had front brakes also had rebound springs above the top fork support ,to soften the action of the brake trying to turn the suspension rocker arms around the axle
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i will need to get a rear wheel pully(mine is a bolt on) and a front rim (no hub or spokes(as i have orignal ones))
you guys have any clue what that might cost to replace .?
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Anyone had any luck with a set of rims from the after market?
Would like front brake and rear with brake and chain sprocket. Tried worksman with no luck. Several times it has been suggested aftermarket wheels from several sources but I have had no luck after contacting them.
really want to finish my conversion to later engine and this is the main obstruction.
Thanks
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What happened with worksman? Did they not have them? If I was using a non simplex wheel, they would be the one I used.
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Anyone had any luck with a set of rims from the after market?
Would like front brake and rear with brake and chain sprocket. Tried worksman with no luck. Several times it has been suggested aftermarket wheels from several sources but I have had no luck after contacting them.
really want to finish my conversion to later engine and this is the main obstruction.
Thanks
If I can not true up my rear rim, I will be using a set of worksman hoops I have. I have a worksman front drum brake that I am swaping out the bearings and axle in soon for larger sealed bearings and 12mm axle. It will cost around 20 bucks.
For a rear brake, you could go with a worksman front drum, axle swap, and mount your own sprocket to the side. OR find a moped hub with sprocket attached. They are 36 holds and will fit the frame.
I will have a thread started soon for the axle swap.
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What happened with worksman? Did they not have them? If I was using a non simplex wheel, they would be the one I used.
They said they didn't have enough demand to put a set together
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Buy a set of worksman hoops and then go here for the hubs and axles. www.treatland.tv (http://www.treatland.tv)
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Buy a set of worksman hoops and then go here for the hubs and axles. www.treatland.tv (http://www.treatland.tv)
or buy worksman hoops and lace them in to the stock simplex hubs. If you don't have simplex hubs, they are easy to get.