I am struggling to fix the front wheel on an "old" raleigh bike. 1970s, maybe early '80s vintage, a ladies shopper type with 32-597 tyres, that is 26 x 1 1/4 inch.
The front hub seems to be quite narrow at about 80-ish mm, and the axle is
120 mm long and about 7.3 mm diameter. ( 9/32" ?). Local bike shop drew a blank, sadly.
The axle is bent just enough to make it unuseable. I managed to get the cone off one side but the other is captured where it is.
Does anyone know where I can pick up a replacement? I have looked on ebay, etc to no avail. But I may be ignorant of the specifications and/or descriptions so much that I have missed what I need.
The shop owner has a drawer, chock full of axles, and a number of years ago, I got an axle "off a tandem bike". The axle was longer than a standard axle, and one of its assets, is the axle would not bend like conventional axles do.
I would not expect to find such an item at a regular bicycle shop. It might have to be special-ordered.
You might also go hunting for a hub and get the necessary components that way.
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It isn't that hard to rebuild a wheel (needing new hub). I've done it twice, and I don't know why, but it worked out relatively well for the kind of bike repairs I can manage. The wheel wasn't exactly true, but it was still usable. One of the tricks is turning the nipples exactly the same number of turns as you rebuild. So that you can't blame the materials for throwing off the trueness. It then doesn't take very much correction, to finish the job.
A spoke tension measuring device (something every bike owner should have), helps you get and keep things in tune. When spokes unscrew themselves, the tension gauge can catch that, if you do regular scans. If you allow spokes to be tuned to different strain, they'll snap on you. i used to snap half a dozen spokes a year, until I figured this out. Now, the yearly toll is zero.
"Park Tool Spoke Tension Meter - TM-1" [check a local shop, not Amazon]
Thanks. I ended up finding what I needed on ebay in the end, a place called bankrupt bike parts. New old stock stuff I think it must be. Anyway, they managed to provide the axel and tyres, and to my surprise my local bike shop had suitable inner tubes. Got brake blocks and cables from Decathlon and it now lives! I was surprised by how much difference the new brake cables (and outer sheaths) made in the usability. Now I just need to read aup about Sturmey Archer 3 speed hubs.
I have snapped maybe 5 spokes in total in the past 4 years or so of riding my bike (it's a "29er" mountain bike) and I am not a lightweight guy, so I think I did alright there! I have had the rear wheel completely rip apart though, the clinchers just failed. I think it was a crap wheel though, from talking to other people, and comparing it with its (not exactly high-end) replacement.
My next project will be to learn how to build a wheel. I can see a time when the 597 wheels on this shopper will come to the end of their life in one way or another and so replacing them with 559 sized 26" wheels will be useful. Got to be honest, it doesn't look too difficult from the video tutorials I've seen, and it seems just taking your time and being careful with the final adjustments is the key.
I will investigate the spoke tensioning meter, thanks. I know that the "normal" spoke pattern is very strong and my experience would certainly support this, but having a strong, stiff wheel makes it all the nicer to ride - I don't particularly like the flexible feeling of loose spokes.
There is one particular video I've seen of a Scottish trick bike rider who builds his own wheels up and his secret trick is to stand on the spoke after the initial tightening to just stretch them a little bit. He is quite a slight fellow though; I don't know if that would be wide for me to attempt!
Building Bike wheels is fun, and quite theraputic IME. I have done perhaps half a dozen in my time, and never had any issues with them. For a 'performance racer' I would probably take them to a specialist, but for normal bikes I'm happy to do them myself.
I leaned from a little book cunningly titled "Building Bicycle Wheels":
# sorry, not the full PDF here
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but as you say there will be plenty of Youtube videos on it now.
I have a Park Trueing stand now but would not hesitate to have a go without, especially if for an old bike like yours
One problem I have here, is the replacement spokes are great (stainless steel and seem quite strong). It's the nipples that screw in, that are miserable and cannot take proper tension. My tensiometer, I take measurements, and I'd like to give the nipples another half turn to a turn, but the body of the nipple starts to deform and fail.
Since neither is magnetic, my assumption is that the nipple is brass, with some sort of plate-up on the outside.
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I don't know why they're doing this. I don't suspect the shop of shoddy materials, as I've never had trouble in the past. But for some reason, you just cannot crank the living shit out of them any more. Maybe someone is doing this, in design, to prevent pulling the nipple right through the wheel, via excess tension. But whatever the excuse, the behavior is annoying and makes it harder to tune everything as you would like. If I thought I should be buying a different type of nipple, I would have tried that already.
The active surface of the tightening tool (horseshoe shaped tool) is the same length as the square body of the nipple. So there is sufficient surface on the tool, to use all the available area on the nipple for tensioning. Maybe the problem is, if the nipple doesn't go all the way through the rim, not enough of the squared part sticks out for the tightening tool to use. And that's my problem.
I have had similar experiences when diddling me nipples, and found that it is essential to have a properly fitting, snug spoke key. I have an old tool with various size keys on it and luckily the smallest one is the correct size.
From what I have read / watched so far, the brass nipples might only be useable once, but don't quote me on that. And of course making sure the treads are lubricated, and where they meet the rim, too.
But really it's all still theoretical from my point of view at the moment, so I'll happily submit to experience.
That's more a "town bike" (older term) or "city bike" (more recent) than a shopper - "shopper" tends to be used for the Raleigh Twenty smaller-wheeled type of bike with a rack and/or basket and mudguards.
I've found those to be awkward to use and not grip very well - the Rixen & Kaul Spokey type works very well and doesn't cost much.
That may be true of aluminium alloy nipples but not decent brass ones.
It is important - different builders prefer different lubes, linseed oil is a traditional one that lubricates the build then goes gummy to help prevent loosening spokes. I just stick the nipples in the cap of a GT85 can and give them a good squirt.
I've been building wheels since the seventies, including a few years working as a mechanic.
I just lay the wheel on a carpeted floor and press with my hands and a good bit of weight against the rim at about the four and eight o'clock positions, turn a little and repeat until you've done the full circle. Then flip to do the other side. You can expect some creaks and pings doing this as the spokes bed in and the nipples un-torque a little. Then back to the truing stand for a touch up. Repeat until there's no more noise and the rim stays true. Be wary of applying too much pressure on a lightweight or heavily dished wheel, but a strong 26 inch MTB wheel can take a lot of force to work out the creaks.
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