ADVICE: Replacing Bike Rear Wheel???

Mikey One

Hello.

I have recently got myself an old bike from a friend, he had crashed off it after a drunken night out. He was fine but the back wheel had buckled and the seat needed replacing. So i said i would take it as i wanted a bike.

I have the idea that i will gradually build up a decent bike one part at a time. Buying new parts when i can afford them, until I have eventually replaced everything.

My problem is that I don't know much about bikes and I can't figure out what wheel type I should get! So i have two questions...

1) I pretty sure it's a 700c freewheel.
Would be be better to get a freehub wheel to replace it for the future? Or do i need to stick with a freewheel as the bike can not incorporate one? I not sure how it works with it being a 6 speed at the moment and changing that???

2) If I have to stick with a freewheel, can i just buy something like this and attach the sprockets that i currently have?
FreeWheel

Also anyone have any advice on where to buy wheels?

Bike Specs:
Mark - Raleigh Eclipse
Frame - Reynolds 501
Wheel Size - ?





Thanks in advance for your advice...
M

Tonyandthewhale

If you're planning to upgrade everything over time I'm assuming you mean a modern a drive-train with indexed shifters and all that. To achieve this you'll need a freehub so you can fit a 8, 9 or 10 speed (or 11 if you go for campag) cassette to fit with modern shifters. The old style friction shifters don't care how many sprockets there are on the cassette so they'll work with a modern cassette.

You could also replace the wheel with another freewheel based one and either buy a new thread-on freewheel cassette or re-use the one you have. 28 pound seems awful cheap for a wheel though.

There's also the option of re-truing the wheel if it's not completely ruined. Spoke-wrenches are cheap if you decide to do it yourself but if it's a fairly involved process for a beginer and if it's a big job you'll probably want a truing stand which is less cheap.

If it's a racing bike it's almost definitely a 700c wheel although if it's especially old it could be 27 1/4 inch but you can replace these with 700c wheels so no worries.

Mikey One

Tonyandthewhale wrote: »

If you're planning to upgrade everything over time I'm assuming you mean a modern a drive-train with indexed shifters and all that. To achieve this you'll need a freehub so you can fit a 8, 9 or 10 speed (or 11 if you go for campag) cassette to fit with modern shifters. The old style friction shifters don't care how many sprockets there are on the cassette so they'll work with a modern cassette.

You could also replace the wheel with another freewheel based one and either buy a new thread-on freewheel cassette or re-use the one you have. 28 pound seems awful cheap for a wheel though.

There's also the option of re-truing the wheel if it's not completely ruined. Spoke-wrenches are cheap if you decide to do it yourself but if it's a fairly involved process for a beginer and if it's a big job you'll probably want a truing stand which is less cheap.

If it's a racing bike it's almost definitely a 700c wheel although if it's especially old it could be 27 1/4 inch but you can replace these with 700c wheels so no worries.

Thanks for your answer...
Exactly what I wanted to know, I wasn't sure if I could attach a free hub...
I want to buy one on ebay and was worried that i would buy a wheel which was of no use to me.

I think the wheel is finished, it's a pretty big buckle.

cdaly_

One thing to consider with freehub vs freewheel is axle length. AFAIK, a 9/10sp freehub axle may be longer than the existing 6sp freewheel one. That's going to require you to spread the rear dropouts to accomodate the axle and may stress the frame.