I am looking at bringing my old bike back to life. The bike is a Raleigh Micro-lite. I am starting to work on the bike from the rims up. First off, the rims that come with this bike are Vuelta Air-line 2 rims. http://www.vueltausa.com/rims4.html These are nice looking rims, but the spokes are rusting and need to be replaced. I am looking to replace both the spokes and the nibs. This is where I need help, with spoke selection. What guage of spoke should I look at, and are there brands that I should consider and or avoid? I am not nearly as an aggressive rider as I use to be, as age, work and physical shape, have limited my riding style.
My next task will be replacing the bearings and axels.
Any help or suggestions would be great. Please e-mail me at mlawrenc(at)rcc.on.ca
I am looking at bringing my old bike back to life. The bike is a Raleigh Micro-lite. I am starting to work on the bike from the rims up. First off, the rims that come with this bike are Vuelta Air-line 2 rims. http://www.vueltausa.com/rims4.html These are nice looking rims, but the spokes are rusting and need to be replaced. I am looking to replace both the spokes and the nibs. This is where I need help, with spoke selection. What guage of spoke should I look at, and are there brands that I should consider and or avoid? I am not nearly as an aggressive rider as I use to be, as age, work and physical shape, have limited my riding style.
My next task will be replacing the bearings and axels.
Any help or suggestions would be great. Please e-mail me at mlawrenc(at)rcc.on.ca
I am looking at bringing my old bike back to life. The bike is a Raleigh Micro-lite. I am starting to work on the bike from the rims up. First off, the rims that come with this bike are Vuelta Air-line 2 rims. http://www.vueltausa.com/rims4.html These are nice looking rims, but the spokes are rusting and need to be replaced. I am looking to replace both the spokes and the nibs. This is where I need help, with spoke selection. What guage of spoke should I look at, and are there brands that I should consider and or avoid? I am not nearly as an aggressive rider as I use to be, as age, work and physical shape, have limited my riding style.
My next task will be replacing the bearings and axels.
Why do you spokes need to be replaced? Because of surface rust? Why do you want to replace the axels? If you really want to ride the bike and the wheels are true try cleaning and re-greasing the bearings and then go ride the thing.
The rim rebuild is due to damaged more then the rust. I guess I forgot to mention the damage. I believe that something was drop on the one rim while I was moving an there are a couple of spokes that are broken. The axel in the front rim has resistance at one point in the rotation, which I believe could be bearings or the axel bent (or both). The time required for this project is not much of an issue right now as it is way too cold to do anything outside right now, so this will give me something to do while it is -30'C outside. ( I am in Canada) The web site that Derek provided has given me some information to make this job a fair bit easier. I did obtain the spread sheet that helped provide the length of spokes to use. The only issues left is spoke design, gauge and manufactor to buy. Mike mlawrenc(at)rcc.on.ca
Hi Mike Is this one of those small-wheeled foldable Raleigh? If it is, you should visit Sheldon Browns Web site. He has a lota info. about those models. If it's not, please excuse my post. Good luck, John
It is a folding bike. It is a full size, front suspension Bike. The frame is nothing special, and most of the drive train has seen better days. When I purchased the bike in 2000, I had upgraded the rings to larger RaceFace rings ( do not remember the model or size off the top of my head). Unfortunately the smaller ring has atlease on broken/missing tooth. As I had mentioned in my previous posting, I was a very agressive rider, and hard on the drive train. Unfortunately I have been unable to locate any information online regarding the bike's specs. Raleigh-Canada does not have anything on their website, nor does any of the other Raleigh sites.
Ultimatly I am rebuilding this bike so I can get back on the trails. I will not be running it has hard as I use to, and was going to use the rebuild as something to do while it is to damn cold out to do anything else.
Is it possible to remove some of the spokes and get identical length ones of, say 14 ga?? Make is probably not particularly important. Heck, the spokes could cost $1 each or more. I don't know where you are in Canada but a LBS should have spokes, or you could try Olympia. Here in Winnipeg Olympia rebuilds/builds wheels so they do sell DT (or is it wheelsmith) spokes.
mike said:
It is a folding bike. It is a full size, front suspension ....
