Cycle Speedway Rim (?)

[Tom B]

Having successfully filed the front dropouts last night (thanks AndyG and Biggsy!),  I attempted to fit the new wheel. It's 26 x 1 3/8" (590, not 597 but has such a wide rim that it can't be fitted in the current brakes - well, you can have one brake block but not both... Even using the slimmer blocks from another bike doesn't work.

I seem to recall someone looking at the rim and saying "that's a cycle speedway rim". IIRC, that's a brakeless sport in which wide, tough rims would be a plus. Can anyone put me right?

So i have a wheel that is unusable for normal road purposes. OK, I run the bike fixed but I'm not going down the brakeless route. Something is telling me to give up on wheel sizes that are in keeping with the 1950 frameset and go for 700c wheels 

[bikenerd]

Having successfully filed the front dropouts last night (thanks AndyG and Biggsy!),  I attempted to fit the new wheel. It's 26 x 1 3/8" (597) but has such a wide rim that it can't be fitted in the current brakes - well, you can have one brake block but not both... Even using the slimmer blocks from another bike doesn't work.

I seem to recall someone looking at the rim and saying "that's a cycle speedway rim". IIRC, that's a brakeless sport in which wide, tough rims would be a plus. Can anyone put me right?

So i have a wheel that is unusable for normal road purposes. OK, I run the bike fixed but I'm not going down the brakeless route. Something is telling me to give up on wheel sizes that are in keeping with the 1950 frameset and go for 700c wheels 

26 x 1 3/8" is actually 590mm.  26 x 1 1/4" is 597mm. 

I've just replaced 597mm rims on a bike with 590mm rims as tyres and rims are readily available.  I've used very nice Sunn CR18 rims in 590mm.  I can measure rim width later today if you like?  They fit with Alhonga deep drop dual pivots.

If you really want a 597 wheel I know that Walton Street Cycles in Oxford has some, but they're steel rims.

If you go for 700c wheels on such a bike (I'm guessing it's an old "sports touring" type bike - mine is) then you'll raise the bottom bracket and possibly affect handling a lot.

I'd go for a 590mm rim : it's what Pashley fit to all their 3 speeds and you can get Schwalbe Marathons in that size.  However these are very wide (37mm) and rubbed on my chainstays.  The Schwalbe Delta Cruiser, while nominally the same size is 34mm wide and fit in my chainstays fine.

Hope that's not too confusing!

[Tom B]

26 x 1 3/8" is actually 590mm.  26 x 1 1/4" is 597mm

Thanks, Bikenerd
Sorry, I did mean 590s (I've got 597s on the brain...) OP modified accordingly

Hadn't thought about BB height - will have to try and see, but it's only 1/2" or so. Also, changing the wheels has been attempted at the same time as flipping the Nitto moustache bar from 'upright' mode to 'drop'  and changing the saddle from a sedate sprung one to a more racy Brooks Swallow. These affect handling quite a lot 

[blackpuddinonnabike]

Cycle Speedway is fun till you fall off and break something.... 



I know that doesn't help with the rim, but what the hey...

[bikenerd]

26 x 1 3/8" is actually 590mm.  26 x 1 1/4" is 597mm

Thanks, Bikenerd
Sorry, I did mean 590s (I've got 597s on the brain...) OP modified accordingly

Hadn't thought about BB height - will have to try and see, but it's only 1/2" or so. Also, changing the wheels has been attempted at the same time as flipping the Nitto moustache bar from 'upright' mode to 'drop'  and changing the saddle from a sedate sprung one to a more racy Brooks Swallow. These affect handling quite a lot 

You have my bike!   What brake levers are you using on the Nitto moustache bars?  I've got a pair of reverse action TT levers that I was going to use, but I think the cable routing would be neater with the type of lever you'd use on a flat bar.  However, I can't seem to find any that will fit on the moustache bars as they're designed to take road levers.

[rogerzilla]

There's a well-used psycle speedway track in Swindon, at the Oasis leisure centre.  I watched a bit of it and it looks like fun, although the kids riding their (brakeless, freewheeled) bikes around the car park scared me a bit.

[Tom B]

Bikenerd, the brakes are called Big Dogs. They are chunky-looking deep-drop dual-pivot brakes with very simple levers that fit to the bars by a steel clamp secured by an allen bolt (so v easy to flip bars  )  Google suggests that these brakes were made for BMX and are now discontinued. They stop the bike ok and are in keeping with its looks.

On another moustache-barred bike I used the leversm, from ancient Weinmann centrepulls, that came with the previous drops. These worked fine also but were a bit fiddly to fit.