My poor Elgin

[Strings-n-Spokes]

Does anybody know where I can find a wheelset for my 28" Elgin Motorbike? or if there are new wheels that would fit, I know that some mountain bikes have 29" tires now. I do not have much info on prewar 28" stuff, do they need to be wood rims? etc. I would love to see this frame roll around again. Thanks

 

[kunzog]

Antique 28" wheels came in wood or steel clad. The steelclad have a wood core with an outer steel cover. Both have an outside diameter of 25 inches, the tires are 1 1/2" so add 1 1/2" for each side to 25 " and you come up with 28 inches. Be carefull when looking for antique wheels as there were also wheels for 26" tires. Most any 28 inch wood wheels you find will be warped or have come apart at the dovetail finger joints but I have bought some later "new old Stock" wood wheel rims and relaced them to antique hubs. Also watch that number of spoke holes matches the number in your old hubs. Also wood and steel clad wheels require longer spoke nipples (1inch) than standard wheels and most wood wheels use a thin washer inside the rim for each spoke. If you are building the bike to ride I would sugggest steel clad wheels. The downside for either type is reproduction tires are going to cost over $100. each and most are heavy rubber with a hollow core - non inflatable. Another option for a cheap ride solution is to us a standard 27" rim with a 27 1/4 tire. That will be close to a 28" tire and almost fill the space between the tire and fender. I have laced up 27 inch rims to antique hubs to make my 28" antique bicycles rideable. Original 28" tires were glued onto the wood or steelclad rims and can be quite a job to install. Memorylane Classics sells 28" tires and also an affordable substitute that is a "sewup tire" that works well and looks almost like the antique tires. Original wood or steelclad wheels can be found on ebay.

 

[leeemerson76]

Alternative 28" bicycle rims.....

If you look at my post "Please help identify this old bike...." you will see pic's of the wheels I used on an old 28" frame that I found. I believe the rims came off of a British bike, given the Sturmey-Archer hubs. The rims fit a 28" x 1 5/8" - 1 3/4" clincher tire. They fit my 28" frame very well. The only downside is that until I lace in a skip-tooth hub I can't use the original front sprocket.


Good luck,

Lee

 

[KansasJack]

There's a place in NYC that imports Flying Pigeon bikes from China. Flying Pigeons have 28" wheels. I have been trying to find wheels in that size for a Great Western frame that I have. I sent them an email and they replied and said they sell wheelsets complete with front and back wheels, tubes and tires for $100. As leeemerson pointed out, you'll need to either swap out the rear hub or chainring to make it work...but that's easy to do and well worth the effort to get that old gem back on the road again. Here's the link to the place:

http://www.flyingpigeonnyc.com/

 

[Strings-n-Spokes]

Wow I don't think that my first post could have gotten better responses thank you KansasJack and leeemerson so much. I found some tires on E-bay for an english bike 28x1 5/8 ithink, but the Flying Pigeon idea is genius, might even be able to find a whole bike for 1/2 the price of a new wheelset. Thanks again. The good news is that I bought a really nice 26" set of skiptooth wheels, hubs, chain hanger by JC Higgins w/ finned hubs like the elgins but more art deco not knowing that it was 28" so now I can put those wheels on something else like my roadmaster.