RoadWearier

Raleigh weighs 32 pounds with a topeak rack on it. If I could find 27 inch aluminum wheels, wouldn't be worth it? How much less would it weigh? I guessing the braking might be better, too. Ironically I actually faster on the Raleigh Capri by 2 mph than I was on the Bianchi aluminum/carbon bike. Amazing what fitness can do!

steelbikeguy

Sure, why not?

My own experience with this issue was on a Schwinn LeTour. A nice enough bike, but Schwinn liked to make sure their bikes could never break. Between the heavy tubing and the steel rims, it weighed 31 pounds....



I swapped in a set of wheels with aluminum rims, and it really did improve the feel of the bike! It was quicker getting up to speed, and the aluminum rims did better than the steel when it came to braking in the rain.

I'd probably opt for 700C rims, just for ease of finding suitable tires, but 27" aluminum would still be an improvement over steel.

Steve in Peoria

RoadWearier

Thanks Steve! I would Def swap to 700c but I assumed the brakes wouldn't line up right

Pompiere

As long as there is about 1/4 inch of slot left on the brake arm to lower the pads, you should be good.

RoadWearier

Ok. I'll check it out when I get home. There's used 700c wheels all over the place. How about the gears? I understand these are old freewheel hubs. How does that work?

Classtime 

Yep. If your going to buy wheels and your brakes will reach, go 700c.

randyjawa 

I have a nice set of Weinmann rimmed alloy wheels that I harvested from this old Carlton (long story but the Carlton might be a Raleigh due to rebadging - long story). As for the weight...




Bicycle weight and wheel weight are both, wait for it, weights. But in the case of the wheel, the impact of weight is dramatically increased. Why?

Get a wheel, any bicycle wheel, and holding it with both hands by the axle, tip it from side to side. No issue or resistance - right?

Now, spin the wheel and tip from side to side. The resistance can be felt immediately. Why? Because the wheel, both wheels, are gyroscopes. The heavier the rim, tire, liner and inner tube, the more increased the gyroscopic effect. Also, the larger the diameter, the greater the gyroscopic impact. The net result = the heavier and bigger the wheel, the more sluggish the bike will feel.

NOTE: The above is my opinion and not, necessarily, fact. But I believe it is, in fact, a reality that impacts bicycle performance.

Trakhak

That opinion has persisted for years, but it's been demonstrated to be largely a myth. From my personal experience back in my time trialing days (I set a local 10-mile record once), I learned that my ultra-ultra-light Hi-E wheels didn't improve my course times versus Mavic GP4 rims and comparable tubulars.

In fact, I found that those light wheels made it a bit hard to concentrate on pedaling. I was constantly distracted by the feel of the micro-accelerations required per pedal stroke compared to the slight but perceptible smoothing of the stroke that the heavier Mavic rims provided, or so it seemed to me.

Evidently the companies that design high-performance wheels now uniformly concentrate on aerodynamics primarily and wheel/rim weight only secondarily. The numbers have spoken.

Edit:

Speaking of numbers, here's a quote from an article describing a study in which a guy crunched some and reported his results; see this page:

"So, what do all these numbers mean? They mean that when evaluating wheel performance, wheel aerodynamics is the most important factor, distantly followed by wheel mass. Wheel inertia effects (i.e. “the rotating mass”) in all cases are so small that they are arguably insignificant."

randyjawa 

A point apparently well taken and shared. That said, I tend to go with personal experience and, even though numbers are not wrong, or so they say, the number two concern, when it comes to wheels, is weight. "concentrate on aerodynamics primarily and wheel/rim weight only secondarily"

Keep in mind that every mechanical advantage must be taken when high end racing bikes are concerned. Were it not for that decades long focus and pursuit, our road bikes would still weigh in at 25 pounds plus.

Anyway, my comments about wheel weight and negative impact on ride quality, were opinion based, opinion based on what I feel after having restored and/or refurbished and ridden dozens of vintage road bikes. I am, however, open to any opportunity to learn.

shoota 

I'm with you. I don't care what the numbers say, lightweight wheels (and bikes) feel more fun to ride and that's what matters the most to me (and likely the vast majority of people, too).

repechage

Most 27” to 700c exchanges only require a 4mm adjustment.
as the tires are so much more plentiful in choice. The way to go, hooked rims also allow better variation in pressure as well.
700c might require a change to presta valves.
More recent hubs will be freehub, the freewheel being integrated with the hub.
this started really in 1985. Shimano being the dominant player. ( yes there were other systems way back but they did not endure)

almost ALL of those more recent hubs will be wider.
can be an issue, but not a dealbreaker.

as far as being faster on one bike over another… I used to have a chance to ride with a friend, they on a Mtb, I traded off between a old English roadster and my road bike. They commented it was easier to keep up when I was on the roadster. The road bike had toe clips and straps.
that was a dramatic difference.
20 years ago when I was young and fit, I perplexed cat 3 racers as while I was on a mtb, they could not keep up in the hills, my bike spotted theirs by 6-8 lbs. it is the engine.

randyjawa 

This is sort of interesting and applicable to this thread. Have been lucky enough to have owned a few Marinoni bicycles, most of which have found new homes. I do, however, still have two left.

Not sure of the exact age of this one, which I bought a couple of years ago and, finally, got around to refurbishing it this Spring. Great bike that offers what might be Shimano first generation seven speed Brifters (I think) coupled with Marinoni ride quality...


And then, this recently purchased steed, again a Marinoni that, sadly, I have not had a chance to ride yet (I don't ride in sub zero weather anymore). I should add that, as nearly as I can recall, this bike will be my introduction to the V shaped rims...


Interestingly enough, the bike with the Atlanta 96 wheels weighs a wee bit less than the other one.

Looking forward to Spring in Thunder Bay when riding season comes round again. Until then, I will have to be satisfied with riding here and drink a Heiken or Red Stripe draft at Jack Sprats, a lovely watering hole in Jamaica...

Velo Mule

Given the opportunity, I will always upgrade to aluminum rims. There are many positives and few negatives to the change. Here is my list of wheelsets that I would wait for a better set of wheels.

1. If the new hub is too wide. I don't like spreading the rear drop outs. I'm ok with a little spreading but not more than a few mm.
2. If the spoke count is too few. For road bikes in the era that I prefer, that means 36 spokes. For 26" mountain bikes, 32 minimum.
3. If there are any problems with the new rims. Of course rims can be replaced. They are to some extent a consumable on a bike.
4 If there are any problems with the spokes. Spokes can be replaced and if I otherwise like the wheelset, I can either replace the suspect spokes or do a complete relace with stainless steel spokes. But if the rest of the wheel doesn't cause me to want to take on this extra effort, then I will pass or at least save it for another project.
5. If they are deep aero rims that would not look appropriate on the bike. I sometimes like Frankenbikes, but if I have an otherwise classic bike that wouldn't seem right with these more modern rims, I'd pass. Like Speedo's on an old guy.

Bike coops and other resources have many good quality 27" rims that I would consider. They are often period correct for the donor bike and while there is less variety of tires available, as long as I can get the ones that I like, I'm good with 27" rims. On the other hand, if you are going to be buying new, I'd go with 700C.

One more thing, @RoadWearier , we need a picture of your Raleigh Capri. I'm surprised you got as many replies without posting a picture as you did. It doesn't matter that much for the answers, but we like pictures and it helps to get replies.
'

52telecaster

Where are you? I have many aluminum wheel sets you could have for free.

1989Pre 

I think Capri is early-to-mid 80's, right? (I remember the black ones). Yeah, definitely get rid of the steel rims. One of the first upgrades I made on my 1980 Grand Prix, along with the Stronglight 93 crank and Brooks B17), was some Rigida aluminum rims. It made a big difference. This upgrade will transform your bike. Check out some Wolber GTX hard-ano.
492g vs 750g for Rigida 27" (steel) Chrolux, so you lose over a pound of weight per wheelset. Myself, I am not so concerned about weight. The reason I ride aluminum rims is because I found that early (before mid-80's) steel rims went out of true a lot of the times. If you already have aluminum-bodied hubs, you can stick with those, or there are plenty to choose from from mid-80's. What kind of riding do you have planned for this bike?

sd5782 

I couldn’t stand nearly everything about the Schwinn 27” steel rims on a vintage Continental that I converted to an upright bike for my son. Mix and match aluminum on it now, but a nice ride improvement too.

rustystrings61 

The ONE upgrade ALL of my friends agreed with in the mid-70s was rims. They all had Schwinn LeTours, I had a Batavus Tour de l'Europe, and they ALL came stock with nasty steel rims. I went with Weinmanns, I think they got Arayas, but it all worked out the same. The bikes were more fun and the brakes worked a lot better.

JohnDThompson 

For me, the dramatic improvement in brake performance, especially when wet, is far more important than the relatively trivial weight loss. And, as others have suggested, consider 700C rather than 27" rims if your brakes will permit it. You'll have a far broader selection of decent quality tires to choose from. If your current brakes won't reach to the 700C brake track on the rim, Tektro makes a decent, affordable long-reach dual pivot caliper you could consider.

Fredo76

On a 32 lb. bicycle, nothing will make more of a difference than lighter rims, (unless it's lighter tubes and tires!).

I'd go for it.

Measure the distance between the rear dropouts, and make sure any new wheels are the right size, axle-wise.

Road Fan

I swapped a set of 700c wheels for a sit of 27 x 1 ¼, on my 1984 Trek 610. Everything was a drop-in change, except that I had to move the brake shoes down 4 mm each. The OEM brake allowed this change as it if was engineered to go both ways.

I swapped out the original 1952 Dunlop steel Special Lightweight rims 27 x 1 ¼ for a pair of aluminum Wolber Super Champion Modelle 58 27 x 1 ¼ rims 40sp/32sp. The Dunlop rims weigh 679 grams each, and the Modelle 58 weighs 547. So that swap saved 264 grams, which is a little over 0.62 lb. Nothing to sneeze at. If you wanted to go to 700c, the Mavic MA-40 I had on m Trek swap weighed 470 grams, for a savings of 410 grams (0.92 lb ignoring the effect of different hubs)! So going to lighter rims is significant in terms of pure weight savings. I'm ignoring any differences in the spoke sets and hubs. For me I could not go to 700c because I didn't see any 40 hole 700c rims - my 1952 bike had a 40 hole Sturmey gearhub and it was way too much work to convert to derailleur gearing. Converting to tubulars could have gone farther, with possibly 450 grams of tire versus 1000 grams of lincher tire /tube, and rim weight as low as 600 grams for a pair of Mavic 280.

But without added complications, going to 700c is the hot ticket for weight weenying, if you can ignore the 1 to 2 pound gearhub on my bike!

88ss

I swapped 27" alloy rims onto a Schwinn ten-speed by lacing them onto my existing hubs. I noticed the bike was not as stable because of the loss of the gyro-effect of the steel rims which were a little lighter. I weighed the alloy and steel rims before I swapped and it is only about a half-pound savings in weight for the bike overall, but I like to play with riding hands-off and it is noticeably harder to ride hands-off without those steel rims helping. I only did the swap because a friend gave me the alloy rims for free. Most modern road bikes are going to big tires, 30mm to 32mm, which happens to be exactly what is easily available for 27" rims these days, I have a set of Pacela pro-tites on my 27" road bike and they are light and puncture resistant over the last 1500 miles or so. They make brake pads with compound specifically for steel and alloy rims both, so if you are having trouble braking in the wet with steel rims then it is easier to get new pads than swap rims. I have bikes with steel rims that brake very well in the wet with the new pads I bought for them, and I have had some bikes with alloy rims that did not brake well even in the dry. The brand and style of brake caliper has as much to do with braking power as anything, also the leverage the levers provide, so alloy rims are not a magic-wand to instant better braking every time.

The thing that makes a bicycle lightweight is mostly the frame, if you have a straight-gauge steel frame then the bike will always be heavier than one with a butted-steel high-end frame. If you go pick up an old Schwinn World Sport or other vintage ten-speed that has alloy rims, bars, stem, cranks, hubs etc. it will still feel heavy if it has that straight-gauge 1020 or chro-mo frame, but if you go pick up a bike that was originally sold with a high-end butted steel frame you will easily notice that it is down to 25 pounds give or take a pound, especially if it is a smaller frame size.

So I just enjoy my old bikes for what they are now, I have a few old ten-speeds with steel rims and they work great the way they are for what they are, and I have another one I swapped the alloy rims on again because I got the rims for free and it was an experiment, and one of my old ten-speeds has a butted frame and alloy parts and it is of course the light one. But they all get the job done for casual riding equally. None of us are racing at a level where a few pounds off the bike is going to make any difference, and even in pro racing it will not make a difference unless the race is very hilly. I don't ride a lot of hilly routes so the weight of my bikes is not noticed, and especially because I weight over 200 pounds, the bike is such a small percentage of the total bike/rider weight, that losing a few pounds off the bike is not going to do anything for me at all. If I were a very small rider I would maybe worry about it a little more.

1989Pre 

I was unaware that the Raleigh 410 tubing (that the Capri was made from) was so heavy. Wow.

1989Pre 

That's a good call. I run the same rims on my Barnard. I avoided the Dunlops also because their max psi is 70. I run my Super Champs at 100 psi with wire-bead high-pressure 27x1".

Road Fan

Actually before I went to the 58s, I tested the Dunlops by running them with true 27 x 1 1/4rims (tires designed tfor rims like that ) at the rated pressure or 90 psi -- no problems!

I think the general caution is for when you may not be certain the tire-rim is a match.