prairiepedaler

Hello, I'm about 8 or so pounds over the clyde threshold and have a pair of Araya RX7 36 single wall wheels, which are mated to Exage hubs. I wanted to use these on a winter bike. The tires will be a minimum of 26x1.95 in width. Riding is usually the rider and perhaps 25 pounds of locks & cargo, routinely. The question is, will this wheelset be sufficient under this load and usage? I can do most everything else in terms of maintenance, but haven't learned the finer points of truing and tensioning a wheel. I'd like to build some eventually and become proficient at it.

Moisture

As long as you ensure the spokes are correctly tensioned and you don't hit and really bad bumps, you'll be okay. Ride gently.

cyccommute 

I like double wall better but I spent many, many, many years riding single walls because that’s all that was available (80s and 90s). Even in off-road situations, they never had much of a problem. Just ride ‘em and replace them is they fail. Failure is usually a slow process, by the way. The wheel isn’t going to suddenly collapse.

Moisture

As long as you don't damage or bend the axle/hub they will last a long time with regular truing. No need for crazy rims here.

cyccommute 

I didn’t ride them gently back in the day. These were mountain bike wheels and I wasn’t know for being gently on equipment...I’ve broken 4 frames...one of them multiple times.

Damaging the hub is a different problem. I’d suggest against a freewheel hub for heavy loads.

prairiepedaler

Ok, the consensus is treat the single walled wheels to be used in this situation with common sense. This bike is nothing more than A-B transport on paved roads but icy conditions are rough, like mini potholes and speedbumps sometimes. The hubs are freehub type. I too would prefer a good double walled rim in a 36h, especially on the rear. I ran a 32h double walled on the back for the last two years before the BRC frame failed and without any problems.

tallbikeman

I own a pair of these very durable 26" rims. One is on my cycletruck and I expect to get a long life from it. I raced off road both pre NORBA and in NORBA events in the early 1980's on this model rim and never had any problems. They were bulletproof. I weighed 215lbs when I was racing. They were 36 spoke rims. I doubt you will have problems with those rims. The advice about freewheel hubs given above is best heeded. If your rear wheel has a freewheel hub and you weigh roughly 233lbs then you will bend the axle. You can put a chrome moly axle in and I see they are still available but the best solution is a cassette hub. Good luck with your good old rims.

prairiepedaler

Ah ok, well that is some good experience shared. This wheelset does indeed feature a cassette/freehub. I just finished repacking them recently with some low temperature grease for the many fridgid subzero days ahead.

Moisture

I've had to learn this the hard way from personal experience, lol.

I got some Araya rims laced to suzue hubs on my vintage road bike. These are good rims. They've been bent before in the past so I have to leave two of the spokes pretty much completely loose or it will begin to bend towards that direction. Despite this, the rear rim is holding up mostly fine despite my thrashing. I weigh 220lb but I do ride with a load fairly often.

Should I be worried about the freewheel being destroyed under my weight? It's happened to me in the past with another bike. This rim seems to be holding up well enough so I'm not being very easy on it. How can I check that the hub is holding up?

Is it difficult to convert this to a freewheel? me and my friend are going to change out my old 5 speed cassette for a 7 speed I got laying around just for fun tommorow, hence the question.

cyccommute 

The freewheel isn’t the problem. The bearings on the axle are buried behind the freewheel which leaves a significant amount of axle cantilevered out to the frame without support of the bearings. This tends to bend the axle at the bearings in the hub. Bent axles are freewheel hubs is a common problem. Broken axles is also a common problem.

To check, take the wheel off the bike and spin the axle while looking at the end of the axle on the freewheel side. If the axle doesn’t run true...it will look like it is moving up and down, you need a new axle.

Freehub designs fixed this problem. The bearing is out at the end of the axle next to the frame. Bending in the middle of the axle is almost impossible with this design.

I think you are confused about terminology. You don’t have a “5 speed cassette”. Shimano basically invented the cassette concept and they only made them in 6 speed or higher. If you have a 5 speed cluster on the rear, you have a freewheel. You can only put freewheels on your wheel. You might be able to put a 7 speed freewheel on the bike but I really doubt it will fit. 5 speed freewheel wheels tend to be 126mm wide which is too narrow to accommodate the wider 7 speed freewheel.

Moisture

Thank you for this great information.

I'm going to be replacing my rear tire with a new 700c tire. Its got a 7 speed shimano on it. Not sure if it is a cassette or freewheel.

My derialluer (suntour 7-gt) can accommodate up to 7 speeds. I can see space between the end of my current freewheel and the right frame dropout, so I'm pretty confident it should fit.

If it does, the new tire, rim and cassette (?) Will surely make a big difference with the way the bike feels.