If the bike is nothing special and the wheels are rusty then I would
go with swapping in 26" mtb. wheels (presuming brake reach is ok) for
the reason you mention.
At our shop we've made space for odd tires and wheels, as one never
knows what might be needed down the road. Of course, some of them
will sit for a while...
We have some 28" / 630mm wheels and tires from one of those Indian
rod brake roadsters, a few odd 26s, narrow road 24s, and at one point
a pair of 22" Peugeot tires (for their folding bike). Even have a
20" / 451 tire, which is a Brit. size and seen for a long time on the
front of earlier recumbent bikes.
Speaking of 630mm, we had around 20 new tubes in boxes donated to
us. Since we'll likely never use them up I've been contacting local
shops to let them know we have them, as most would have to order if a
customer needed one.
Mark
On 2-Jul-08, at 10:19 AM, Urban Bike Project Wilmington, DE wrote:
Someone at UBP on Saturday was having big problems changing out
some dry rotted tires on a Schwinn MTB/hybrid that had been
donated. Come to find out (after repeatedly trying to fit any size
decimal or fraction 26" on there) that corrosion on the rim was
hiding a little stamped "650B" mark on it. The cheapest 650B tire
on harris is $25 and i'm not sure the bike shop we get our parts
from would be any less expensive. The bike is in great condition
other than the tires but $50 is about what we would sell it for.
Should we swap the 650B rims for 26's? I would hate for someone to
ruin a tire and have to wait a week for something to get ordered
online or at a bike shop.Here's my question to the group....What do you do with perfectly
usable oddball bikes/parts that aren't particularly cool or
collectable? Think the "fancy parts" thread of last year but with
solid stuff that sits around gathering dust...Brian
-- Urban Bike Project of Wilmington -a 501(c)3 non-profit bike shop- 1908 N. Market Street (entrance is in the parking lot behind the
building) Wilmington, DE 19801Hours: Thursday 6:30-9:00 Saturday 1:00-4:00
Visit us online at http://urbanbikeproject.org