Vintage wheel Quality and freewheel replacement

[GeorgeET]

I have been messing with tires on my MB. Now the wheels are next.
Its a 91 Schwinn MB. It has Weinmann 2121 26x1.75 559 made in USA wheels. No Idea of quality, solid .

Alas the spokes are not Stainless and from riding on the beach rusty.

I have another Hybrid bike that I have been thinking about selling, but parts and components on it are worth more than the bike. The wheels alone are worth more than I can sell the bike for.

I have been thinking about using the Femco 26X1.50 wheels with SS spokes on this bike for my Schwinn.

Is it worth respoking the Weinmann wheels one spoke at a time to save them or are Felco wheels good? They look nice, made in Taiwan.

The other issue is that the Femco rear wheel is a 6 gear freehub and the Schwinn has a 7 gear cassette and shifters. So I am considering getting a 7 gear freewheel cluster to put on the Felco wheels.

This way I'll have two sets of wheels . Is it worth messing with the Femco wheels or better respoking the Weinmann wheels come winter?

[xerxes]

If the Schwinn hubs and rims are in good condition with little wear you could try rebuilding them with stainless spokes. However, as they cut costs by not using stainless spokes originally, it's unlikely that the rims and hubs are anything special. If the hubs and rims are quite worn, I would consider a whole new set of wheels with stainless spokes.

You could use the Femco wheels, but a freehub and cassette is a stronger, better set-up than a freewheel. With a freewheel, the hub bearings are inboard of the freewheel, so there's an inch or so of unsupported axle on the drive side, which isn't as strong as a freehub where the bearings are at the end of the freehub. Years ago, when I had a road bike with a 6 speed freewheel, I would break the axles in cheap rear wheels quite regularly, although admittedly I never had a problem with my better set of wheels with Campag hubs.

[GeorgeET]

Ye the wheels were one grade away from SS spokes. Nower days most bikes have SS spokes.

The freewheel is bolt on with solid axle, no way is that getting broken. :-)
I think I'll step it up to 7 speeds and have two sets of working wheels. Cosmetically the Femco wheels look very nice and I just serviced the bearings.

Could not find much info about Weinmann or Femco wheel grades and quality. In winter I may respoke the Weinmanns.

[xerxes]

According to Sheldon: Weinmann: A noted manufacturer of rims and (formerly) brakes. Formerly, Weinmann was based in Belgium and Switzerland, but the current Weinmann company is U.S. based.

I couldn't find a current web site, it seems that the company has has had a bit of a turbulent past, so perhaps it's in difficulty again or possibly folded. Weinmann rims are still available though - odd.

I remember Weinmann brakes, back in the 80's it seemed every other road bike had Weinmann brakes, but I'm not familiar with their rims.