Advice on old Raleigh Pursuit rear wheel

Threeknees

Retro Newbie
Hello,
I'm looking for a bit of advice. As I expect many others have been through the same pain. I have an old Raleigh Pursuit 5 speed rear wheel. It has a nasty steel rim, a bent and cross threaded axle on one side with a Sachs Malliard hub.

Should I just bin it and get a cheap modern rear wheel?
or
Is it worth getting the hub built into a new wheel, once I've fixed the axle?

I'm trying to keep it as cheap as practically/reasonably possible.
 
Get a cheap new wheel, quality will be as good or no worse than the old one and the alloy rims will allow you to actually stop plus its way less hassle. The polished alloy rims look like steel so wont spoil the look but dont rust and of course are lighter.
 
Yes, you can pick up alloy wheels for a screw-on 5-speed freewheel for not too much. The seller mattempleton on eBay sells some nice quality budget stuff for older bikes.
 
Thanks for your advice guys. I was coming round to your way of thinking. I'll certainly check out that seller on ebay.
I'm considering having a go at spacing the frame to possibly take it to a six speed freewheel. It measures roughly 120mm, would taking it to 130mm be too much. Somewhat nervous about giving it a go.
 
I think 6-speed will be 125mm and it'll squeeze in an old steel frame no problem.

The thing with building another wheel is the hub is probably the cheapest bit. You can buy good quality screw-on freewheel hubs for about £10-£12, a new alloy rim maybe £15 (but postage will be quite a lot) and a set of 36 spokes should be under a tenner. Don't forget you can get different ratios on freewheels so you might not need to go to 6 gears to get what you want!
 
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