A mate of mine recently had his front wheel stolen off his very old Raleigh road bike and I bought a secondhand road wheel off STW classifieds to try and help him out.
But it's too small. Thought it must have been a weirdly small wheel but then tried it on my own road bike and it's normal. Did road wheels used to be bigger? And if so, does anyone have a spare front one hagning around? Or will I just have to get long drop brakes for it?
If it was a [i]very[/i] old Raleigh, and depending on the type of bike ('Gents' sit-up-and-beg general purpose bicycle as opposed to a drop handlebar 'racer' (in old speak)?) then it's possible the original wheel was a 27" or 28", as opposed to a 700c.
Presumably he still has the original rear wheel though, so a look at the markings on the rear tyre sidewall should clear things up.