Looking for some wheel advice

Hi all.
Hoping someone can help with my wheel dilemma.
I have just bought an old 70's Eddy Merckx road bike and the rim/tire/inner size is 26 and 1 1/4. As this size isn't stocked very well in a couple of the shops I've been to i wanted to know if there is a metric equivalent that i could swap to without having to change brakes and the rest.
Thanks
G

get the exact size from your wheel/tyre, go to Sheldon Brown webby, look up tyre sizes and cross compare. That simple really. Sheldon will tell you all about the wheel sizes. He's a genius.