Over the winter we managed to pick up, cough, three(!) English 3-speeds. One was a 21" Hercules from possibly 1970/1971 that came from a pretty inept bike flipper. It was pretty beat, missing the fenders, but the wheels were in quite good shape. I needed a bike to tow a trailer with, and this seemed like it'd fit the bill.
The old handlebars were bent, and while I had a spare Raleigh replacement, I decided to swap out everything. Stem is some cheap steel Sunlite one, and the handlebars are Wald
#896 , my favored cruiser bars. (Slightly longer and wider than the original Raleigh bars.) Cork grips, Velo-Orange levers, a spare Sunlite saddle I had laying around in the basement, a new front brake, new tires, new cog (20T--it originally had a 17T one... no, just no...) and chain, and it was done. It did have the nice fully-servicable rubber block pedals we all know and love, but I put those on my wife's bike, since that came with those hideous solid-plastic pedal-shaped-objects of legend, and put on some random old pedals I had in the basement.
The bike my wife picked up (I'll post pics someday, probably) had a coaster-brake rear hub, which she immediately hated, so I swapped the AW wheel from this Hercules onto hers. Hence this battered black Herc with three brakes-well, really two and a half, since the TWC Mark III leaves a bit to be desired in the stopping department.
Took it for the first ride this afternoon, and I'll be on the lookout for a replacement AW wheel soon, as I hate the TWC only slightly less than my better half does.
I like to replace the front brakes on newer three-speeds with a centerpull. It's mostly easy enough to do, but you seem to always need a rear brake, regardless of manufacturer, for sufficient reach. (This is a Weinmann-made one from my LBS, apparently off an old Raleigh.)
Anyway, yeah, another Hercules, somewhat butchered. Turned out a bit more hipster-ish than I was hoping, and the only thing more annoying than the TWC is the lack of a kickstand (to be replaced, soon), but it should haul a trailer just fine, which is the important part. And I now have a black English three-speed, which everyone should have at least one of, so there is that.