gt eunuch

Picked up a super cheap Raleigh Record tonight (full bike, $25 bucks could not pass it up) and I started taking it apart and noticed that the wheel set was quite different than what I have seen before.

Tire sidewalls read "Traveler High Pressure" and "27x1 1/4 to fit s-6 schwinn tubular rim or k-2 rim". Hubs marked "Sturmey Archer England" Rear has a 5 speed cassette threaded on, and no internal gear hub.

I cannot find much info about these online... but can I get modern tires to fit these wheels? are the hubs of decent quality? (my worry is that they came on a Raleigh Record ) and are they worth anything by themselves? I am just interested in finding out more about these since I have never had a set of tubulars before.

Excuse the picture quality, can get better detailed pictures if needed.

Captain Blight

No such thing as a 26" or 27" tubular. All tubulars (from back in the day) were and are 700c. It's a marketing term here, used improperly and out of place.

What you'd be looking for is the S-6 size; at 597 BSD, it's a bit bigger than the 26x1-3/8" British. It's a Schwinn thing, and there are tires available, though not very good ones. You can use a British 26" tube, though.

Wildwood 

Sounds like a $25 can-o-worms, wheel-wise.

pastorbobnlnh 

Schwinn used the term "Tubular" to refer to their steel rims. They were double walled, thus formed like a "tube" and quite strong. The 27" version was widely used in the late '60-'70s on bikes such as the esteemed Varsity, Continental, and Suburban. To my eye it does not look as if you have the Schwinn Tubular rims, just the tires designed to work best on them. In fact it looks as if you have a nice 27" aluminum rim.

I picked up the same Sturmey Archer front high flange hub a few years back to use in a project. At the time I did some searching and found a picture of the matching rear hub. Apparently for a time Sturmey Archer made several other components other than IGH, dynamo, and expander brake hubs.



I added the wing nuts.

big chainring 

I'd like to see a picture of your Raleigh record. With Sturmey Archer hubs its got to be pre-70's I would think.

rhm

I don't know if I'd say "Sturmey Archer made ..." various things in the 60's- early 70's. Their name appears on a bunch of components that had previously borne other names, but the tooling seems the same. Dunlop rims, for example, disappeared at some point in the mid to late 60's and were replaced by Sturmey Archer rims, but the only thing that changed was the brand name. Same with hubs; I have a rear hub just like what is shown above, branded "Brampton Made in England." These were common in the 60's, and as far as I can see they're identical to the later version that said "Sturmey Archer" on it.

Whatever name is on them, I'm sure all these things came out of the same Raleigh Industries factories.

Bianchigirll 

I think as far back as the 60s there may have been 'Junior' tubulars at 24 and 26 (actually the metric equalivlant, sizes as well as 20 BNX type.

gt eunuch

Here are a few pictures of the bicycle itself, and the serial number markings. I could not tell for the life of me what year the thing actually is. Serial number does not seem to line up with what I can find online.

gt eunuch

That is what I had read on Sheldon's site, but... why do the tires say 27 x 1 1/4?



Wow, those hubs look awesome all polished up...

And you are right, I do NOT have Schwinn tubular wheels... But they are definitely Sturmey Archer (Hubs and Hoops). I will try and get a picture of the rim itself, but it does have a Sturmey Archer stamping on it (very feint). Also, the hoops are steel, not aluminum. I think that they are tubular also, barring that the tires are glued on.

Question though, physically, what is the difference between a tubular hoop and a non hooked hoop? Could someone have glued on tubular tires onto some non hooked rims?

pastorbobnlnh 

Because they are old fashioned inexpensive 27" clincher tires designed for Schwinn's straight wall "Tubular" clincher rims. They are not expensive tubular tires with sewn in inner tubes, used primarily on the most expensive road bikes. Schwinn's tubular rims were ubiquitous on the Varsity/Continental line of bikes.
Thanks. I wish however I had used a better hub for this wheel build. But it will do.

The tires are not glued on. Heat, sun, time, and the elements have conspired to make the tire appear to be glued onto the rim.

"Hooked" and "non-hooked" refer to differences in clincher rims. Hooked is the new style and there is a small raised edge on the top-inside of the rim. New tires have a corresponding "lip" which fits under the rim's edge. The two work together to allow higher air pressure on the tires.

On the old "non-hooked" rims it was challenging to run tires higher then 75-80 lbs. Rims and tires just had a smooth side. Thus tires were bigger, not light, and thus not very race oriented. Thus a more competitive cyclist would race with tubular tires and true tubular aluminum rims (or wood rims on the track).

Hope this makes sense.

gt eunuch

Awesome, thanks for your help Pastor. I will go at them with a tire lever tonight, just wanted to make sure that I didnt actually remove a tubular tire from a rim since I have no experience with getting them back on!

Aside from that, anyone have any idea on the year of this Raleigh?

dddd

The bike looks like about a 1972 model to me.

I got a Raleigh Record in 1971 that had Sturmey steel rims, but the hubs were steel low-flanged models.

The rest of the bike looks near identical to mine, but mine had the older Milremo-branded "red wing" alloy stem on it.

This is a bike-boom Raleigh if there ever was one.

gt eunuch

Yup... I will probably restore the thing, or use it for replacements for other bicycles. Maybe sell the frame off to some local hipster looking for a sweet fixed gear project

Velognome 

It's almost old enough to be really cool. Hang it in the attic until you forget it's there and let the grand kids dscover it

Dan Burkhart 

Sturmey Archer is still making products other than IGH. Examples.
https://www.sturmey-archer.com/products/hubs/cid/1/id/32
https://www.sturmey-archer.com/products/hubs/cid/2/id/53

sailorbenjamin

I'm thinking that your bike takes plain old 27x1 1/4 tires. I'd even bet a dollar on it.
I pulled one of those Records out of the dumpster last year, just my size, too. I thought all the neighbors knew to take all rusty old Raleighs with 58cm frames to my house for recycling. Anyway, I took all of the rusty components off and the frame polished up pretty nice. So I built a single speed just for fun. It's heavier than my Supercourse or my Competition but it's the same geometry and has similar handling. I really like it. It wants more speed so I'm gonna put more gears back on it and maybe even some really skinny tires.