What did I just buy?
I picked this up this afternoon, its rough but it does ride.
Its a Dunelt, not sure of the year. The rear hub is an unknown, the brake arm has no brand on it. It sort of looks like a German Centrix hub but its a 40 spoke hub on a Dunlop rim. The rims are pretty rusty but seem solid. The bike is really rough but it was cheap at only $50.
Its a bit small for me, I was hoping to find something taller but there appears to be room to raise the seat quite a bit.
The speedometer and light kit are going to get tossed, the rear fender needs some work, it looks like someone beat on it with a pipe.
The bottom bracket has a grease port on the right side.
The rear hub has a grease fitting that's on a short stand pipe about 1/2" tall, with a grease fitting on top. The stand pipe appears to be part of the hub shell.
The saddle has a Wright logo on the back.
I was able to give the chain a shot of WD40 and pump up the tires and it does ride and stop, although it no doubt needs major work.
Any idea as to how old? The hub doesn't have any date codes showing that I can see and I didn't find any serial numbers anywhere on the frame yet.
Both tires are Dunlop branded and they match, both are badly dry rotted but they seem to hold air ok so far.
The seller gave me two other 'parts' bikes that aren't even remotely related to this bike, but I took them anyway figuring I can sell them to fund this one.
Its rough, but for $50, its the best deal I found considering that most $200 bikes I looked at weren't much better, or weren't even able to ride up the street and back. Keep in mind I use the term ridable loosely here, its by no means ready to use but the fact that I am able to sit on it and pedal it up and down the street is big plus compared to most others I've looked at.
The rear tube has a woods valve stem, the front is a common schrader valve.
The lettering on the frame is all painted, not decals.
I'm not sure at this point what I'm doing with it, but with enough time and labor it is fixable.
I'd have likely left it if it weren't for the oddball rear hub.
I'm used to seeing Sturmey Archer or Perry rear hubs on English single speed bikes, this doesn't appear to be from that family.
The hub shell looks a lot like an old Centrix hub but I never saw one in 40h on a larger bike, most of those were on kids bikes. Surprisingly the coaster brake works fine. The rims are even still true.
The rims are rusty, and the chrome is no doubt gone, but they don't seem to be pitted. I'm thinking that if they look okay under the tires, I may just sand and paint them black and rebuild both hubs. The bars, cranks, and the rest of the chrome seems like it'll polish up fine.
The paint is another story, any sort of polishing will eliminate what's left of the decals. Maybe a good cleaning and sealing it with clear is an option to retain the original look.
One bad part is that they sawed off the end of the original light bracket. The Cat Eye bracket on it now is on top of the original and the angle bracket they made to hold the current headlight is made from the piece they cut off.
The generator is one of those that rub the tire on the left side. Surprisingly, the thing still works and both lights still light up if you can manage to still pedal it after the generator is engaged. Flipping that thing into the tire feels like your dragging an anchor. It must have seen a lot of use because the tire is worn smooth where the generator contacts the tire.
