Here's a second restoration - the 1953 Raleigh Lenton. This bike came from a fellow collector who had to move to a new apartment, so sold some projects off. It originally was owned by a gentleman from Maryland. It started out as typical 1950s Raleigh project - a good core, but lots needed to get it back on the road.



The usual was done - take it down completely to the bearings, clean everything, replace everything that had gone bad, and then start the clean up. Missing parts were sourced from online and from my stocks of stuff. The fenders were a challenge. I'm not a huge fan of celluloid fenders because they're so brittle after 70 years. So I decided to go with some 1950s Raleigh steel fenders. Initially I had chrome-plated fenders on the bike, but earlier this season I went back over the bike for further adjustments and a set of really nice, white fenders. The white is much closer to the old configuration of green with white fenders (albeit steel Raleigh rather than celluloid Raleigh). The cranks also were a challenge because they would not index correctly. I ultimately found some 1950s era Raleigh fluted heron cranks and went with those. But when the core of the bike is good, a lot can still be done to save it. This is a nice, 531 main tubes frame with a good, straight fork. Lights are retro types with LED bulbs for riding in traffic. Perishables are replaced - brake pads, tires/tubes, grips, etc. The brake cables are old stock Raleighs with cream-colored housings, which go nicely with the green color. Saddle is a new Brooks B67. Bag is the Acorn small canvas type (same as on the Schwinn in the last post). A new fender decal was sourced from H.Lloyd in England. The pump is an old Raleigh aluminum-bodied type. It was totally disassembled, a mandrel was used to remove the dents, and a new seal and grease applied. I even sprung for Schwalbe tubes with screw-down Schrader valves on this one. Rims are dunlop club steels. It rides a lot like a Raleigh Sports but lighter and faster.