Help identify this Armstrong bicycle
 

Doe anyone know what model Armstrong this is, approximately what year it was made, and what type of components it would have had? Thanks.

I'd guess mid to late 60s and would put it akin to the Raleigh Record from that era. That's a Sir Walter Raleigh stamp on the crankset, and Armstrong was snapped up by Raleigh at some point, I believe.

Neal

answer for the armstrong
 

check out this armstrong--

http://www.flickr.com/photos/1529740...n/photostream/

i am guessing early '60s

john

Cool Stuff. Never heard of Armstrong other than Lance. Funny, today I rode my bike and a kid yelled out the window of a passing car, "Hey Lance". Running into alot of red bikes on thne forum, I want one!

You cannot go wrong with a 49-46 chainring combo and red with a white head tube. :)

I had an old Armstrong 9-speed (3-speed Sturmey-Archer AW hub with a 13-19-25 Cyclo hybrid cogset) for awhile in the late 1960s, and it was kind of fun.

I have a Dunelt with the same Made In England script decal. Those were a trade commission issue so many bikes wore that same Decal. Yours has no lantern mount on the fender (that I could see). I think this would make it no older than mid-60's. Mine is probably late 50's, based on the age of some of the parts that came on it. Did this bike come with parts?

It looks...so...warm there.

Looks a bit like my Raleigh built B.S.A. , but with better components.

I belong to a bicycle tool collective in New Brunswick, NJ (http://web.mac.com/folkengineering/i...rary/home.html) and this Armstrong was in a pile of frames in the back corner of our workshop. All it has on it are the cranks, pedals, clips, seat post, pumps clips, and bottle cage. The stem, bars, and brake levers were elsewhere in the shop, but I grabbed them because they looked like the most British stuff in the place (I figure they're probably from the late 60s/early 70s). I also found an old Campy front derailleur that looks like the kind that were on the early Raleigh Gran Sport. I think it's a Gran Sport, but I've seen them refered to as a Valentino. It looks like the one in this link (http://members.aol.com/satorumas/bra...py1stGSfd.html), but it has a different logo.

So th big question is whether or not it's worth fixing up and, if so, what kind of components would it have had?

It was pretty warm when the pictures were taken (I was in shorts), but NJ is cold and wet now.

wow, i know i'm bringing this back from the dead. Sorry but I just picked up this same bike from my girlfriends neighbor...its more complete than the OP's bike. I've been trying to find out what model and year it was made but am pretty disappointed that there isn't much information on these bikes...then again it is a low end brand so it doesn't catch much of the lime light as the other Raleigh brands.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v3...h_IMG_2369.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v3...h_IMG_2370.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v3...h_IMG_2372.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v3...h_IMG_2373.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v3...h_IMG_2375.jpg

To the OP: What did you end up doing with your bike? Updated pics?

Everyone else: The bike I picked up is actually in great condition...needs a new seat, brakes and cables obviously. The gears and crank wouldn't budge at first but a days worth of soaking in Liquid Wrench and they started working again...still needs to be pulled apart and thoroughly cleaned...I can hear that there's sand/dirt inside. The top tube shifters are pretty brittle [i broke one of the shifters in half from shifting it] so I'm thinking about changing them out for a newer drivetrain or shifters [if possible] or just turning the bike into a fixed gear. Anyone?

The frame has surface rust and I plan on re-painting the frame so I would like to know if there is a company that makes transfers like those on this bike?

As for the head badge I would like to take it off but I noticed its riveted on the head tube is there a way of getting this off? I want to repaint the badge to its original and put it back on the bike and so that I can properly paint the frame.

Any suggestions? Input?

B-grade or sports bike(Raleigh) late 60s early70s 10 speed.
Armstrong did build quality hi-grade frames/this just is not one of their 531 tubed frames.

thanks for the quick reply. thats what i figured about this bike...i'm not really looking for a jem more of just a bike that i can rebuild that would look good and ride good.

you could look at hlloydcycles.com for the transfers. This is not a high end bike, but it may be older than you would originally think, based on a few details. If you remove the rivets then you should source some replacements (a good LBS will have badge rivets). The paint may come up - try a little paint polish somewhere inconspicuous. If not, well, it has aged well. It is a prime candidate for fixiefication.

If you want a better guess at age, we need to see the crank area in greater detail (include a pic of the pedals), the top of the fork, hubs, and where the rear wheel attaches to the bike.

awesome. thanks. i see hlloydcycles does have some transfers/decals available...i'll probably pick them up even though they wont be period correct. =\ its better than having a blank frame.

i'll hit up Atomic cycles in my area about the head tube rivets i know they deal with a lot of old bikes so maybe they can give me a heads up on how to take it off without risking damage to the bike and to see if they can help me convert it into a fixed gear bike =]

the bikes original paint is actually a nice metallic red. The paint has pretty much faded away. There was tape wrapped around certain parts of the frame to hold the cables and when I took them off I found the original paint still preserved under it.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v3...h_IMG_2374.jpg

I'll take better and more detailed pictures of the parts you listed as soon as it stops raining here and when i recover from turkey overdose. =P

Thanks again!

I couldn't wait. Here's the pictures. I took a shot of all the stampings i could find on the bike. I couldn't get a good shot of the rear hub but both hubs had the same stamping on them like the crank arms.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v3...h_IMG_2389.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v3...h_IMG_2390.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v3...h_IMG_2393.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v3...h_IMG_2406.jpg

No stampings on the forks.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v3...h_IMG_2394.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v3...h_IMG_2395.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v3...h_IMG_2396.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v3...h_IMG_2397.jpg

10 image limit =\
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v3...h_IMG_2399.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v3...h_IMG_2400.jpg

Top tube shifter.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v3...h_IMG_2401.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v3...h_IMG_2402.jpg

Seat
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v3...h_IMG_2403.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v3...h_IMG_2404.jpg

bump

I'd guess it's from right after the Raleigh takeover, I have an Armstrong frame, it's shares some similar features. Yours has quite an interesting assortment of parts.

I don't have any info about your nice example, but how about some gratuitous pics of an Armstrong that I helped a friend flip a few months back?

http://www.boomspeed.com/artoflaw/in...rmstrong00.JPG
http://www.boomspeed.com/artoflaw/in...rmstrong02.JPG

http://www.boomspeed.com/artoflaw/in...rmstrong05.JPG

you'll be needing a bucket of wood bleach for the rust on those parts. The bike has sat out in the sun long enough that the top coat (it was called flamboyant red) has been all faded away. You could experiment with some red candy paint if you're feeling brave.

Thanks and by interesting does that mean good or bad? Any info on them? I'm a complete noob at bikes older than 1997 [thats when I started to ride bmx] never really looked into the parts I have but I made sure they came off in one piece or at least able to be put back together.

Nice! i wish my headbadge looked as new as your friends...did you guys refurbish it? I plan on refurbishing mine but instead of gold paint it will have gold leaf [imitation gold leaf]

The bike is pretty much stripped to the frame now. The only things that gave me a hard time were the cotter pins which were a night mare and now the quill...I'm going to take it to a shop and have them pull it off for me since they are more equipped and knowledgeable of the job. Soaking every bolt I could get to with Liquid Wrench everyday really helped when the day came for me to take the bike apart.

I've taken the bike to my friends autobody shop and he said its mostly surface rust [he saw it before it was stripped down] but as soon as its ready he's gonna have my frame chemical dipped so we can see where the real problems are and thanks for the name on the paint! I used to paint cars for my friend so I'm going to be using his shop to paint my frame...I wan't to get as close as possible to the original paint if not then I'm probably just going to paint it with a 4 stage deep candy apple red with lots of clear coat. :D

Wish me luck and thanks to all of you who have replied!

I just did a quick search for wood bleach and came up with a thread about an old bmx that someone restored with that stuff. AMAZING...I was planning on using 800 grit sand paper and some brasso but this sounds like it would do the job with less effort than I had planned. Thanks Luker. :thumb:

We spent part of a weekend stripping it down to the frame and cleaning it up, but there was no significant rust and we managed to get the original paint to shine. Good luck with your restoration, and be sure to take lots of pics along the way!

Neither, just, interesting. Not just the standard Raleigh/Huret Allviet jumble you might expect.

My armstrong is rotting away in my garage awaiting a fixed gear conversion...No its not a conversion its original!...

I have an Armstrong that came with beneluxe derailleurs and cyclo five speed freewheel. The interesting part is the hubs are Resilion flip flop. Free on one, fixed on the other...Such great looking hubs but I can't find good cones...

Anybody help please...I've got pretty campy bits to trade.

I've ran into a few problems myself. Apparently my Armstrong came with 71mm & 26tpi BB shells. An odd size and swapping out for newer square tapered BB+crank set has now pretty much gone down the drain unless I want to spend a few hundred to convert it...which for this brand bike and purpose its going to be built for is not worth it...so, I opted to keep the original crank+bb set that was on the bike but I've come to find out that the ball bearings have made a groove into the spindle, bearing retainers were gone to dust and that my adjuster cup was cracked.

On top of that the local LBS I went to for help has been giving me wrong information luckily I was able to ask for help here in the mechanics section and they were able to help me figure things out before I spent all that money on parts that would not have worked on the bike. I have been going to another LBS since then and this new store actually has someone that kinda knows and is willing to do the research to help me build this bike. So far they were able to dig up a new adjuster cup for me and at the moment we are looking for a new spindle/axle and as far as the bearings go we will just sit them inside the cups with a lot of grease and put a plastic shield inside to keep dust out. Hopefully this will work I still have to try and figure out how to take the smaller sprocket/gear on the crank for ss/fg use.