conradpdx

Where'd you buy the girlfriend? I know a few people that might be interested. Especially if they got a nice seat and rack.....

IthaDan 

:golfclap:

fixed1313

Thanks!

pixelpete

Greetings all, a look at a RRA I found for my sweet beloved...

pixelpetedotcom/RRA/

as found

Cheerio

Fastguy1955

what seats are those on the raleigh's?

Steve Bauserman 

The bike arrived, has been assembled and gone on a couple of rides. The bike is in excellent shape, the paint is great and the ride is kind of stately.

The only issue is to get the lights working. The rear light lens is missing and the switch on the headlight is working, but it appears to have had a rubber cover that is missing.

Now can someone help me figure out just what I have? The rear hub is engraved "S 51", so I take that to be 1951. The front generator hub is engraved with a "74" which i take to be 1974. The serial number is on the BB and consists of 4 numbers with no leading or trailing letters. The shifter is on the top tube which from what I have read was only done in the thirties, but anyone could add one during a restore I guess. I understand why Raleigh went to the trigger shifter, this one takes some fiddling with to get proficient at shifting.

IthaDan 

If this is directed to me, they're the brooks mattress saddles that came on the sports and sprite models.

Fastguy1955

Thanks!

jsidney

Wonderful looking bikes.

_dylan

You don't actually have an English 3 speed until you post a picture of it here. I know it's not a great picture of the bike itself, but last night's sunset helped create a pretty cool picture as I enjoyed a quiet bike around campus.

[IMG][/IMG]

PalmettoUpstate 

Ha-Ha, very good. Looks like that might be Vandy?

BTW, here are a couple of tips for my droogies at this thread:

1] _dylan your bike would look and work better with an original-and-still-unsurpassed Pletscher STANDARD kickstand as found here: https://thorusa.com/accessories/pletscher.htm

2] all: I realize, of course, that this ISN'T an English 3-speed - I doubt that even Pashley is COMPLETELY today - but I do like Nasbar and believe that these, particularly at this price point, may be of interest to those presently following here: MEN'S - https://www.nashbar.com/bikes/Produc...12_-1___202618 WOMEN'S - https://www.nashbar.com/bikes/Produc...0052_558621_-1

Cheers!

_dylan

Thanks for the tip! But it's not Vandy--it's UTK. That's Ayres Hall overlooking the Hill, and, thus, the rest of campus. My favorite building, aesthetically, on campus.

PJCB

Just picked up a 1970 Raleigh Sport for my girlfriend...needs tons of cosmetic work to be pretty but is all original and totally functional. I've never worked on an internal 3-speed hub, or an English 3-speed in general, so this should be a pretty fun experiment, haha. Before photos soon to follow.

I'll be repainting the frame and replacing all the consumables, other than that I have no idea what direction to go!

PalmettoUpstate 

Oh sheet. You'll never look back and you'll wonder why no one warned you about the addiction...

You do know about Vinny at Old Roads right?

PJCB

Haha, I can already tell I'm going to love it. And no, I don't know about Vinny...

formicaman

I've been commuting on a road bike for a while, but I brought out my Raleigh Sport this morning. That bike makes me feel like a steel giant.

PalmettoUpstate 

Vinny posts here and he has what I consider to be an excellent series of short videos at eHow.

Check him out - great straightforward information:

https://www.ehow.com/video_4946577_vi...cle-value.html

https://oldroads.com/

https://oldroads.com/links.html

PJCB

Thanks for the head's up, I'll definitely check it out. I plan on starting the rebuild project this weekend. It needs to be completely stripped down, gutted and cleaned just to start. I'm doing my own (and first attempt at) paint job, so that is going to be a pretty complex job for me. I've built many road bikes (vintage and new) and definitely my fair share of vintage mountain bikes, but this is a whole different animal!

PJCB

Alright so I finally took some pictures of the 1970 Raleigh Sport. Warning...it isn't pretty (yet). It was salvaged from a barn I guess, considering the condition of most vintage bikes that show up in my area, it wasn't a bad deal.

PJCB

These are the last two pictures that I couldn't attach.

_dylan

+1

I feel very gentlemanly when I ride. May need to invest in a monocle. No tweed, but a monocle.

PalmettoUpstate 

RE: paint tips & methods

SirMike1983 also posts here; he has some really good stuff on painting your projects here: https://bikeshedva.blogspot.com/

PalmettoUpstate 

Don't know how closely you want to put it back to original but Kenda has the only thing going that I have found that approximates the "look" of the original narrow [2 stripe] tires. I have not seen these in person but do have plans to put them on my wife's Sports at some point: https://www.amazon.com/Kenda-Street-K...8+bicycle+tire

Another thing that's interesting about your bike is the coaster brake. Here's a link to the pages in the 1970 catalog; see what you think: https://www.kurtkaminer.com/TH_raleigh_cat_70.html

PJCB

I'll have to check that out for the tires. My girlfriend is pretty adamant that she wants gumwalled, though. I noticed the coaster brake...I'm not too sure what it means for the bike though.

stove panini

This is my first serious "yes, I'm actually going to ride this" bike. It was advertised on Craigslist about two weeks ago as a 1957 Hercules. After a quick skim of Sheldon Brown's site, I tried to retain as much knowledge as possible upon going to pick it up (ha). I couldn't find the date on the hub but hey, it looked old, so 1957 couldn't be that far off, right? Well I finally found the (worn) date and it turns out it's a 1972. Nothin' to sneeze at, says Sheldon!

Here's what I've done so far, the mistakes I've made, and some glamour shots of course:


Cut off the old, dirty plastic grips and put some cork on. Didn't really measure as I should've and the bars end ~3/4" before the grips do! I also added a Pletscher rack and a Brooks-knockoff (Gyes) saddle I had lying around from an old Peugeot that was too difficult for my novice self to fix. I did, however, change the tires myself. Panaracer 650As! New brake pads, too.


It did come with this BALLIN' Mickey Mouse bell preinstalled, though.


No zip ties! So I shellacked leather shoelaces instead. (And roughed 'em up a little with sandpaper.)


Washed, polished, and waxed as much as I could.


I misread the instructions about how to remove the shift cable and bent up the spring in the shifter which came with the bike. So I put this one on instead.


The rubber taillight housing cleaned up really nicely with some Angelus Spot Remover I had lying around.


No cap on the fender! Ugh! I must've hit that fender for an hour with a rubber mallet trying to get it straight and it STILL sits all cockeyed. I'm thinkin' about getting replacement SKS silver ones, but I'll miss that green! What do you guys think?


Obscenely long front brake cable. I also accidentally polished off the (already mostly gone) paint from the Hercules badge. Whoops!


This AW hub had a piece of wood and some electrical tape acting as the oil plug. So I got a plastic cap from Harris (insane shipping cost and all) and tried to press it in instead of screwing! Bent the plastic threads back into shape with an X-acto knife after screaming into a towel for 20 minutes. Oh, I made sure to flush it with WD-40 and refill with some Shell SAE30 non-detergent oil.

So what's left? My front axle is most certainly bent, but at an equal rate so the wheel still sits reasonably straight in the fork. I can't unscrew the adjusting nuts all the way off the axle though, and the bearings probably need to be re-greased. Recommendations for a new front hub? Oh god, I don't know a thing about spoke adjustment, either. Might just have to keep it as-is for now.

If you guys have any other tips, I'd be glad to hear 'em.