Andrew F

Sounds like the bar shifter is hanging up, I'd give that a squirt of light machine oil (wd40 if you really have to) but IMO it's best to keep the WD40 out of the hub.

AL NZ

A 4-day holiday weekend here in NZ, spring is sprung, so I did a little spring maintenance on my 4 speed Raleigh, plus swapped a brown B66 for a black Flyer Special on my old BSA, and it looks much better. Goes better, too, with the narrow saddle.

Here are the pics. They could have gone in the 'What are you wrenching?' or 'White tyres' threads, but this is the thread that never dies ..

The Raleigh had decaying but nice Michelins on it, so I bought some Cheng Shins. I quite like the grey, but the quality is not special. They don't quite fit right, so both front and rear have a bit of a flat spot because I don't think the inner diameter is quite right for the stainless Dunlop rims. I deflated and fettled and re-inflated but I cannot eliminate the problem. I would have gone for Delta Cruisers but the NZ agent is apparently hopeless, and about to be replaced by an equally-hopeless new agent, so laments my bike shop guy. the deltas are unavailable.
The sharp-eyed amongst you will also have spotted salmon Koolstops on front and grey on rear. I rang the NZ agent, and he had these as samples and gave them to me! Now that is generous, thank you Mr Philips in Christchurch.
And they are so much better than the generic rubbish I bought in the UK 6 months ago.
My little tyre swap turned into a 2 hour effort in the beating sun, as I took the opportunity to put on a new chain, no small task with a full chain case as many of you will know. It is almost a 2-man job. Anyway, back in the UK I had swapped the rear 18 tooth sprocket for a 21 to improve low ratios for slow rides with the kids, but this pulled the rear wheel too far forward in the dropouts to the point where the chaincase didn't fit properly, so I put in a new chain, 106 links instead of 102, and now the wheel sits more centrally in the rear mudguard, and the chaincase is back to its happy self.
But the 4 speed hub had me flummoxed.
With the bike upside down I foolishly tried to fit the 2 piece indicator on the wrong way. This despite me being a surgeon and being used to thinking which side is which etc, on a daily basis. But in terms of an operation, I had done the hard part, which was the chain swap, so I had got complacent, so cocked this bit up. The 2-part indicator chain wouldn't screw together in the middle of the hub, and when I realised I had it the wrong way around, I sorted it. Then, when back together, it wouldn't engage 4th gear, only 1-2-3. It freewheeled in 4th. So I oiled the hub again and rode around, to no avail. Then I removed the indicator, put it back and now it's all fine! So buggered if I know what gremlin was messing with me.
While I had the wheels off I took the chance to rub 30W Briggs and Stratton mower oil into the slightly rusting inside surface of the mudguards, so hopefully they'll last another 55 years (more than I will).
These bikes are becoming workaday heirlooms. Look out kids, the oldies are going to foist them upon you..

The BSA is going nicely. I oiled the brake and it actually works a little bit now.
I went to a short blast last night, and basing the distance on the fairly accurate mileometer, I averaged 15mph. Not bad for an old bike and an unfit rider.

I am wondering what to do with the BSA. My original plan was to keep developing it as a Pathracer replica. But I have many good bits I collected in the UK, and I am planning another bike.
I think I will turn the BSA back into what it is, a tourer, with the oddity of the 3 speed Sachs Dreigang hub brake that came with it, complete with top-tube gear lever. I will have the silver-sprayed stem properly plated.
I am planning getting a custom lugged frame made in pathracer style with high bottom bracket and no drillings for mudguards, etc. It will probably be dark blue, and have nickel-plated forks, +/- lugs if the frame maker can do that. It will have 28" rims and cream Deltas, and Sturmey hub brakes.I have a Major Taylor stem on an old bicycle which needs nickel-plating.

It should be fun. Any other ideas gratefully considered...



PS - in a momentous piece of cycling trivia, I can now tell you that a Sturmey FG dynohub, Dunlop stainless rim and 40 beautiful stainless spokes with brass bits weighs 3.4 kg, and with tyre and tube, 4 kg.
How much do those carbon thingies weigh?

jedge76

It's shifting fine now...I think you were right about too much oil. Another poster mentioned the dirt and grime that adding the oil may have caused, too. It seems like a decent amount of riding and it will be clean and clicking. Thanks for your responses!

snarkypup

I remember doing the same thing in high school art class! I wonder what the hell I printed? I don't remember. It wasn't as cool as this. Sign me up, if you do make them, to buy one.

snarkypup

Al NZ, those are truly beautiful bikes!

AL NZ

thank you snarkypup, for the compliment.

I think Veloria has the nicest collection of old bikes I have seen here, although others will have beauties I have not seen...

Andrew F

AL NZ - I love the BSA with the Cream tires. I'm truly inspired to go with cream on my Raliegh, Thanks for the post.

noglider 

I consider Veloria to be the foremost "bicycle æsthetician."

See her blog. https://lovelybike.blogspot.com/

snarkypup

I agree. I based a lot of what I did to my Sports on what she had done to hers. Must admit, turns out I don't love the Delta Cruisers as much as she does. I think my bike looked just as sweet with the more narrow Kenda gumwalls that were rotting off it when I bought it. Next time, I'll go back to a narrower tire on that bike, because it handles much more swiftly. That said, she got my mind rolling on all this fixin' up of vintage bikes, and I learned a ton about what options are out there from reading her blog. Guess I now finally know enough to make some minor decisions about things on my own! I think Veloria has a particular aesthetic, too, that isn't for everyone. I like it, though .

ColonelJLloyd 

Even when jury duty is your destination, it's hard not be in a good mood getting there when you're on a Sports.

rhm

Does this happen while you're riding, or while stopped? I've experienced it many times while stopped, but not while pedaling, coasting or backpedaling .

Fir

Hi guys

Just thought I'd put this snap of my wife's commuter which I borrowed for Tuesday's run. It appears to be an 80's Sports but with a "Free Spirit" label because it has identical everything to my 80's "Raleigh Sports" right down to the paint colour and scheme. Both claim to be "made in Canuckistan" so perhaps they don't fit this thread's stringent criteria... But both have AWs. I put the 24t cog on the back but it's still simply too high geared for 2-4" [+drifts] of Oktober cement. I wonder if reefing on the pedals is what bends the seat tube on Ladies frames? LBS says there are no bigger cogs, so I'm tempted to seek a smaller chainring. It sure would be nice to have carbide studs in a 26x1&3/8. But it is amazing how well you can do with virtually treadless tyres. I realized that the way to mount a waggon hitch on one of these things is to ignore the axle and bolt up to the frame there.

We both like this stem. It's the tallest LBS offers 10" up and 4" out and really takes pressure off if you have any hand or wrist troubles. I find it quiet pleasant to sit vertical too.

FlatTop

That is an impressive basket on the rear rack, Fir.

Fir

Thanx - discovered them all lonely on the shelf at the Loblaws. They're quite light as there's no steel frame - straight willow. I bought 4 intending to do panniers front and rear on my main bike, but now my bike collection has mushroomed and there's 4 bikes each with one on the back, just poked 4 zipstrips through their weave and done. They sure are handy this time of year when piles of clothes are coming off and on all the time :-) And they don't put much cargo space in back of these waggons.

choteau

My 50's? Phillips Roadster (took two 22" frames and built a 25", no date code on AW, square window indicator nut, 180mm cranks ,and a Flying pigeon chaincase) Tim ps rides smoothly and straight as an arrow "no hands"

noglider 

Fir, it's always great to hear from you. And I've only been to Canada thrice, and once, I was at Loblaw's so I know what it is.

choteau, did you seriously braze a frame together from two frames?

choteau

Yes, it's 2n1. One was a frame set with chainring, other was a rust bucket that had been in a bamboo patch for years. Used a inner sleeve to join seatposts and steertubes, and spliced the seat stays to length. I did the measuring and cutting, a friend TIG welded them. The headtube was replaced (braized in) with a longer piece of Raleigh tubing. Sandblasted and rattle canned black. The chaincase and rims are Chinese, I reused both the AW and the Phillips front hubs. Bottom bracket has a threaded oiler, as do both hubs. Most of the rod brake bits are original, a few are chinese. By the way, it seems Flying Pigeon (Mao's peoples bicycle) is a copy of a Phillips, NOT a Raleigh. I looked for a big frame Roadster for a couple of years out here in Oregon with no luck .Finding and shipping one from back east was $$$. I've got around $400 in it and I'm enjoying riding it, except in the wet. In process of building a winter wheelset with drum brakes, rod brake linkage activated of course. Tim ps A year ago when I asked about making the frame taller, most of the responses were polite, a few were rude, some were helpful.

mkeller234

Inspired by the recent Raleigh lamp thread I found a NOS one on ebay.uk. Thanks to RHM for the suggestion of searching "Pifco". It takes an obsolete battery so I had to rig my own battery pack from instructions I found online. It works!

snarkypup

[QUOTE=mkeller234;11704827]Inspired by the recent Raleigh lamp thread I found a NOS one on ebay.uk. Thanks to RHM for the suggestion of searching "Pifco". It takes an obsolete battery so I had to rig my own battery pack from instructions I found online. It works!

Truly marvelous! Good looking, and it looks like it's relatively bright.

Sixty Fiver

Hi back !

We missed ya.

gbalke

[QUOTE=mkeller234;11704827]Inspired by the recent Raleigh lamp thread I found a NOS one on ebay.uk. Thanks to RHM for the suggestion of searching "Pifco". It takes an obsolete battery so I had to rig my own battery pack from instructions I found online. It works![quote]

Great pictures Matt, now tell us more about this battery pack you built!

mkeller234

The directions were written by a guy named Paul Costin. It's nothing more than a 2c battery holder, m5 phillips bolt, two nuts, plastic cap and a spade. It took me less than an hour to assemble.

He has a website with instructions and pictures. There is also a link to download a word document with bigger pictures. Here is his site: https://homepage.ntlworld.com/catfood...pifcolamp.html

mickey85

So, it's not DIRECTLY English 3 speed related, but it does have Phillips content...I started a blog about my journeys hither and yon in Northern Indiana (or wherever the road might take me...Lake Pepin?).

lifeona3speed.blogspot.com

jedge76

I enjoyed this read. I was thinking of doing the exact same thing, you beat me to it! I'll keep this in my favorites as I look forward to the next ride. Great stuff!

Oh, and I was born in W. Lafayette, IN, so the terrain is familiar. I can't believe all the leaves you have on the ground already...most of our trees haven't even turned colors yet!

TuckamoreDew

You have seen pictures of this bike (1965 CCM Continental) before but here are a couple of me enjoying it as its new owner. This is my first 3-speed and I like it a lot.