HSean

Heres a picture of that Neat colored Raleigh I got the other month. it's got 700c wheels now, I rides like a dream, the dynohub was almost a lost cause, but some cold setting and some alteration and it looks nice and works. a nice addition to my collection.

flammenwurfer

Very nice HSean! Interesting color for a Raleigh Sports.

Here is my recently finished Sports. See my thread here for more details.

HSean

Thats a pretty sports, I was thinking about doing this to my Superbe, but I was iffy, it's in mint condition, but then I got the blue one that was missing parts, still needs things like a leather seat and a better set of tires, I was gonna use the dynohub you used but I didn't like the part where the wires connect, I'd proberly break it lol

flammenwurfer

I'm very pleased with the way it turned out. The little connector for the hub seems pretty well made. I certainly like it better than the confusing one that came with the SRAM i-light dynamo on my other bike. It's a nice hub but the connector thingy doesn't make a lot of sense and doesn't seem very rugged.

sykerocker 

Don't see why not. I've been using a extra cat litter pan (previously used as a drip pan for the '31 Indian) to soak my rims in. Takes about six days per wheel, as each day I knock out 1/6th of the wheel.

Amesja

I'm starting the CR18 rims on my sports today. I've already broke one spoke on the front just loosening the nipples. Got them all transfered over except for the one that went PING! Now I'm off to the LBS across the street to see if they have any spokes in this size.

noglider 

Amesja, you might want to take this chance to interlace your spokes. I don't know why Raleigh didn't do that.

Amesja

When I learned motorcycle wheel building WAY back in the 70's I was taught that interlacing is BAD JUJU and it should never be done. I don't understand why it is done on bicycles. The guys who tried it in MX always had catastrophic failure. I'm fairly new to building bicycle wheels so I really have never interlaced a wheel. The last bicycle wheel I did from scratch was probably back in the 80's.

Tell me about the reasons for interlacing.

Sixty Fiver

Raleigh manufactured at least twice a many wheels as they did bicycles and think it was a case of these being good enough for mass produced wheels and they have shown that they can stand up to many decades of use and they were using very strong steel rims as opposed to lightweight aluminium on most of their bicycles.

I believe that their high end racing and performance wheels used cross spoke patterns throughout.

I think the data suggests that Raleigh changed their wheel building procedure in '68 and started building crossed spoke wheels and also moved to a 36/36 and stopped using a 40/32 wheel set.

gna

I had an incident on my way to work today. My right crankarm is bent. Can I straighten it, or should I replace it?

If not, then I need to find a heron crank...

Amesja

I straightened a crank arm that was BADLY bent by heating it up slowly with a MAPP torch and bending it back and then slowly letting it cool back down (still putting heat on it but pulling back the flame so it took a good 10 minutes or so to come back down to merely "hot." Of course this caused the chrome to rainbow and it bent so far the first time that the chrome cracked a bit when it came back. Works well and I've never had an issue with the crank.

You can probably find a crank cheap. Last one I bought at my LBS was a used one they had in back -they charged me $5 for the left side. Is it possible to pull the chainwheel off. I wonder how it is even attached -welded/pressed? Never really looked at it. They look pretty joined to me.

planetirving

This sounds great., thank you so much! I had just 2 small question, though, for clarification:

1) Mother's Polish: This is the auto wax, and is it for the painted parts only , not the chrome parts, or is there a chrome polish, similar to the Turtle Brand Chrome Polish, or is it good for both?

2) Is it ok to soak in the OA the screws, bolts, nuts, and brackets holding the brake and shifting cables?

I can hardly wait to start working on my bike restoration project!

ahson

Where can I find those cotters replacement that will fit the original Raleigh R nut? I checked with Mark from BikeSmith and he said his cotters won't fit the 26tpi threading for the R nut.

Amesja

There was a guy online that was selling the R-nut cotters. I don't remember where I saw it but there is a guy somewhere. I'll search my bookmarks.

Mother's is chrome polish. It's good stuff. For the painted parts I use a heavy car wax.

Some cheaper zinc-plated parts will turn black in the OA. You need to experiment. It will polish right back up though if it turns black with rubbing/polishing compound and some elbow grease. I wouldn't put alloy brake parts in. Anything chromed or painted seems to be just fine though.

Amesja

Found it!

$20/pair

noglider 

Certainly they've been crossed for a very long time. I'm talking about interlaced, where the spokes cross each other laterally at the last cross.

gna, your problem suddenly reminded me of the crank straighten tool we had long ago. It was steel cranks only, of course. It was big, really big.

gna

Good to know that it's possible. I asked the fellas in the machine shop and they said they would use a hydraulic press and straighten it for me. I just need to get it off the bike and to the shop.

Stupid railroad tracks...

Schwinnsta

I straightened one on mine with pipe.

Mike Mills

"Give me a big enough lever and I could move the Earth."

Sixty Fiver

I meant to say interlaced... with the exception of radial wheels all spokes are crossed.

Sixty Fiver

Finally got the '54 out for an inaugural ride today and was pleasantly reminded why I have so much love for this bike... it is smooth, fast, and actually pretty nimble although you don't have to dodge much with those 700:32 tyres.

Swapped my Japanese front wheel for one with a beautiful Spanish high flange hub and a Weinmann concave rim which looks very nice and the old wheel is going to become a parts donor for another wheel build as I need to match up some rims.

Those Zeus hubs are some kind of beautiful to look at and an absolute joy to ride on... they are every bit as nice as Campagnolo hubs.

rhm

I straightened one with a bench vise. But it depends where the bend is, 'cuz if the chain ring is in the way there's no room to work.

Schwinnsta

I just took the crank off.

michael k

Used the handle from a 2 ton floorjack.Surprised how easy the arm straightened.

noglider 

Yeah, it's not rocket science. You just have to make sure that the pedal eye is in a plane that's perpendicular to the spindle's axis, or your pedal will wobble this way and that.