Ged117 

I'm not sure. That bike will need many hours of work to get to a level of preservation that I would want, not to mention a rebuild of the hub, repairing the lampset wiring and what not. I mean, it is a cool project opportunity. I bet the paint would shine up nicely with some polish and wax, and with a rebuild the hub will work fine for another 50 years, ticking along.

I still think prices for anything that looks very old or vintage are out the window in Canadian cities though, especially bicycle prices (but also receivers, turntables, basically anything made well in the mid-late 20th century). Its a testament to the reliability and utility of these old three-speeds that I haven't had to do a thing other than the occasional drop of oil on the shifter and in the hub since I put the Superbe back on the road a few years ago.

clubman 

I was at a few, Tattersoll-Casablanca on Eastern Ave, just before the film industry exploded in the east end. Symphony editor at Stonehenge on King. Sim Video and Post. CBC. So many post houses come and gone.

clubman 

Right, it was around '48 not the 50's. Here's Kurts thread on one he encountered. Looks similar except it has a front Dyno instead.

bluesteak 

what is the bike in the background?

gster

Here's the rear hub.

clubman 

Yeah, I had a peek at the listing. Too bad we're 1000's of kms away. Rims look like the non stainless versions... speckled chrome?

gster

I'm sure that we've worked on the same project(s) over the years. I've been working in film/TV since 1987 or so...

2fat2fly

I picked up a ladies Raleigh parts bike the other day, it had two new tires on it and a good set of rims, ... and this for a master link:
(There was a real master link just ahead of it and the chain was too long by about two links).




Go figure the same guy who did this bought two new tires and tubes rather than a roll of duct tape.
I bought it because I figured $10 was a good price for two new tires and tubes on two good Raleigh rims.

The grips were about 30 layers of old cloth tar tape with a huge chunk of heat shrink tubing over top and the Pletscher rack was attached to the frame with electrical tape and zip ties. It had no shifter, it was stuck in high gear all the time with no indicator chain, shifter or cable. The chain guard was pretty much junk from getting hit by the homemade chain link every time around.

markk900

2fat2fly "They" say it ain't stupid if it works......however this is stretching things a bit......

thumpism

This approach would not work on a derailleur chain but in this case, as a 1/2 x 1/8" kludge, must be admired.

gster

$10.00 for a parts bike is great, The supply of used parts is slowly drying up in Toronto.
I would easily pay $10.00 for a pair of brake calipers or a pair of used pedals etc.
Sellers on Amazon are asking $40.00 for an axle nut!
I think the rarest/hardest to find single piece for these bikes is the little oil port in the hub...
Often missing and difficult to replace.

markk900

I bought a bag full of 0000 and 000 sized rubber stoppers from Widgetco a couple years ago - while not the best looking they worked perfectly to replace a damaged oil port cap on the Humber hub - so much so you wouldn’t notice unless you were specifically looking and they don’t leak.

gster

Yeah, little pencil erasers work in a pinch.

2fat2fly

I thought the plastic oil ports were still available?
I scrapped out a few junk hubs recently and it looked to me like the clear plastic and the older brass ports would interchange.
Both are threaded into the hub shell.
The later version, the type that push into the hex shaped hole is a different story but I'd venture to guess that the push in style port may even work in the threaded hub shell?
Harris Cyclery still shows the plastic version as available. I think I'd rather have the plastic cap than a pencil eraser stuck in there.

The parts bike it turns out has been converted at some point to an S5, its got S5 internals in an AW shell, but with both shifters missing.

The bad part about that chain repair is that with it removed, the chain was the right length. My guess is that they swapped the hub internals and went to a smaller rear sprocket, thus making the chain too long. The chain guard is nearly rubbed through where that mess was hitting it and the rear frame has a gouge where it was rubbing as well.
I guess the sound of that link hitting the chain guard and the frame wasn't a problem.
(I'm probably lucky they didn't own a torch or welder).
The same seller had another bike there which had two front fenders, one up front, one in the rear. It was on a Columbia 3 speed with a Shimano hub and he wanted $100 for that one. He had a Huffy beach cruiser there he wanted $150 for. Yet he sold the Raleigh cheap, probably because of the noise it made when you pedaled. For $10, I didn't even pedal it, I spun both wheels, saw they were true, and saw it wasn't rusty, and handed over $10 for it before he changed his mind.

oldroads

I love the way the nuts and bolts have worn.

vintagebicycle

It must have been nice to ride like that, I can just imagine the sound of that thing smacking the chainstay and chainguard every time around.

thumpism

"Self peened."

oldspokes

I thought it was bad when I took a parts bike apart last spring that had 11 master links and one link wired together with two master link outer links and a U shaped piece of wire shoved through both plates and bent over on the outside to hold them together.
On the same bike, there was a standard grease fitting in the hole where the oil port cap should be in the SA hub, and fresh grease bursting out of all points. They must have pumped it full of the thickest grease they could find because at 25°F the bike wouldn't even roll let alone shift. The shifter cable was broken as well. On the plus side, it gave me two perfect Raleigh rims and a minty stem and handle bars for $20.
I had an old balloon tire bike about 12 years ago that was given to me. Someone had welded the chainring to the cranks, most likely because they had the little pin on the one piece cranks in the wrong hole. They must have used a massive arc welder and grounded the thing on the frame, because they had fused about half the ball bearings in the crank to the crank cones. By the time I got it, someone had drilled two holes, stuck two 1/4" grease fittings in the BB shell, and pumped the thing full of grease to try and make it turn easier. When I finally got it all apart, the bearing cups were worn completely through by the handfull of remaining balls still stuck to the cones, which were also fuses to the crank. It took cutting the crank off flush and drilling out the crank from inside the left nut and cone to get it apart. After all that I found the right cup had also fused to the bearings and had been spinning in the frame, while the left side had simply gnawed its way through the cup. (I was surprise how soft the crank arm steel was, it didn't take but 10 minutes to drill out the screwed up mess from inside the left nut and cone after cutting the crank off with a Sawzall.

All I kept thinking was what sort of hammer fisted genetic wonder thought it was a good idea to arc weld on a bicycle crank. ....Let alone power through and ride it long enough for it to chew through the bearing cup before giving up on it?

Unca_Sam

I laughed all the way through this. "If I can't fix it, I'll screw it up enough that there's nothing left to fix!"

gster

Unless you're buying a bike from an original owner it's hard to tell how many hands these bikes have passed through over the years.
Numerous backyard/jackass repairs as well as ill informed bike shop mechanics un familiar with the fine tuning of an S/A hub.
The first 3 speed I had, before joining this forum was a sad science experiment.
I too packed the hub with grease and in the process lost a pawl spring and fashioned a new one out of a staple...
Both terrible ideas.
That hub never did work properly even after I knew what I was doing.
It had a bent axle as well as the pin holding the sun gear was slipping out..
The bike, a '60's CCM Galaxie was previously owned by an award winning Canadian documentary
fil maker, Alan Zweig and before that had appeared in a Canadian short film, Hot Chicks on Bikes....
https://threespeedmania.wordpress.co...9-ccm-galaxie/
The bike is still out there somewhere....

dweenk 

I think that I understand how he bent his axle.

gster

Pretty girls will do that to a fella....

clubman 

So cool. Early Don McKellar. I onlined "Rub and Tug' with Don.

gster

Bent Axles? Rub and Tug????
What is this forum turning into????
I blame the Canadians.

clubman 

We'll take it offline.