desconhecido 

Oh, man, I love that fork. For me, that would be the price of admission, right there. Was that a BSA thing or is that something that's found its way into your possession, sort of like a subtle tune carried on a soft autumn breeze?

If you might scorcherize it, have you thought about 700c? Problems with that are: rims with 40h and easy clearance for only 28mm, maybe 32mm with some KY.

BigChief 

I like this bike. It offers some nice possibilities you wouldn't get with a clean, more complete example. For me, it would be a scorcher build. I'll say now that I prefer 21" frames for scorchers. The important things are there. A real 50s Birmingham frame, that great fork and the BSA crank. I wouldn't think twice about stripping and repainting this frameset. Looks like the Raleigh rear rim is in poor shape, but you got a 61 AW out of the deal.Yeah, those are later cheapo brake levers. Pretty sure this bike would have had the stirrup style originally, but again, no need to preserve them. This could be one sharp scorcher!! love it.

gster

I've never built a wheel before but thought I might give it a go.
The back wheel is out of true quite a bit.

gster

Tour of Britain 1953

Gordon W. "Tiny" Thomas (18 August 1921 – 10 April 2013) was a British cyclist who competed at the 1948 Summer Olympics in London. There he won a silver medal in the team road race alongside Bob Maitland and Ian Scott.[1] He also competed in the individual event, placing 8th in a field of 101 participants. Born in Shipley, West Riding of Yorkshire,[2] he served during World War IIwith the Royal Artillery in Africa and Italy. After his Olympic experience, he went on to win the 1953 Tour of Britain before retiring from cycling to enter the wool business.[3]

agmetal

Something I've been wondering about...Is it possible to convert a modern SA hub with a drum brake to oil lubrication? I know that the old ones were oiled, but is there any reason not to do that with a modern hub? The thing I'd be worried about is potential contamination of the braking surfaces, but I'm wondering if doing this conversion would my winter bike a little less of a slog to ride in the cold

gster

gster

Messed around With BSA
I'd mentioned that I could tell the bike had been messed with in the past.
On a positive note the cotters came out easily.
the cup took a bit of work but it was worth it for the
surprise inside!


What is this peaking out?
Some rust encrusted fabric sticking out....

This rotten old sock (?) was wrapped around the spindle and stuffed into the BB.
What's up with that?
Some old home remedy?
It's pretty grimy and rusty inside but should clean up.
More to follow

BigChief 

Holy cow! OK, that's taking backyard engineering a bit too far. Funny how two of the most messed up bikes I ever bought turned out to be my favorite riders. I see some good mojo building here for this old BSA.

gster

More Tomfoolery!
This could be a BSA thing but I've never seen it before.
I suspect more messing around...
There's an extra race at the bottom of the stem.

On disassembly another extra was found up top.
.
There bearings here were clean and new so I suspect this was "worked on" somewhat recently.

On the plus side...
One good caliper and a long seat post.

BigChief 

I have a theory...Some headset bearing cups are designed for caged bearings and are deeper than those meant for loose balls. I don't know which type would have been original on this bike. I think Mr. Meatball tried to use loose bearings with cups designed for caged bearings and found it was too deep, so he just used another lower race to sandwich the loose bearings. Ugh. But, I think you may be able to swap out the the cups and races with Raleigh parts. edit...or find the correct size caged bearings.

desconhecido 

Makes me wonder if that fork and frame have been married for a long time or might they be newly-weds? If you take the extra stuff out of there, the steerer will either need to be shortened or a bunch of spacers will be necessary. Seems like the steerer is too long for the headtube and a normal length stack of stuff. I suppose there is one thing: it's probably better to shim with some headset parts rather than an old sock. I can hear it: "Hey, I think my fork thing is too long, the nut won't tighten." "Yeah? Stick a sock in it."

Would be interesting to know the steerer threading and the length of the steerer and headtube, or stack height.

desconhecido 

There's probably some guy out there right now looking for that sock. "Hey have you seen my other sock? I can't find it anywhere." Place a lost and found ad in CL: "Are you missing one of these?" "Found, one sock, pretty grimy and rusty inside but should clean up."

Jeez, I need a nap.

3speedslow

BigChief 

I think the paint matches. Looks original to me. The reason I know about this is a few years ago I bought a very messed up 21" mid 50s Rudge Sports. It has a '55 alloy shell AW that, in my twisted mind was worth the price of the bike. The original fork was replaced with one of unknown manufacture. When I went to service the headset I found it had caged bearings.When I tried replacing them with the 5/32" bearings this bike should have, they didn't fit the cups that were pressed into the frame. It was too loose. The cups wouldn't engage the bearings. The cups must have been changed as well. I think that's what happened here, but instead of pressing in new cups or finding the correct caged bearings, he came up with this brilliant plan. Perhaps BSA used caged bearings on this bike originally.

gster

Actually, the sock was in the Bottom bracket....
I'll investigate the steering tube business as well.
It looks to me like any other headset (British) I've seen and I can't imagine caged bearings on
a bike this old.
Time will tell...

gster

That was his favourite sock, too.

gster

a similar vintage.. maybe correct...

jamesj

desconhecido 

Yeah, I know, but it doesn't make any more sense being stuffed in the bottom bracket shell than in the headtube or anywhere else. Maybe whoever put it there had a theory about keeping the BB warm.

That sock looks like those green ones that they issued to us in basic training. Man, I hated those socks

desconhecido 

Need to check that bike and see if there's a sock in the bottom bracket.

On English Ebay, I found this ad for a Thomas Cross headset It's not real easy to tell from the photos but there are seven parts making up that set and I think it may be what's on yours, but, I've never seen such a thing. Amazing.

gster

Good detective work.

gster

clubman 

I have some of these parts. One complete headset (reserved for a pre war Dunelt) and some extra new bits. Show me pics of what you want to replace.

gster

Thanks for the offer.
I think I have all the parts, just need to sort them out.

BigChief 

That's a Raleigh frame with the standard headset. Would love to see the whole bike. I still think that cup on yours was meant for a caged bearing, or perhaps larger bearings. When he went to assemble it with 5/32 bearings it was loose and his solution was to place another crown race on top, wedged into the oversized cup. But that leaves the joint exposed. This is exactly what happened to me with the Rudge. Fortunately, the caged bearings were in good shape, so I reused them. But I'm sure I could have also replaced the cups with Raleigh, used loose 5/32" bearings and still get away with using the threaded upper race and lock nut. What's on the upper end of your headset? Is it the same?