oldveloman

That' s a very nice find and in pretty original and undamaged shape.
Royal Nord ( 1927-1967 ) was a renowned Belgian bicycle, moped and motorcycle producer.

Peter

Road Fan

That is quite narrow! I like it! What chainset are you going to use on it? I could see it working very well on a single-ring.

Road Fan

But I see you are working on a Peugeot, not an English bike. I don't think they have any threading issues, other than being French-threaded, and there are pairs of French threaded BB cups on Ebay with some regularity. You seemed to indicate spindles are similarly not a problem. Why didn't you go with French-threaded cup/cone? Why did you need to need to "give up and buy the cartridge BB?" Or is the Peug all squared away without the threadless V-O, and the 110-mm part you just got will decide the destiny of you ladies Raleigh?

I have a Bikesmith Design tool for cotter extraction. It worked instantly on my left cotter, but it bent my right one, and it's been several weeks of drilling and filing to get it out. The steel is "soft" but still pretty strong. I'm not very skilled with a hammer.

paulb_in_bkln

Two different bikes. I have the original BB parts for the Pug, and they're in perfect condition. I know cotterless spindles that will fit are out there, I tried to find one and I guess somehow, eventually, I might succeed but I was getting nowhere so, that's why the VO bottom bracket.

The Raleigh Sports is a street find, a derelict just reaching the point of no return. Its a later bike, so not anything with real vintage interest. If the BB is corroded garbage inside, I'll save the AW hub and a couple other parts and the rest will head to the crusher.

paulb_in_bkln

I was hoping no one would ask me that.... Yes, single-ring is the idea as the bike will have an AW in place of the original five-speed cluster. The crankset is a CNC thing I bought off eBay on impulse, a cheap knockoff very similar in appearance to VO's Grand Cru single speed, which itself resembles a lot of vintage alloy cranksets. It's not splendiferous and I simply hope it's adequate. Otherwise I'll be on the phone with VO again, probably.

mixteup

I'm sure this has been answered, somewhere, before, but maybe someone can give me the short answer -
I have a mid 50's Hercules, with a B type 3 hub, the kind with a threaded driver.
Since I'm old and weak, I'd like to put a larger cog on the hub.
So, is the hub a standard freewheel thread, and I can just use a cog like those commonly used to convert a regular freewheel bike to a single speed "fixie" ?
Like this :
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07HNKJWV6...v_ov_lig_dp_it
Is it that simple, or ..........?

BigChief 

Looking forward to hearing answers about this. There are also 2 other possibilities, but I can't say firsthand if they would work. First would be to swap in a Sturmey Archer 3 splined driver. The other would be to install a whole Strumey Archer AW hub guts into the Hercules hub shell.

clubman 

Yes! (short answer)

mixteup

Thanks! (short reply)
Seriously, that's good news - It makes things much simpler :~)
Now, I just have to get the cog off ........

Salubrious

You've already got the Bikesmith cotter press. In the future (once you have the cotters removed initially) you will find that working with cottered cranks is easier than square taper cranks. Far less possibility of creaks! The trick to removing a stubborn cotter if its been in the cranks a few decades is to remove the nut and washer and treat it with a bit of penetrating oil, let it sit for a day and then gently heat the crank with a torch. At that point you can apply a bit more pressure with the press and the cotter will come out intact.

With a 46 tooth sprocket in front and low of a four speed like the FW or FG, low is actually good for some serious climbing even with the stock sprocket in the rear. I'm no spring chicken (63) but last fall I took my '51 Humber Sports (set up with an FW) up the Ramsey Hill here in St. Paul which is a pretty steep climb- did it without stopping. If you need a crankset with a 48 in the front I have one (cottered of course) free for cost of shipping.

If you absolutely have to change out the BB, Phil Wood makes a bottom bracket square taper with threading designed for Raleighs.

BigChief 

I just assumed even the built under SA license versions would use 26dpi threads. Nice, something easy for a change.

raleighroadster

clubman 

Loving that integral light on the rear rack! (assuming it's a light?)

BigChief 

What a beautiful, classic roadster! If there was ever a bike that deserved a leather Brooks, this is it.
I just noticed...My 51 Rudge has that same dull gray finish instead of polished chrome on the seat post as this bike. I'll have to watch for that from now on.

gster

A classy ride.

paulb_in_bkln

Might VO's threadless BB work? Some details here: https://velo-orange.blogspot.com/sea...bottom+bracket

Road Fan

It probably would. I read about it yesterday. I would need to get V-O to give me more specs.

But it really isn't hard to fit a spindle, and it's a lot cheaper. Old ones in LBS junk boxes are anywhere from free to $8.00 or so. I just want to see what others ran into to try it out.

And if I convert from single to double (add a front mech, shifter control and some of sort of chain tensioner) I really just need to find another spindle for the added chainline. Where if I use the V-O cartridge it's another $65 to do a trial fitting, and of course even worse (around $200) to get a Phil Woods sized up to the new width.

Road Fan

The BikeSmith solved 50% of my problem, performing a "like buttah" extraction on the non-drive side. On the drive side the clamp could not fit correctly. I hoped it would self-align but instead it bent over the threaded stub. I straightened and then removed the stub and tried to drive it with a 1/4 " drift, but that only expanded the top. I then started drilling from the bulbed end. The hole is up to 1/4" and rather larger due to filing it with a round mill bastard and several different sizes of chainsaw sharpening files. Also a tapered hand reamer. I have about another 1/2 mm to remove at the formerly threaded end, they I'll try putting the NDS arm back on and trying to shear it by standing on the pedals. It might then be small enough that I can collapse it. So I have a manual process I can follow and really cannot fail (ultimately there will be no more cotter in the bore), but it's a major pain.

I also don't have much hammer technique or confidence. I have a BFH and a good claw hammer, but I am not confident I can wack it with abandon, in terms of aim. Nails rarely need the full power at my disposal, so I don't have much practice.

I really just don't want to have cotters on the bike for my riding. But I don't want to destroy any parts other than cotters, so I can still make it look normal and nice, someday.

Gearing: I have a 48 T front ring, as original. In TA rings I have 44, 46, and 48 on hand. I'd start with 48 and potentially reuse the Renold chain. The rear is 17 (should double check that) for a Normal gear of 77.15, hence a low gear of 57.9 - not real low. If I can change the front end to 48/32, I can get a bottom gear 38.6. If I go to 46/30, it will be 36.2 inches. Big jumps, but wide range!

Pricing is a challenge: Phil is around $200, V-O is about $65, and a spindle is anywhere from $1 (lucky find at LBS) to maybe $30 (Ebay). But with a spindle I can get a different length to go from single to double, not counting the derailleur, et cetera. And I have installed numerous spindles complete with grease and those little balls.

BigChief 

Just for future reference, I'll describe my plan B for this situation. So far, I've never had to go beyond this to be successful, but who knows? I may someday need a plan C but I haven't yet. If I see the threaded end of the cotter start to bend from pressure from the press, I file a small flat on top. Then I center punch the pin by eye. Then, starting with a small drill and working up in size as I go, I drill down into the threaded end of the cotter. The last drill I use is almost the size of the clearance hole around the cotter. I drill down until I'm well below the edge of the crank arm. Now, the drill leaves a nice countersink perfectly in line with the cotter. Then I find the biggest punch I have that fits neatly into the countersink. Then I lower the bike stand until the wheels are on the ground. Then I drill a hole in the end of a 2x4 big enough to clear the cotter. Then I fit the 2x4 so it fits snugly between the cement floor and the crank arm. Since the spindle and crank arm is being supported by the cement floor and the 2x4 and the force of the hammer blows is being directed exactly where it's needed, I have a lot more power on hand then I did with the press pushing against the threaded end.

carfreefamily

A chaincase I bought off British eBay arrived yesterday. Since I never had one to take off, I wasn't sure how to put it on, but it looks like the only way to get it in place is to slide the open portion, which is not visible in the photo, though those in a position to answer the question know what I'm talking about, over the dropout, which is what I did for this photo, (and to make sure everything lined up properly). The thing is, the two halves of the case are touching at that point. It took a lot of wiggling to get it over the dropout, and then, there was some bending of the metal at that point of the chaincase that I had to bend back in place. Once I get it repainted, I don't want to struggle with it quite so much and damage the paint. Can I pull that opening out a little bit wider to fit it over? Or is it normally a struggle to get them over the dropouts? The seller said he pulled it off a 1950 Raleigh Sports. He started to sand it, and then decided he would go for a different look on the bike. It seems to fit a 1952 Raleigh Superbe Sports Tourist just fine, though of course that's without the wheel, chain, and chainring in place.

nlerner

My approach is far less sophisticated! I remove the threaded end of the bent cotter with a drift punch and hammer. I apply some penetrating fluid (my preference is a 50/50 mix of acetone and automatic transmission fluid) and wait at least 12 hours or so. Then I use a stainless steel socket that's got at least one end smaller than the crank arm opening for the cotter, and position the BikeSmith driver over that socket and then crank it down. That has usually done the job. I've had to drill out a couple of broken cotters, and it's a pain unless you have fresh bits and a drill with lots of oomph. Well, even then it's a pain.

I've also tried the approach to just keep riding the bike in hopes that the cotter will eventually get loose. That's worked once or twice, but not with any regularity.

raleighroadster

Salubrious

What about the cotters bothers you?

browngw 

I see a bikotherapy session beginning !

carfreefamily

Sometimes a cotter is just a cotter.