I stopped past my favorite shop a few days ago to pick up new tires for my Bianchi and the shop owner said he had something to show me out back, a real "project". This is what he had. Needless to say, I took it home for parts. The B72 is a bit dry but, in decent shape. I'm amazed that the fork, headtube, TT and DT are all bent and tweaked but, the rim is fine! Quite a wheelset! Anybody want a frame to attempt straightening on?

Ding Ding Ding. Most bent fork award winner.

Wow,

I am needing a chain guard and cranks set.

Whats the black things on the end/front of the brake levers?

That is - without question - the most dramatic front-end damage I've ever seen. Unterhausen has been looking for some frames to chop up...

I'd give it a try on the Park HTS-1, but the headtube itself appears to have curved and wrinkled.

Excellent Sports parts source.

-Kurt

Does this mean we've found the ultimate Clyde-proof wheelset?

Tom

Nah...........that's just an optical illusion.....plus all those shadows and dark conditions, anything could look bent.

Chombi

OW!

^ I actually said that out loud when I saw that! I've been involved in a wreck like that but the fork wasn't bent near that bad. I did a hard faceplant; I hate to think how the rider of this bike ended up!

They were Raleighs version of cable adjusters, if you look closer to the lever you can see the dial wheel that you could turn to adjust the cable.

There is a closeup here.

Just turn the fork around and ride it.

The head tube is bent towards the bottom of it. The lower bearing cup is actually pulling out from the impact. I'll take a few more pics tomorrow just for amusement purposes. Poor bike

Those are self-adjusting brake levers. If/when the cable gets slack enough, squeezing the lever will cause a ratchet to advance a notch, taking up some of the slack. When the ratchet reaches the end of its travel, you can use the knob to back it all the way out, tighten the cable in the old fashioned manner, and let the ratchet take over again.

Did somebody run into a car over and over and over and over again? Jesus you could probably ride that as a unicycle.

Self-adjusting levers: New for '73, but some '72s got 'em, such as this one.

They are absolutely horrendous. The basic concept is about the same as the self-adjusting hardware on an automobile's drum brake. No matter what some may say about the design on the motor vehicle, Raleigh's contraption is worse.

Personally, for the "original" look on a '73-76 Sports, I'd open them up, glue the adjusters closed, then add barrel adjusters from an earlier Raleigh brakeset to the calipers. Simple as that, and the only thing out of the ordinary are the new barrel adjusters.

Granted, this is why I got rid of most of my 1970's-era Sports - sloppy workmanship, sloppier engineering. '64 and earlier were the Sports' prime; personally, I like the machines from the mid-1950's and prior; the plain Hayden lugs look good on them.

-Kurt

I'll bet it turns left like a champ.
There's actually a Hercules here almost identical to that, waiting for me to pick up.

It's fine. That's just an odd camera angle.

Neal

My guess is that someone threw it off the roof of a house for a laugh.

Not even that would have bent the gaspipe tubing of a Sports severely, and it would have more likely bounded off on its side before nailing the ground, front-first.

-Kurt

I need to try to find out what happened to this bike.... Guess I need to go back to the bike shop