FishBiscuit

I just picked up a second Raleigh Twenty tonight, and for the most part, the bike is stock and in great condition.

One problem though:

At some point in the bike's history, someone attempted to improve the steering by replacing the nylon-bushing-and-chrome-cup setup at the top of the steerer tube with a bearing race. It seems like a good idea, in concept, but that modification has only left room for one of the nuts that holds the fork on (no room for the Raleigh headlamp bracket either- neither of which were included with the bike). This is a problem because the mere act of steering the bike will loosen the nut and compromise the bike's safety.

I'm more interested in restoring this bike to factory goodness by replacing the missing parts than I am in pimping it out with a modern headset (I find the stock setup to be adequate for the type of riding I do).

I'm interested in purchasing the missing steerer tube nut (the larger one- I imagine it's 26tpi, but not certain), the missing nylon bushing, the missing chrome cup that goes over the nylon bushing, and a Raleigh headlamp bracket.

Does anyone know where I can find these parts? I know the bracket shows up on eBay all the time, but the other parts seem to be slightly more exotic. And since I'm asking, my other Twenty is missing the seatpost L-bolt. I'd like to find a replacement for that too (a long shot, I know... I just missed one on eBay!).

Much thanks!
~Sean


Here's the bad setup:


Here's the good setup on my other bike:


And for illustrative purposes, here are the parts I need, highlighted:

rhm

As long as you have the threaded top nut, you can replace everything else with a threadless headset, like an aheadset or something. That leaves plenty of room for the clamp thing. I did this on two bikes, and still have all the bits I took off. I'll try to remember to look for them.

Fish_man

I will have a search through to see if I still have mine as well. I would imagine that there are a fair few floating around.

cudak888 

I've got a set - not mint - but I've got a set. I might have a spare Heron bracket as well.

PM me.

-Kurt

gna

Did you post your query on the Folders forum? Some of the folks over there modify their Twenties, so they probably have spare bits laying around.

Not to hijack, but I'm missing the machine screw that threads into the braze on to hold the chainguard from one of my Twenties...

FishBiscuit

I'd looked into a modern threadless headset as a solution, but if I were to replace those old bearing races with a threadless headset, what's to keep that top nut from unscrewing without the other nut? That's the problem I'm having now, and from what I can tell, the setup that's on the bike right now should be about the same as an Aheadset, only much crappier.

I suppose, I could put a threaded top race on there, from a different Raleigh (if they're the same size tube), with a washer, and that would solve my problem of the fork coming loose in the meantime.

EDIT: No, this won't work, since the threads on the tube don't go down far enough. But I might still be able to use a threaded race in the meantime in place of the missing nut.

I just took apart my front end, and it turns out that the 'missing' chrome cap (the one that goes over the nylon bushing) is actually what is sitting on top of the race in my photo! I don't think it can be reused for it's original purpose though, because it's pretty badly distorted from being misued.

I'm willing to explore the route of a modern headset, but I'd prefer keep it stock, since I know that setup works fine for me. I also think the bike is missing a bit of it's Raleighness without the Raleigh heron bracket on there.

FishBiscuit

I'm missing one of those two. I picked up a bolt of a diameter narrower than to the hole, a couple of washers, and a couple of nuts from Home Depot, and used that to hold on the chainguard. Works so far.

FishBiscuit

Thanks Kurt,

I tried to PM you, but without 50 posts under my belt, I'm not allowed to. I attempted to send you an email, but I'm not sure if it made it to you or not.

gna

Me too. One of these days I'll just tap it out, probably.

Just keep posting, or go to introductions and post welcome messages to new people until you're above 50.

rhm

The Raleigh Twenty headset is basically a modern version of the old 'head-clip' headset, like this Chater-Lea one on Velobase:


You loosen the QR; adjust the top nut until the headset feels right; now tighten the QR. This locks the adjustment. Now tighten the top nut against the QR clip, and the whole thing is set. Just don't loosen the QR! Do you actually fold your Twenty? If not, this won't be a problem.

I'll try to remember to take a photo of the headset on my Twenty, which is a combination of Aheadset parts with original Raleigh bits.

FishBiscuit

My main motivator for getting a folding bike is the ability to fold it so that it'll fit into the trunk of my car. For it to fit completely, I do have to turn the bars parallel to the wheel, which requires me to loosen the QR clamp. Since I don't have the QR for the seatpost on one of the Twenties, I already need to carry a pair of wrenches- one more wrench in the car wouldn't hurt I guess.