Old 3 Speed Ribbed Cable Housing Source?
 

Excuse me if this has already been covered, but where can I find brake cable housing as found on old English 3 speeds, the kind that is sort of ribbed lengthwise, and sort of creme in color (maybe they were originally white and this is just from age I'm not sure..)

check ebay.

I was looking for the same stuff recently and came up empty handed.

What the world (that is, me and about 100 other people in the entire world) needs is a company like velo-orange whose animating spirit, instead of French touring bikes, is Anglo-American 3 speeds and roadsters.

Velo-Black?
Velo-Anglo?
Velo-Heron (a reference to the Raleigh logo)?

+1

But none of this Velo-merde. Give it a good English name, like The Black Bicycle.

Let's list the products...

Fluted cable housing (I've never seen ribbed housing, don't believe it ever exited)

32 / 40 pairs of rims

Fenders shaped like Bluemels Club Specials, in polished aluminum, white powdercoat, and black powdercoat

Real saddle bags

Lauterwasser handlebars

26 x 1 1/4 tires

What else?

- Black, Raleigh style handlebar grips
- Touch up paint to match the specific, greens and browns used by Raleigh
- rear racks to match the style (and perhaps colours) of three speeds
- Lighting that fits the bike, but uses modern technology
- Cotter presses

lol @ Velo-Merde :lol:

how about some Raleigh 26TPI parts and some "7" length spindles to convert cottered raleighs to Square Taper.

Two NOS cables can run you $60 or more on eBay. Better to find an old junk 3 speed parts bike; Hercules, Philips, etc., anything out of Nottingham/1960s will have those ribbed cables. Plus you get whatever other bonus parts are on the bike and a frame to fool with too.

I get the impression that there are lots of factories making knock-off parts for Chinese roadster clones: http://thebagelchronicles.typepad.co.../img_1634.html Unfortunately, they are in China.

Not exactly what you are looking for but maybe this will work

....snipped from another thread


As for the cabling, don't pay dearly for it. You should be able to find it on Italian eBay. That's where I got mine. Think Vespas. Something along these lines?

http://cgi.ebay.it/Guaina-grigia-cav...-/190509304470

Black Heron inc. -makers of reproduction English Nottingham-type bicycle parts including 26tpi headsets and Bottom Brackets. R-nuts, double-ended brake cables, ribbed cable houseings, front axle cones, every whitworth fastener possible reproduced to exacting standards. Also, Brake parts as well as roller-brake linkages, reproduction lights, dry-cell battery boxes, and brackets, 15/16" Steel and alloy Northridge pattern handlbars, 15/16" steel and alloy stems, Original spec Raleigh-pattern rims in both steel and identical look-alike alloy polished to look like Chrome.

Ask about our wide selection of original equipment fenders and chaincases in all sizes and styles with OEM color-matched paint. Replacement forks are also available.


We also are proud to announce our debut of new-production Dunlop-licensed and branded tires made to exact original specs.

Man, if we had thought of this for April 1, that would have been a scream.

Can you imagine making a webpage and everything? Talk about how they had bought the rights to the name and show pictures of CNC milling machines and a couple of NOS crankrings rolling out of a computerized parts printer. Have product listings for everything and prices. Of course this would be a new company in China so make fairly stuffy English with a few (but not too many) Engrish mistakes or odd turns of phrase. Maybe a link to Sturmey-Archer and talk about how they had partnered to produce out-of-production parts for older hubs. If one wanted to spend a few hours writing it all up it would make an almost believable hoax.

The crazy thing is with today's micro-machining capabilities it is almost possible if one could only negotiate the rights to do it legally. It almost COULD be true if the E3S craze got any more heated up. Maybe it is time for such a company to sprout up in China and start making reproduction parts like this. It has happened for other products.

Plus I think Black Heron inc. would be an awesome name!

Damn! Now all we need are some investors...

how bout making some chaincases?

That's a beautiful logo, I'm in for twenty bucks

...someone should make up t-shirts of that logo

Well, the Lake Pepin Tour guy does sell some neat 3-speed parts:

http://www.3speedtour.com/ (click on Parts)

Here's some white ribbed housing along with a gear cable:

http://cgi.ebay.com/Sturmey-Archer-H...e#ht_500wt_884

Here it is in "traditional" fluting:

http://cgi.ebay.com/Sturmey-Archer-1...6#ht_506wt_869

That seller, RetroBicycleSupply, often has lots of various 3-speed stuff: http://myworld.ebay.com/retrobicyclesupply/

Neal

This makes up for the 800 threads in which my whimsical comment was the last one before the thread sank away into the netherpages. :p

Oh-oh. I probably just doomed the thread.

That Lake Pepin Tour parts page was a neat link. I've been thinking of making a ball-ring spanner exactly like that out of pipe. The next time I see the correct-sized pipe I'm going to snatch up a scrap and make some of those up. $40/each will be a tidy profit for what is a simple cut-out! I'll even weld a proper handle on them for that price!

The shifter pulley is a good price -much less expensive than the problem-solvers one. Had to buy one of those for my last build.

A stainless steel fulcrum sleeve, however, is a great bargain at $10! Of all the things on that page that would be the thing I would most likely buy. No more making them out of old wirenuts!

Another link for parts is always YellowJersey. I wish someone would import more of the Eastman parts from India.

You are really good W1GFH! I would love to gag some of the guys on my local tweedy forum with these if it is OK?

Sure, go for it.

"$29 a pair"...(sigh) if only....!

Man...what's with you!? ...you one talented mo-dicker!!! Excellent.

(Now watch me get sued by the film company for Black Swan)

http://img200.imageshack.us/img200/4439/heront.jpg
http://www.cafepress.com/BlackHeron.523419277#