A fresh start for a '38 Raleigh
 

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Some of you may recall the 60’s Raleigh “Superbe” I picked up for a flip a while ago. The seller was a big lanky lad who had purchased it from an old blue-haired lady at a garage sale a few weeks prior. At first glance, it looked like a pre-70’s bike with a few changed parts, but given his garage sale asking price, I looked no further.

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Once I got it home, I checked it a bit more thoroughly: Is the seat post stuck? Does the stem move? - No problems there, but there were some other things that seemed very wrong for a 60’s bike. E.g., the clip-on handlebar stem, axle wing nuts, and EA1 rims.

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“Why would anyone retrofit these antique bits onto a 60’s Superbe?” I asked myself. Consulting bike forums, I soon had my answer: The “8” on my Sturmey Archer “AW-8” hub meant it was manufactured in 1938 – not 1968 - but the slack frame geometry was still all wrong for a Superbe (-assuming you disregard the head tube angle, which, as it turned out, had been tweaked!).

Kurt cudak888 made a positive ID based on the presence of the two vestigial fender mounts on the seat stays –

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It was a ’38 Golden Arrow!

“Whoa.” I said to myself. “Wasn’t I just salivating over those Golden Arrows just days earlier? – The thread in which I plainly stated that I'd like to be the next to snag one?”

http://www.bikeforums.net/showthread...1#post12655069

“Me and my big prescient mouth” I said to myself. Now I had a major and expensive restoration job ahead of me!

The first stop was a round trip to see Doc cudak888, and his Park Tool HTS-1 :

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Meanwhile, I went in search some parts to restore my “new” Golden Arrow. The Northroads had to go – and Lauterwasser bars (pronounced Law-tuh-woss-uh after the English racer Jack Lauterwasser) were a must-have, but I soon learned that real Lauterwassers are practically unobtanium – so I opted for a Soma Fabrications clone instead. Unfortunately, this meant I would have to compromise on the stem as well, since the Soma bars required a stem with a larger, modern clamp – another eBay purchase. These two items were just the first of many such purchases that seemed to nickel and dime me to death.

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I had a lot to do to get it road worthy again: Grips, quadrant shifter, SA pulley and bearings, English cotters, etc. I opted to build new EA3 wheels, since the rusty EA1 wheels were unoriginal, and laced incorrectly to boot. I fabricated a new SA cable, and ended up doing the same for the brakes, which required double-ended stops.

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- And when it was done, I realized that I had committed every C&V faux pas in the book! This was not a true restoration at all. Many of the original parts were lost long ago, and I had made many compromises due to cost and/or availability. The old steel fenders for instance, were put back on instead of the original white Bluemels, and those shiny new wheels were alloy, with Japanese tires on them.

Nevertheless, I was happy with the outcome, and it was fun to ride.

As I stood back admiring my new steed, I cracked the obligatory celebratory beer. This is something I am inclined to do whenever I complete the build of a new bike – any bike. I then decided that if I could celebrate the completion of a Schwinn Sprint with a beer, this Golden Arrow was worth two.

After my sixth beer, I reasoned that it would be a good idea to call the seller. I still had his number, and it was still early enough (about 1:00 AM on a Tuesday morning) to call.

A young woman picked up the phone. “Hello. May I speak with your husband please?”
“Who is this?” she countered. “This is officer Auchen – may I speak with your husband please.”

(My assumption that the young lady was married to the seller was a good one, and though I know the “officer” bit was a stretch, I did work in an office once, and it does greatly reduce the possibility of getting disconnected late at night after a few brewskis.)

Soon the lanky lad was on the phone. I asked him if he had met a man at a gas station a few weeks prior to sell a black Raleigh bicycle. He readily admitted that he did, and he asked me if it was stolen. Recalling the purchase price, I had to say “yes”. He said he just could not believe the blue haired lady was a dirty bike-thief. “That’s for a jury to decide, son - I just need the facts. Will you work with me?” I asked.

“Oh yes!” he replied, and I soon had a full description of the blue-haired lady, as well as the general location of her light blue house near the lake. The next morning, after the effects of my celebratory beers had worn off; I resolved to go have a look for myself. I struck out toward the lake, to find that blue-haired lady’s house on my newly rehabbed Golden Arrow.

Round about noon, I turned down the street that the lanky lad had described, and the house loomed large before me. – It was a stately manor house facing the lake, painted in the most incongruous of baby blues – with a light blue Cadillac parked in the circular drive. I noted there was no garage at all, but a large double carriage house – with an upper story large enough to serve as living quarters. I lingered in the street for a time, and by and by, a lady came to collect the mail curbside: It was the blue-haired lady! She stared at me – or at my bike rather. “Good day” she called out to me. I responded in kind. “I couldn’t help but notice your bicycle, sir - It looks so like one I knew as a child,” she said, with decidedly upper-crust British accent.

“Oh?” I replied incredulously, with a quizzical look. (I find that this simple device invariably elicits more information than an interrogation with a rubber hose.)

“Yes indeed!” She exclaimed. “It’s very much like the one that my father rode as a young man. Those are Lauterwasser bars.”

I was flabbergasted. How could this old dame know anything about Lauterwasser bars? Then she explained. “My father rode with Jack Lauterwasser back in England. Father gave up riding for business though, and the bike was passed down to us kids when we were big enough. Mother insisted that it have proper lights on it for safety’s sake, but that did not stop me from T-boning a Packard. I wrecked the front wheel and the front fork - and one more thing –”

Thereupon, she removed her bridge and smiled broadly, revealing a huge gap where her two front teeth once were spat out. “M’am, this is your old bike!” I exclaimed spontaneously – and went on to detail everything about how I had come upon it, how I rebuilt it, finally offering to sell it back to her for my original purchase price, if she wanted it. – But she refused it – saying that she had been parting with many, many things of late, in clearing out the old homestead to move in with her sister way down south, adding that she could not be happier that at least her dad’s old bike would have a fresh start too.

…I thought her choice of words was most peculiar – “A fresh start too” – but perhaps entirely appropriate for this old bike, and maybe for the old dame too. - That is, until I saw her picture weeks later on America’s Most Wanted, and learned that she was wanted for six bank heists.

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Bill of material:

One 1938 Raleigh Golden Arrow
Soma Fab Lauterwasser bars
A new eBay steel quill stem
Sturmey Archer NOS pulley
1-1/8" SA pulley clamp
New ss brake and shift cables and housings
No3 fishing leader sleeves and shrink-wrap
Used SA quadrant shifter (1920s/30s)
Origin8 Time Clock Bell - black
NOS Raleigh 32hole front hub (c1950)
Wheelsmith 2.0 x 282mm spokes.
Wheelsmith 2.0 x 270mm spokes. .
Sun CR18 EA3 40-hole polished rim
Sun CR18 EA3 32-hole polished rim
Wheelsmith 16mm brass nipples
Panaracer ST Daily Commuting tires
Velox rim tape
Chromed frame pump
Repro grips
SS wing-nuts and carriage screws for the fender mounts
Crank cotter pins
Sturmey-Archer caged bearings
Brake shoes, various and sundry cleaners and lubricants.
Aluminum brake cable end stops, and an 18” swaging tool.

That bike is completely bad a**, but I HAVE to call bull on your story! That can't be real!

Interested in parting with that generator hub and chain guard?!?!

Oh yeah? I have the pics to prove it. See?
http://t3.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:A...Z46UETibdxKDob

PS - The generator hub already found a good home with another C&V'er - but the chain guard is yours if you want it for the price of postage. PM me.

Really impressive job on the paint. Would you share details of your particular method + material?

Actually I did nothing with the paint other than a good washing and vigorous polishing with some Scratch-X, and a coating of Meguiar's Tech Wax.

EDIT: Oh - I did brush paint the fork with Rustoleum. The original fork was bright polished chrome, but the old service part was very rough, so I decided black was better than the rough, nubby, greenish dull chrome.

Are you sure that was just beer?

Great reading, Auchen. Thanks.

Nice one (bike and story)!

I can't tell you how nice it is to see it built up as it was intended, Auchen. Beautiful job - not just on the refurb, but on your polishing job, especially.

Say, what happened to the chrome on the fork? That was an option on these.

-Kurt

Thanks Kurt - I could not have done it without your help.
As I said in the edit above - I painted the fork black, because from all appearances, it was a very old service fork, intended to be painted.
The chrome was not polished as it would have been on the original item before the blue-haired lady's scrape with the Packard. It was very rough, unpolished chrome, with verdigris from the copper bleeding through in spots. You can trust me when I say it looks better in black.

Yup, the how found stories are sometimes just as interesting as the bike itself.

You, sir, spin a terrific tale!

(The bike, too, is pretty terrific. How does it fit?)

Hi Azorch -
If you believe the modern internet sizing charts, this is close to my size - but I'd be more comfortable with an extra inch or so.
The bars however don't have nearly as much drop as normal bars, so I can get away with a bit more seat post.

Lol..

Great story. Is that the one in Grosse Pointe? I half thought about nabbing that one. If so, I'm glad it went to a good home.. ;)

Auchen, you are the master. That was fabulous, as always, and way more fun than the truth, as my mom would say.

The bike looks absolutely amazing! Beee-u-tee-ful.

Yes Jeepr, it was - it sat there on CL until I figured it had been sitting long enough for the seller to deal. Of course, it ended up costing me FAR more than any other bike in my stable. :rolleyes:

Thank you for the compliment, Snarky - but I don't know why you doubt the veracity of I write. Do you doubt that I drink beer?

Auchen, the part with the beer was never in question.

Well done all the way around. Good form!

Beautiful classic. Great job Auch'

Great work man. I haven't had mine out this year yet. If you still have your 26X 1-1/4" rims, you can pretty much name your price with me. I need them. I could get my bike together properly with those.

How about some custom handlebars?

Is that the S25/n saddle? they seem to be indestructible.

Beautiful ride. I would love to score a pair of those rear wing nuts for my ongoing 3speed project.

Hi Frank -
The steel rims were unmarked: Neither Westwood, nor Westrick, nor Dunlop - and I am sure both unoriginal.
That would make sense given the replacement fork and tweaked head tube. Both rims had been replaced to match, but were laced incorrectly long ago, so that the Schrader valve was one spoke away from where it needed to be.

They were running S6 tires and are 32-40 hole, so I assume they are old EA1's of some sort. They seem reasonably true, but they have some rust.
You can have them for the postage if that will help you for your build. PM me.

I don't know what an S25/n saddle is. According to the catalog, these bikes were supposed to have Terry Oppy saddles - but mine has a Brooks mattress that looks almost the same. I personally believe it is original.

'
Thanks BluesDaddy. Good luck, but I am afraid the rear wing nuts must be like hen's teeth though. - They are threaded to accept a foreshortened SA right axle nut.

Great restore! I've seen the bike, and it is impressive! You've done a great job Auchen!

Also, Auchen's bike knowledge is impressive, and I appreciate his help. He is truly a good guy. Thanks.