bulldog1935

I straightened and cleaned my old Honjos fenders and moved them over to the International. One not so surprising difference, the lower brake bridge needs a shorter L-bracket - I used a front on the GP to make the reach. Need a Honjo rear L-bracket for the International. Also new U-stays. My cut rear stay was just barely enough with the set-screw fender mounts. Surprisingly, my cut front U-stay was a few mm short and would only bite in half width of an R-clip. So I'm I ordering those three parts - will need slightly longer stays front and rear when I get clearance where I want it. But made the fenders (just) clear and went for a 30-mi ride yesterday.

ascherer 

Looks terrific! Personal taste, I like the full fenders much better the the shortys.

bulldog1935

we're having a messy winter, also, and I want to ride the bike.
The fenders came from my GP and were messed up in the wreck. I worked on them a bit to straighten them.
They're rolling now, and they'll be even better when I get the 3 hardware pieces. The worst clearance point is at the rear brake bridge, which you can see in my photo above.


ps - those shorties are stainless, and the full-coverage Honjos are about the same weight.

gugie 

Looks classic and wonderful! I'm glad that Velo Orange has stays for $8 - I've had the same issue myself.

noglider 

Way back on November 6, Sir_Name wrote:

Thank you for this suggestion. I just moved the brake forward, and it works well. It's not the prettiest thing, but it's been done before, and it works.

bulldog1935

your International has prettier lugs than mine.

That is a great solution, and agree, it looks good.

ps, there is a guy on ebay who has several NOS 610 rear, and he accepted my offer quickly.

RubeRad

WANT! But the website is dead. I see there's still a pathlesspedaled.com though, I'll poke them and see what's up

noglider 

Ask @KonAaron Snake who made his headbadge. She is still in business. I met her last month at the Philly Bike Expo.

RubeRad

OK I see now he recommended Jenn Green headbadges, and found headbadges.com. What great stuff! A bit spendier than I anticipated, but I'll lust after it for a while and eventually get something. So many custom Surly badges! I need that Krampus!

ddeand 

ascherer 

Oh boy, here we go again! The International is the gift that keeps on giving. Mine has changed a lot since that early incarnation, and I'm fiddling with it some more while I heal from rotator cuff surgery. A Suntour XCD high-flange cassette hub is on the way so I can rebuild the rear wheel and convert to indexed shifting while maintaining the vintage look.

Bandera

Mine still soldiers on in town bike guise 45 seasons after pulling it out of it's shipping carton, so far so good....

-Bandera

ddeand 

noglider 

Thanks, @ddeand. Happy to entertain.

Here is my most recent picture of the bike. It now has a C17 saddle. It feels different from a B17, but I love it equally well.

For years I've been meaning to put fenders on the bike, but I still haven't gotten around to it. I guess I'll do it when I remember where I put all my round tuits.

The rear tire is wearing out, so soon I'll be putting on some slightly used Compass tires. The current Clement tires are 32mm wide. The new tires will be nominally 28mm. I suspect it won't be a dealbreaker. I need a little extra clearance for fenders.

Chr0m0ly 

noglider 

Those would be great. I test rode a 720 in 1984, and it was amazing. I think it had a longer wheelbase than the International.

Chr0m0ly 

noglider 

Thanks. I recently took a ride with folks from the bike coop in Brooklyn. I didn't expect any attention, but all the 30-somethings fawned over my bike and asked me to tell them all about it. I was hoping I would like the International, and it turns out, I like it even more than I expected it to. Of course, I have other bikes I love but for different reasons. The Raleigh's lankiness is pleasant, but it's not great for high speed maneuvers.

ascherer 

Not seeing the pic, Tom.

RubeRad

ascherer, I love how your avatar is looking 'up' at the previous poster you're responding to!

ascherer 

noglider 

Here is my renovated 1974 Raleigh International. I painted the frame with a brush in 2013 and 2014, and I built the bike up for the first time in 2015. It has undergone many changes. For about eight years, I had Nitto Mustache handlebars on it, which made the bike look cool, but I had to face the fact that they don’t work for me.

New tires, chain, new old rack, new stem, new old stem adapter, and new handlebar. I replaced the stem several times in three weeks, and now I have a stem adapter and new modern stem. I cleaned everything. Reinstalled dynamo headlight and taillight that had been off for a couple of years.

Boy these Continental GP 5000 tires in 32 mm are amazing. The tires I had were brutally harsh, and combined with the handlebar I had which put me in an uncomfortable position, I wondered if I could make this bike truly comfortable. Now I have hope. My local bike shop owner thinks I’ll like riding these tires tubeless, and for the first time, I’m considering trying that. No decision yet.

Plans for the near future:
- Further adjust the angle of the handlebar and the mounting points for the levers
- Reapply handlebar tape
- Adjust the rack to be level
- Probably use a different dynamo taillight
- Add a mud flap to the front fender
- Build a new rear wheel, since this one is borrowed from another bike of mine

nlerner

Looks like you still haven't let it go outside.

noglider 

A couple of weeks ago, I started cleaning it up. It was disgusting. Sorry I don’t have pictures from then. I guess I clean this bike about once every two years. I hope to treat the drivetrain better from now on, but you know how that goes. I am embarrassed how bad the chain was, and I’m surprised the new one doesn’t skip over the cassette. I try to replace my chains before they’re very worn, but this one went unnoticed for too long.

jethin

This is what I think of as a baller’s bike — even if you don’t love the entire build, you can tell from the choices and mods that the builder knew what they were doing.

That said I know Tom’s a mess, so there’s that too. 😉