sl0th

Hello all, looking to pick the collective wisdom....

I'Ve been gifted a Super Elliott as a restoration project and as a complete noob to the vintage cycle restoration process I have a couple of questions. I'm hoping some are stupid and easily answered

How the bike arrived:




At the moment I'm in the process of stripping the bike down to start the cleaning and restoration process....... and it has already has a few peculiarities

Having stripped the headset I found that its an internal type - there are no press-fitted cups. Instead the bearings sat in races/cups that just sat in the frame (which is shaped to accomodate). As you can see the top internal race has been damaged and that is my first problem. Where can I get replacements (the top race is stamped TJC by the looks of it and its made in England). If I can't get replacements then is it possible to have replacements machined up (is there anyone turning out vintage headset spares?) or is my only option to modify the frame to accept a press-fit headset (I really want to avoid that if possible - and to be honest not even sure if that is a smart thing to do).

I've googled and googled trying to find info on the headset but yet to see a description or image which fits whats on the bike. Got close a couple of times but no match as yet.





The last little head-scratcher that I have at the moment is the front forks. When it came it was basically a solid-axle with cones (no lock-nuts against the cones) and a bolt securing it to the fork ends. The interesting bit is the fork ends have no drop-outs.



I took the wheel off by threading the axle through the cones in the end. As I can see it fitting the wheel can only be by building the wheel on the fork (that will be a massive pain just for a flat) or by spreading the forks (they didn't feel too flexible).... does anyone know what the 'proper' approach to fitting the wheel should be?



Thanks for reading and any help much appreciated!

Dave

RaleighSport

whoa... that fork is very odd. FYI that headset looks pretty much identical to one that came off my 79 Le Tour IV so I'd guess there's plenty of replacements out there just a matter of finding out the specifics.. and hopefully one of the guru's will pop in and help you here.

JohnDThompson 

The headset is "T.D.C." (Thomas D. Cross); they were a big British component manufacturer from about the 1930s until the 1980s when they got out of the bicycle business (they're still in business making industrial gear systems and such). They made bottom brackets, headsets, freewheels, and track cogs for bikes.

Unless the headset is 1" x 26tpi instead of standard 1" x 24tpi you shouldn't have any problem finding a replacement. If it is 26tpi, look for a "Raleigh" headset.

auchencrow

RaleighSport

+1.. more accurately describes my reaction to that fork...

sl0th

Thanks for the info on the headset. I just missed one being sold on ebay so I'll keep my eyes peeled. I can find a number of 1" english headsets online but from the pictures I've seen few seem to have the internal/integrated races - most seem to be press-fit.

Having spent a little more time on the bike it looks like it may be an entry level roadster, I'm guessing its age at somewhere between the 50 - 70s. I believe it's a roadster/entry level bike as the rear horizontal dropouts are flattened from the rear chain stays (rather than track ends) and the rear seat stays are detachable (first time I've seen that). Flat crown forks and not drilled for brakes.

The more I look the more I find to sort out

The BB and axle looks newish in terms of manufacturer (YMT) but has pitted bearing surfaces and has odd dimensions ... given both the BB and headset bearings are in poor shape I can only assume previous owner(s) believed in "tight is right" I guess I'll have to measure up the frame and workout the chainline before I know what I should be ordering as a replacement. The crankset seems to be a no-name Williams bros copy on the chainring side and a raleigh crank arm on the other .... so add that to the shopping list.

The LH seat stay also has a bend in it which I'll need to correct and I spent (a lot of) time cleaning forks this weekend. Looks like at one point its been stored in the shed with the house paint so is covered in an interesting mix of paints. I had to move from the gentle (soapy water, simple green, wd40) onto the more aggressive tactics (T-cut) to get it off. I felt bad using the T-cut and was wary of the thin paint but it seems to have worked when all else didn't. A quick polish with liquid wax and they have come up as good as I could expect really.

Thoroughly enjoying the process at the moment and starting to worry about what I'll do once it's built. Kind of addictive in a tinkering in the garage, listening to the radio, drinking tea kind of way.....

RaleighSport

Velo Orange makes a threadless BB that should go right on in there.... hope that helps.

seedsbelize