After so much helpful and kind advice from you all I thought I'd give a little update on the progress of my Sports.

This is how I found it - neglected after the original owner sadly passed away:



I had trouble with a loose headset, so I decided to give the bike a good service and mechanical upgrade. Here's the finished article:





This is going to be my daily ride, so my attitude to restoration is slightly more lax than I might otherwise like. I've tried to upgrade the bike with the best quality components within my budget but with some care to maintain a 'vintage' look.

The original Lauterwasser bars were painted black (factory spec) but a lucky eBay find allowed me to replace them with chrome bars from the same period:



The original chainset was rusted up and beyond rescue, so I replaced it with a 1950s Williams Raleigh heron set instead:



The wheels are early Racelite rims laced onto Normandy high flange hubs (courtesy of Hilary Stone). I have used a Sturmey Archer freewheel to restore the bike to its original single speed configuration:



Some concessions to modernity had to be made, however. The pedals are brand new (MKS Sylvan Touring) but are vintage styled:



The brakes are 1980s Weinmann long reach 810s and 890s, which are not ideal but they perform well and were cheap:



Other upgrades included taking the headset and stems from a 1980s Hercules, a new KMC Z510HX chain, Schwalbe tyres, Koolstop Continental brake pads and Weinmann brake levers. Tony Colgrave kindly provided period Britannia grips:



So what's left to do? I will eventually get the frame and forks powder coated to replace the old (rather knackered) paint. I will also track down another saddle as the Wrights is quite worn and perished. I have a pair of Bluemels mudguards but I've kept them off for the summer. Otherwise I'm really happy with the build and the bike rides like a dream! Thanks for slogging through all this - I'm quite excited if you can't tell!

I think it looks great. Well done. How does it ride?

It's quite possibly the best riding bike I've had. The freewheel is quiet and smooth and the Lauterwassers give such a comfortable stance... couldn't be happier right now

First of all - that is a great looking bike, you did a very good job restoring it. One thing I don't like are brakes, Weinmann just look wrong on this bike, that plastic black bolt is just... plastic. You should look up for some Mafac centerpull brakes, those are cheap and would look great on that bike.

Very nice! The period brakes were likely stamped steel models from Raleigh, which shouldn't be hard to source from a Raleigh Sports from just about any era. Or if you want to upgrade, a set of GB Sports often have very long reach.

Good looking bike.

Yeah, the brakes are bugging me still... unfortunately I'm heading back to uni with the bike tomorrow so I just had to get it together. I'm going to get hold of some GB Sport brakes in the summer to finish it off. Thanks for the advice!

Nice build. +1 on the GB brakes

Very nice. Though I must say, the bike in its "before" state is simply spectacular and looks, to me, as the epitome of pre-war English cycling. Was there anything wrong with the black Lauterwassers?

Nice build! Those old chainrings just look beautiful. Are you sure that is a Sports? I'm no expert but it looks like a roadster to me. Great choice on the MKS pedals.

Not the 1935 Sports. Here's the catalog pic:

Great job on a very interesting bike!
Do you find the very slack geometry makes the front wheel flop over very easily?
I have a bike with slack angles like that, and I don't dare take my hands off the bars.

What defines this as Not a Sports? Pump braze ons perhaps? Roadsters would have rearward track ends and a bosss for mounting the enclosed chaincase. Slack angles were typical of many Sports. It could be a variant?

Sorry, I meant not a Roadster; definitely a Sports.

^Thanks for the catalog pic. I had no idea Sports ever had angles that slack. Did they have the same geometry as the roadster at that time or was it slightly different?

Thanks! The black Lauterwssers were in a pretty poor state, plus the length of the stem made the handling quite twitchy. I will replace the mudguards at some point to bring back the pre-war look, but for now it's more practical to leave them off (plus I need to track down a new bottom bracket clip)

The bars do flop over quite readily yeah, but the slack angles give a really interesting ride that more than makes up for it!

Beautiful job. I have a Silver Record waiting for some love.

Every bike in the 1930s had very slack angles!

Slack baby! Mine needs some love

Major slacker!


IMG_3843 by barnstormerbikes, on Flickr

'34 Sports

Knackered paint? yes. But how you ever going to replace the look of that patina around the head badge. Never. Too cool to paint, IMO. But, if you must, how about checking in to enamel? Surely many there that could do a very nice real paint job for not a lot.
Please don't powder coat that beauty.

Just searched and found your 35 Sports. I've found a 34 frame and have some extra parts from later years to hang on it. Hard to find examples of what this came with stock. - This all started with the purchase o a quadrant shifter. I'm basically building the bike around the shifter. I have some parts coming to round out what I already have. I realized you haven't been active on this post for a few years, but it's good to see an example.

Cool bike, OP. If it were me I'd eventually track down a set of the appropriate steel brake calipers someone else mentioned. Bike really looks great, though.