noglider 

You're onto something there. Plus, I felt like I was playing hooky while being paid, so that was a huge factor.

Most of my riding has been on drop bars, and I enjoy upright handlebars. My commuter bike has now become my favorite bike, and it has alloy North Road bars. I recently got a B72 saddle, so I guess it's on its way to becoming a Raleigh Sports-like bike. I have plastic fenders, too. The frame is a 1971 Raleigh Super Course, with 27" wheels and an 18-speed derailleur drivetrain.

flammenwurfer

At the moment I have a traditional 3 speed and a 10 spd Motobecane Mirage or Super Mirage (don't know which exactly) that I find myself wanting to make more like a 3 speed. I put a rack on the back and some north road bars from a crappy old western flyer. I would also like to replace the 10 spd drivetrain with an IGH at some point.

I just prefer the relaxed style. While it may not be the ideal racing position, I can still get my blood pumping pretty good even with the more relaxed positioning.

jdmitch

I'm enough of a novice at bike to not really understand the ramifications finer points of geometry on handling and fit... I'm not sure I even understand what determines shallow vs steep angles (or slack angles... or whatever)

However, yeah, 3-speed are just fun to ride... you typically ride upright, you're not hammering to get where you're going. You can get up to just enough speed to whistle wind in your ears rather but not have to work hard... that and the seat are the right balance of cush without being the overblown gel cruiser seats of today.

noglider 

flammenwurfer, I made a commuter bike from a Mirage. I think the Mirage and Super Mirage had the same frame or very similar frames. I put all-rounder (nearly straight) bars on it, fenders and a rack. It was very nice but didn't ride like a Raleigh Sports. Interestingly, adding weight to the FRONT made the bike handle BETTER. I think the design was inspired by French cargo bikes. In France, they tend to load cargo on the fronts of the bikes, not the rear. The Mirage would turn by steering, not by leaning. I think it had a steep head angle and long fork rake.

All this is interesting to me, because the Mirage was equipped, priced, and positioned just like the Peugeot UO-8, but the handling was noticeably different.

wahoonc

I think some of the 3 speed appeal is the simplicity, it is hard to beat the riding position once you get it dialed in. It makes you slow down and take life at less of a breakneck pace. I used to race, and race hard back in the 70's, I had a Bob Jackson Tourist that I would ride on off weekends, but I could still push that bike hard. Get on an upright Raleigh and you can't push it, it gets you up to a certain speed and that is it, no matter how hard you try to push it is only going to go so fast.

Aaron

flammenwurfer

noglider: I've added the rack already and I've been wanting to add fenders as well, but haven't gotten to it yet. I have a wald front basket that's coming tomorrow, but I can't decide whether to put it on the Motobecane or the 3 speed. I guess I'll have to try it out on both, but I think the 3 speed looks and rides great as it is, so I may just leave it alone. The Motobecane is already sort of confused as to what it is, so I'll probably end up putting the basket on there to keep it that way .

wahoonc: 3 speeds definitely aren't intended to be speed demons but I feel like I can get movin pretty good on mine if I try. I was flyin down some of my neighborhood streets the other day keeping up with cars that were driving through. Speed limit is only 25 mph I think, but still I felt like I was goin FAST! haha

noglider 

Do you know what year your Mirage is? Mine was about a 1975. I think it will like having a front basket, but it will get tricky if you have a quick-release front wheel.

I can't, for the life of me, remember what I did with that bike. I either sold it or abandoned it when I left Boston to take my three-month bike journey in Europe.

flammenwurfer

I have no idea what year it is or if it is a Mirage or Super Mirage. There are no markings left on the bike other than the head badge. I believe it has front fender/rack eyelets. I can use those to mount the wald basket can't I?

Here it is. This was right after I got it. It has a rear rack, a different saddle and north road bars on it now.

noglider 

To keep from annoying the 3-speed enthusiasts, maybe you should start a thread about your Mirage, in the Classic and Vintage section.

Anyway, that looks like a 1976 or later, since it has the cotterless crank, and it may be a Super Mirage because of that. Can you tell if the rims are original? What brand are they? They're aluminum, right? That would further indicate it's a Super Mirage.

If there are fender eyelets above the fork tip, then it's a good attaching point for the basket. If they are only under, it will probably be possible but might be tricky.

The bars in that picture look like North Road to me.

flammenwurfer

I did start a thread before, and all I figured out was that it's a Mirage or Super Mirage. If anyone would like to help me narrow it down a little more, my thread is here. I'm not sure if the wheels are original or if they're aluminum or not.

Those bars are what I would call I guess, not quite north road bars. They don't swoop back enough to be north roads in my opinion. I don't really know exactly what they are, they just came on the bike when I bought it. My wrists were in a slightly bent position with those and the ones I replaced them with swoop back more and are more comfortable.

noglider 

OK, I responded there.

San Rensho 

Many and many a year ago when I first started racing, I entered a citizens race. In the middle of it, a racer that was a cat 3, that happened to be riding by on his way to work, saw the race and jumped in on his Raliegh DL-1, complete with rod brakes and full chaincase. He went around a couple of laps of the circuit with us then peeled off . So, I guess you can push an english 3 speed if you have to!

noglider 

Sure, but you'll feel a point of diminishing returns at a lower speed than on a racing bike.

hvac59

San Rensho,
Your right about pushing them, although spinning out is a problem with being dialed in for hilly areas. I'm running a 36 up front! (35"-47"-62")
hvac59

San Rensho 

Yeah, those are pretty low gears. Mine is set up with 40,54,72 gear inches and I couldn't spin the 72 for very long.

graywolf

If you try to ride a 3-speed like a road or mountain bike you will kill yourself. The are really not intended to spin. Keep your cadence between 30 and 60 and you can go all day running 10-15mph. If you are a speed demon you can push one 25-30 mph on the flats after all they are geared 90-95 in high. Where the 10+ speed bikes beat them is between gears, often a 3-spd is over or under geared for the conditions, but that really only makes a difference if you are racing or time trialing. Remember, they were not designed as aerobic exercise machines, but as transportation. Think pedaling to work in your suit and tie (you do not want to arrive all sweaty and stinky) and you got it.

noglider 

You could say that the derailleur bike is better for exercise than a 3-speed, but until derailleur bikes were common, 3-speeds definitely were built for exercise. They're not unsuitable for that; they're just not as good.

tcs

Over the last two years I found the following 26 x 1 3/8 tires at bike shops, on line, in suburban big boxes and in small town hardware stores:

Bell Sports Streetster (folding)
Continental City Ride
Innova Cloud Nine
IRC “British pattern”
Kenda “utility”
Kenda “knobby”
Kenda Street
Michelin Dynamic
Michelin Transworld City
Michelin World Tour
Nokian Rollspeed TS
Panaracer Col de Vie
Panaracer Passhunter (light knobby)
Panaracer ST Daily Commuting
Pyramid “utility”
Schwalbe Delta Cruiser (available in cream color)
Schwalbe Marathon
Schwalbe Marathon Plus
Schwalbe Reflex
Specialized TriSport
Vittoria Randonneur
Vredestein Girando


HTH,
tcs

noglider 

Good to know. But the big question is: is any of them any good?

I-Like-To-Bike

I'll vouch for Schwalbe Marathons 26 x 1 3/8" (37 x 590mm) on my wife's 1960 AMF Hercules 3 speed. No problems, no flats, last forever.

wahoonc

Most if not all of them. My first choice in tires is usually the Scwalbe Marathons. I run those on 3 of my bikes. I like the reflective sidewalls.

I have used the Panaracer Col de Vie in other sizes and they have done well. I also have one bike that came stock with Cheng Shin tires and they ran out over 6,000 miles prior to replacement. Kenda is a lower end tire but for general purpose riding they are hard to beat for the price point. IRC is a quality tire, I used those for years on my touring bike. I have a love/hate relation ship with the Michelin Transworld City tires, I have them in a 700c on my grocery getter bike, the tread picks up small sharp edged stones, so far no flats, but the concern exists.

Aaron

graywolf

Tires for commuters need to be bullet proof. When I commuted I had more problems with cutting tires on broken glass than with punctures.

Tires for racing, or centuries, need to be light and have little rolling resistance.

In both those cases you need the best tire you can afford. However, considering the 3 speeds performance window most tires you can buy today work well. If I was riding it to work every day I would look for something with kevlar belts, but otherwise my opinion is most anything will work. My Dunelt has Cheng Shin which were about $8 ea including shipping. My old commuter still has oversized (41mm instead of the standard 32mm) kevlar belted tires that were designed for desert riders (cactus thorn proof) on it.

BTW, in reply to a post above, I did not say you could not get exercise riding a 3-speed, I said they were not designed as aerobic exercise machines. They were designed as basic everyday transportation (despite the fact that they were sold as kids toys here in the US), although even in Europe most people had private cars by 1955 which is when the quality started to drop.

Then a combination of guys returning from Vietnam and Bank credit cards brought on the boom of the 70's with everybody buying expensive toys they never could have afforded with out those credit cards: bicycles, motorcycles, cameras, stereos, etc...

joek

picked a new ORIGIN 8 CYKEL up on ebay for $9.99!. rides like my raleigh sports. has a sramT3 and a lugged steel framset. mounted a set of sks fenders, and plan on a front dyno hub and changing the handlebar stem. fwiw joe

flammenwurfer

Damn you joek! I saw those and was going to bid on one, but they wouldn't ship. I'm guessing you did local pickup right? Is that seat comfy? It doesn't look too bad.

Sixty Fiver

Lots of these comments describe English 3 speeds as being upright riding cruisers whereas internally geared road bikes were still the norm in England until the 50's when derailer gearing started to become very popular for the masses.

I am presently working on a 1954 Raleigh Sports road model with a 3 speed hub that will also be getting a vintage early 60's Cyclo Benelux 3 speed dual drive conversion to give it 9 speeds.

It will be a nice stable mate to my 1955 Lenton which is a fixed gear model... the IG hub option cost a few pounds more.