Front with Child claw
PiFCO, the marque of quality
Lamp received via el Speare many a moon ago.
Showing posts with label raleigh. Show all posts
Showing posts with label raleigh. Show all posts
9/26/2012
Raleigh Twenty Lamp
Why? Because someone on the internet had them a question.
1/04/2010
Review, Velo Orange Grand Cru Threadless Bottom Bracket
Threadless Bottom Bracket from velo-orange
here is what you get
This is a pretty simple and well executed design, each cup of the bb has a taper with a sliding split sleeve on it. As you screw the two halves of the bb into each other the sleves slide up the taper, expanding against the inside of the shell. When you can't tighten it anymore, it is wedged in there good. You are done. The bottom bracket is available for $60 from Velo Orange
update 1/5/10: Lots of questions about "will this work on my fisher or fat-chance or merlin with no thread BB shells or a thompson bb, etc..." I do not know, but I do know this:
the silver split ring measures at just above 33.5mm when placed all the way down the taper, and 34mm all the way up. I think the ID (at thread tips) of most bottom brackets (english swiss french) is something like 33.75. You basically have to have the ID of the bb be between 33.5 and 34 for this to work. Might be a little slop at the outer ranges, but not much.
I tried installing this BB on 5 different frames. 2 were very easy , one took some work, and two were impossible due to problems with the frames.
Oddly colored bottom bracket. Alas it does not match the classic bullseye hub
Playing with the bottom bracket on the table the bottom bracket begins to engage at about 78mm in between the cups inner flange. After three full turns the distance between the inner flanges is just over 75mm.
three turns and you are at 75mm flange to flange
When the bb is completely tightened to the point of bearings binding, the inner flange diameter is just below 68mm. However, the inner flange diameter has little relation to where the tool will actually tighten down in a given BB. Both flanges do not make it all the way to the bb shell. Due to the internally expanding design and variations in ID of the BB shell and roundness, the spacing between the flanges is usually a tiny bit to more than that wider than the BB shell. Alas, this means that there is virtually no way you can use this BB for a Raleigh twenty with a 76mm bottom bracket shell.
The bearings are replaceable cartridge bearings. Bearing assembly is held together with a snap ring. I did attempt to dissasemble the bottom bracket, but the snap ring had larger holes than my snap ring remover, so I gave up. Update 1/5: Per the comments, the snapring does sit in a groove just outboard of the bearing. This is a stress riser in an already highly stressed area.
Update 1/8/10: Tom from Velo Orange responds in the comments:
"the BB spindle material is much different from the 70's Viscount/ Lambert BB's that were sold back in the day. Newer material (Boron hardened steel) with a newer alloying process produces a BB spindle that is less brittle and may significantly reduce the chance of failure from where the snap-ring groove is.
Of course, if there is ever an issue, Velo Orange will stand behind the product and cover it under warranty."
The cups have 6 lock ring cuts on the outer diameter as well as large pin holes on the face. The cups are all aluminum, and the lock ring notches can strip out when you are cranking hard on it with a single point lockring wrench. I used a variety of bb specific lock ring wrenches as well as a couple headset and track ones, not one interfaced securely enough to avoid the possibility of stripping the notches when tightening. The pin holes are large and deep, but I did not try to use them for installation. None of the modern shimano BB tools interface with this bottom bracket (Park tools BBT-18, BBT-8, )I believe the correct tool for this job is a Park BBT-4 with the 6 notches. I have every bb tool ever, but not this one, so I can't confirm it. update 1/5/10: commenter points out the bbt-4 is not the right tool. It has rounded notches, not squared ones. Velo orange says single point BB tool is the right one and cranking hard is not necessary
I did install and remove the BB on 5 different frames and thus subjected the bottom bracket to repeated installation and really cranked on it to see if it would loosen over time, so I am pretty sure you can get this seated well without stripping the notches with a single point lock ring wrench. I also cranked on the drive side cup after fully tightening the non-drive side, I had multiple notch stripping here, this is probably not a good idea.I did this on the frame where the drive side flange was not seated on the BB-shell. If you do this, you may find it very difficult to remove the drive side of the BB. When I did this it sort of bound on itself and did not move. This is a great sign for the solidness of the bottom bracket, to remove the bottom bracket (if there is room ) you can insert a screwdriver between the flange and the silver slider and wedge it out.
update 1/5/10: Velo orange says single point BB tool is the right one. In retrospect for normal installation, they are correct, it does work fine for a single installation and removal, as long as you don't crank on it too hard.
Again, if your inner BB-shell is out of round or dirty or subsized, the flanges will not seat on the shell. I think the best bet would be to do all the tightening from the non-drive side. If I was redesigning this, I would make sure it interfaced with either the BB-18 tool (Shimano Isis 8 notch) or the BBT-9 tool (18 external notches) for the outboard bearing cranks, both of which are easier to find in a shop right now.
well seated in a miyata Terra Runner
So in total I easily installed this BB in a:
1980s Miyata Terra runner ATB frame with a English threaded BB shell width of 72mm
A 1970's track frame with a french threaded BB shell, 68mm width
Raleigh Sports with bottom bracket installed
I was able to install it in:
1960's Raleigh Sports, with a 71mm raleigh threaded BB shell. However due to some rock hard grease on the shell between the threads, the tapers would not seat fully. The down tube and seat tube protude through the bb shell lug on this frame, they may also impinge upon the bb slightly. Even after cleaning the grease, the bottom bracket did not seat fully. I do not believe that this will affect the function of the Bottom bracket.
Installed in Raleigh Sports, note drive (blue) side flange not fully seated
I was not able to install this bottom bracket in my Raleigh Twenty with 71mm bottom bracket. The interior of the bb is actually slightly smaller than the threaded portion, preventing the silver sliders from entering the frame fully, which prevented the two bottom bracket halves to thread into each other.
I was not able to get the BB to install in my Raleigh Twenty with 76mm bottom bracket. It may be possible to get the threads started on a bottom bracket this wide, but I do not see it as a likely bet. It certainly did not work on mine. As with many Raleigh frames, the worksmanship is sloppy, and there are some weld blips in the bottom bracket shell between the threaded region that may prevent this bottom bracket from working at all, despite the length. It is probably possible to hacksaw the bb shell down and use this bottom bracket, I don't particularly recommend this, although sheldon brown did (here, search for hacksaw).
For wider shells, remember that the nondrive side cup will stick out a little farther than the shell and I could see this interfering with the crank arm. All the extra width will effect where the outer flange on the non-drive side sits. Not the drive side. So a 73mm shell, for example, will have the non-drive side bb axle effectively 5mm closer to the centerline of the bike than it would on a 68mm shell. Not a big deal on longer bottom brackets probably, but not great if you are really trying to use a narrow bottom bracket in a wide shelled frame, as you might with a SA hubbed raleigh sports for example.
I had no trouble reinstalling threaded bottom brackets in two of the frames I tried this on. The threads do not seem to be affected at all. All these frames are steel! This could be an issue with aluminum frames, but I do not know.
Finally, the BB came with no instructions. Based on my experiences, here is what I would recommend.
0. Check to see if there are any obstructions in the bottom bracket shell that stand proud of the threads, if there are and they are removable, do so, if not, consider not ordering this bottom bracket.
1. Clean well the BB shell of the frame you want to install this bottom bracket in.
2. Grease the bottom bracket shell.
3. Remove the silver sliders from the bottom bracket
4. Grease the threads on the bottom bracket.
5. Lightly grease the tapered section of the bottom bracket.
6. Lightly grease the inside and outside of the silver sliders
7. Reinstall the silver sliders and push them down the tapers as far as they go.
8. Place the drive side of the bottom bracket into the shell, press as deeply as you can.
9. Place the non-drive side of the bottom bracket into the bb shell, until it makes contact with the other side.
10. Turn non-drive side threading it into the drive side. Turn until it is tight.
And then you are done. In fairness, I did none of this on the Miyata and the french track frame, I just threaded it in and it worked fine.
In conclusion, I think this product works great. I think this will work nicely on most frames. It is a nice solution to dealing with swiss threaded bb's, french threaded bb's or frames with slighly munged up bb threads. Depending on your BB width, this may work great on your old Raleigh Sports. It may not work though, due to characteristic Raleigh sloppy worksmanship. Furthermore, I do not believe it will work on any Raleigh twenties with 76mm bottom brackets. If there is anything in a frame's bottom bracket shell that stands proud of the threads, this bottom bracket might not work.
Tool Notes: I removed the cottered cranks and bottom brackets off of three different raleigh frames. Two twenty and a sports. They were all at least 30 years old and one of them had probably never had the bb pulled. I used a cotter pin press and raleigh bb tool from Mark Stonich's bike smith design. If you work on bikes with cottered cranks and have lots of old raleighs with the annoying subliminally flatted raleigh drive side cups, these tools are completely worth it. They are not cheap, but they are very well made.
Finally, I received this bottom bracket to review from Chris at Velo-Orange. And review it I have. I will keep it installed on the raleigh sports for now and build that up with a coaster braked 650B wheelset I built up and report back with any issues as i put mileage on it over the next month or so.
here is what you get
This is a pretty simple and well executed design, each cup of the bb has a taper with a sliding split sleeve on it. As you screw the two halves of the bb into each other the sleves slide up the taper, expanding against the inside of the shell. When you can't tighten it anymore, it is wedged in there good. You are done. The bottom bracket is available for $60 from Velo Orange
update 1/5/10: Lots of questions about "will this work on my fisher or fat-chance or merlin with no thread BB shells or a thompson bb, etc..." I do not know, but I do know this:
the silver split ring measures at just above 33.5mm when placed all the way down the taper, and 34mm all the way up. I think the ID (at thread tips) of most bottom brackets (english swiss french) is something like 33.75. You basically have to have the ID of the bb be between 33.5 and 34 for this to work. Might be a little slop at the outer ranges, but not much.
I tried installing this BB on 5 different frames. 2 were very easy , one took some work, and two were impossible due to problems with the frames.
Oddly colored bottom bracket. Alas it does not match the classic bullseye hub
Playing with the bottom bracket on the table the bottom bracket begins to engage at about 78mm in between the cups inner flange. After three full turns the distance between the inner flanges is just over 75mm.
three turns and you are at 75mm flange to flange
When the bb is completely tightened to the point of bearings binding, the inner flange diameter is just below 68mm. However, the inner flange diameter has little relation to where the tool will actually tighten down in a given BB. Both flanges do not make it all the way to the bb shell. Due to the internally expanding design and variations in ID of the BB shell and roundness, the spacing between the flanges is usually a tiny bit to more than that wider than the BB shell. Alas, this means that there is virtually no way you can use this BB for a Raleigh twenty with a 76mm bottom bracket shell.
The bearings are replaceable cartridge bearings. Bearing assembly is held together with a snap ring. I did attempt to dissasemble the bottom bracket, but the snap ring had larger holes than my snap ring remover, so I gave up. Update 1/5: Per the comments, the snapring does sit in a groove just outboard of the bearing. This is a stress riser in an already highly stressed area.
Update 1/8/10: Tom from Velo Orange responds in the comments:
"the BB spindle material is much different from the 70's Viscount/ Lambert BB's that were sold back in the day. Newer material (Boron hardened steel) with a newer alloying process produces a BB spindle that is less brittle and may significantly reduce the chance of failure from where the snap-ring groove is.
Of course, if there is ever an issue, Velo Orange will stand behind the product and cover it under warranty."
The cups have 6 lock ring cuts on the outer diameter as well as large pin holes on the face. The cups are all aluminum, and the lock ring notches can strip out when you are cranking hard on it with a single point lockring wrench. I used a variety of bb specific lock ring wrenches as well as a couple headset and track ones, not one interfaced securely enough to avoid the possibility of stripping the notches when tightening. The pin holes are large and deep, but I did not try to use them for installation. None of the modern shimano BB tools interface with this bottom bracket (Park tools BBT-18, BBT-8, )
I did install and remove the BB on 5 different frames and thus subjected the bottom bracket to repeated installation and really cranked on it to see if it would loosen over time, so I am pretty sure you can get this seated well without stripping the notches with a single point lock ring wrench. I also cranked on the drive side cup after fully tightening the non-drive side, I had multiple notch stripping here, this is probably not a good idea.I did this on the frame where the drive side flange was not seated on the BB-shell. If you do this, you may find it very difficult to remove the drive side of the BB. When I did this it sort of bound on itself and did not move. This is a great sign for the solidness of the bottom bracket, to remove the bottom bracket (if there is room ) you can insert a screwdriver between the flange and the silver slider and wedge it out.
update 1/5/10: Velo orange says single point BB tool is the right one. In retrospect for normal installation, they are correct, it does work fine for a single installation and removal, as long as you don't crank on it too hard.
Again, if your inner BB-shell is out of round or dirty or subsized, the flanges will not seat on the shell. I think the best bet would be to do all the tightening from the non-drive side. If I was redesigning this, I would make sure it interfaced with either the BB-18 tool (Shimano Isis 8 notch) or the BBT-9 tool (18 external notches) for the outboard bearing cranks, both of which are easier to find in a shop right now.
well seated in a miyata Terra Runner
So in total I easily installed this BB in a:
1980s Miyata Terra runner ATB frame with a English threaded BB shell width of 72mm
A 1970's track frame with a french threaded BB shell, 68mm width
Raleigh Sports with bottom bracket installed
I was able to install it in:
1960's Raleigh Sports, with a 71mm raleigh threaded BB shell. However due to some rock hard grease on the shell between the threads, the tapers would not seat fully. The down tube and seat tube protude through the bb shell lug on this frame, they may also impinge upon the bb slightly. Even after cleaning the grease, the bottom bracket did not seat fully. I do not believe that this will affect the function of the Bottom bracket.
Installed in Raleigh Sports, note drive (blue) side flange not fully seated
I was not able to install this bottom bracket in my Raleigh Twenty with 71mm bottom bracket. The interior of the bb is actually slightly smaller than the threaded portion, preventing the silver sliders from entering the frame fully, which prevented the two bottom bracket halves to thread into each other.
I was not able to get the BB to install in my Raleigh Twenty with 76mm bottom bracket. It may be possible to get the threads started on a bottom bracket this wide, but I do not see it as a likely bet. It certainly did not work on mine. As with many Raleigh frames, the worksmanship is sloppy, and there are some weld blips in the bottom bracket shell between the threaded region that may prevent this bottom bracket from working at all, despite the length. It is probably possible to hacksaw the bb shell down and use this bottom bracket, I don't particularly recommend this, although sheldon brown did (here, search for hacksaw).
For wider shells, remember that the nondrive side cup will stick out a little farther than the shell and I could see this interfering with the crank arm. All the extra width will effect where the outer flange on the non-drive side sits. Not the drive side. So a 73mm shell, for example, will have the non-drive side bb axle effectively 5mm closer to the centerline of the bike than it would on a 68mm shell. Not a big deal on longer bottom brackets probably, but not great if you are really trying to use a narrow bottom bracket in a wide shelled frame, as you might with a SA hubbed raleigh sports for example.
I had no trouble reinstalling threaded bottom brackets in two of the frames I tried this on. The threads do not seem to be affected at all. All these frames are steel! This could be an issue with aluminum frames, but I do not know.
Finally, the BB came with no instructions. Based on my experiences, here is what I would recommend.
0. Check to see if there are any obstructions in the bottom bracket shell that stand proud of the threads, if there are and they are removable, do so, if not, consider not ordering this bottom bracket.
1. Clean well the BB shell of the frame you want to install this bottom bracket in.
2. Grease the bottom bracket shell.
3. Remove the silver sliders from the bottom bracket
4. Grease the threads on the bottom bracket.
5. Lightly grease the tapered section of the bottom bracket.
6. Lightly grease the inside and outside of the silver sliders
7. Reinstall the silver sliders and push them down the tapers as far as they go.
8. Place the drive side of the bottom bracket into the shell, press as deeply as you can.
9. Place the non-drive side of the bottom bracket into the bb shell, until it makes contact with the other side.
10. Turn non-drive side threading it into the drive side. Turn until it is tight.
And then you are done. In fairness, I did none of this on the Miyata and the french track frame, I just threaded it in and it worked fine.
In conclusion, I think this product works great. I think this will work nicely on most frames. It is a nice solution to dealing with swiss threaded bb's, french threaded bb's or frames with slighly munged up bb threads. Depending on your BB width, this may work great on your old Raleigh Sports. It may not work though, due to characteristic Raleigh sloppy worksmanship. Furthermore, I do not believe it will work on any Raleigh twenties with 76mm bottom brackets. If there is anything in a frame's bottom bracket shell that stands proud of the threads, this bottom bracket might not work.
Tool Notes: I removed the cottered cranks and bottom brackets off of three different raleigh frames. Two twenty and a sports. They were all at least 30 years old and one of them had probably never had the bb pulled. I used a cotter pin press and raleigh bb tool from Mark Stonich's bike smith design. If you work on bikes with cottered cranks and have lots of old raleighs with the annoying subliminally flatted raleigh drive side cups, these tools are completely worth it. They are not cheap, but they are very well made.
Finally, I received this bottom bracket to review from Chris at Velo-Orange. And review it I have. I will keep it installed on the raleigh sports for now and build that up with a coaster braked 650B wheelset I built up and report back with any issues as i put mileage on it over the next month or so.
12/30/2008
The befendered snow twenty rides again
I admit it. I never took the studded tires off the Raleigh Twenty this year. I put them on in December 2007 and put the bike away in april and did not ride it again until a couple of weeks ago. The acquisition of the Big Dummy has kind of relegated this one to winter commute duty only.
The twenty in front of historic fuller lodge
I had an original raleigh twenty rear fenders thanks to BillM(?) but could not shoe horn any metal or plastic fender between the replacement fork and the 20" marathon winter studded tire. I was able to use a plastic shorty fender, which is better than nothing. I may cut up a fender or two and make an interrupted fender around the crown some day, but it is pretty good now, my feet get wetter than they should, but the rest is fine.
I just got a lumotec LED light to replace the old generator light with and have to figure out a chain guard, and I am in business. I have one off a Bianchi Milano I am trying to shoe horn on there, but it is not going well. I did festoon the bike with reflectors from my great big box of reflectors that I collected from the unwanted reflector kits that came with 3000 dollar road bikes.
It is a great ice bike. I give the Marathon winters a B in performance. They do slide a bit on smooth ice, but I have not crashed with them yet. Me being me, I like really fat studded tires and these are pretty narrow, but they do roll decently. They are pretty good for commuting in the melt during the day, freeze at night time of year. They are lousy in slippery snow, slush or anything deep. However, they are, to my knowledge, the only 20" studded tires available, so they win handily in this scenario..
The twenty in front of historic fuller lodge
I had an original raleigh twenty rear fenders thanks to BillM(?) but could not shoe horn any metal or plastic fender between the replacement fork and the 20" marathon winter studded tire. I was able to use a plastic shorty fender, which is better than nothing. I may cut up a fender or two and make an interrupted fender around the crown some day, but it is pretty good now, my feet get wetter than they should, but the rest is fine.
I just got a lumotec LED light to replace the old generator light with and have to figure out a chain guard, and I am in business. I have one off a Bianchi Milano I am trying to shoe horn on there, but it is not going well. I did festoon the bike with reflectors from my great big box of reflectors that I collected from the unwanted reflector kits that came with 3000 dollar road bikes.
It is a great ice bike. I give the Marathon winters a B in performance. They do slide a bit on smooth ice, but I have not crashed with them yet. Me being me, I like really fat studded tires and these are pretty narrow, but they do roll decently. They are pretty good for commuting in the melt during the day, freeze at night time of year. They are lousy in slippery snow, slush or anything deep. However, they are, to my knowledge, the only 20" studded tires available, so they win handily in this scenario..
10/06/2007
Seattle weekend
So two weekends back I was out there in Seattle for my cousins wedding. It was a pretty busy weekend with a day and a half out on Vashon Island (here), non stop ferry rides to get out to the wedding site on the pennisula just north of bainbridge island and then some post wedding harbor cruising. Pretty fun stuff. Here is a photo dump...
Charlie, Elena and Me heading to Vashon on the ferry
click for big
Yeah, strike a pose you handsome guys you!
click for big
Well appointed raleigh outside elliot bay book shop...
click for big
... where Elena and I met up with wenmei and her husband chris. My eyes were closed in all the photos except this one. Another one here on wenmei's flicker page. Yeah she is pregnant.
click for big
Then Elena and I ran over to drop in on Kent at his workplace. Here he is folding his new dahon with alacrity.
click for big
Elena and Kent talking it up in the seattle bike station. I loooove taking flash photos in bike shops. Kent's head nearly exploded after this pic he was reflecting so much.
click for big
Me and downtown seattle on the bainbridge ferry
click for big
A neat bike sculpture on the steps betwixt downtown and the waterfront
click for big
My Cousin Keith trying to memorize his lines right before his nuptials
click for big
Keith and Lauren all married and stuff.
click for big
Keith was my second cousin in a row to get married in a place that had dead creatures on the wall. I am impressed.
click for big
elena and me at the wedding
click for big
A bike rack up on capitol hill
click for big
Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmachiatto!
click for big
Charlie, Elena and Me heading to Vashon on the ferry
click for big
Yeah, strike a pose you handsome guys you!
click for big
Well appointed raleigh outside elliot bay book shop...
click for big
... where Elena and I met up with wenmei and her husband chris. My eyes were closed in all the photos except this one. Another one here on wenmei's flicker page. Yeah she is pregnant.
click for big
Then Elena and I ran over to drop in on Kent at his workplace. Here he is folding his new dahon with alacrity.
click for big
Elena and Kent talking it up in the seattle bike station. I loooove taking flash photos in bike shops. Kent's head nearly exploded after this pic he was reflecting so much.
click for big
Me and downtown seattle on the bainbridge ferry
click for big
A neat bike sculpture on the steps betwixt downtown and the waterfront
click for big
My Cousin Keith trying to memorize his lines right before his nuptials
click for big
Keith and Lauren all married and stuff.
click for big
Keith was my second cousin in a row to get married in a place that had dead creatures on the wall. I am impressed.
click for big
elena and me at the wedding
click for big
A bike rack up on capitol hill
click for big
Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmachiatto!
click for big
1/20/2007
More hauling on bikes
I added a few more blogs to the bloglist on the right. As way of introduction, here are some snaps I stole from a couple of the blogs.
sconnyboy does some impressive hauling on his clot of xtracycle type bikes:
click for source.
cycling Spokane is carfree up there in the eastern washington state. His wife has a styling raleigh folder:
click for source
If you like such blogs, please surf on over to JimG's metablog aggregator which has a bunch of really solid bikey blogs.
sconnyboy does some impressive hauling on his clot of xtracycle type bikes:
click for source.
cycling Spokane is carfree up there in the eastern washington state. His wife has a styling raleigh folder:
click for source
If you like such blogs, please surf on over to JimG's metablog aggregator which has a bunch of really solid bikey blogs.
12/21/2006
Raleigh Sports
A few days ago, I sent an email to the CR list ISO R nuts for the missing cotters on my 1966 Raleigh Sports that I rescued from a garage sale. Anyhow, I got a million replies on or off lists for sources for little raleigh parts. British Ebay and bikeville were the most useful links. But a fellow raleigh-phile donated a set of worn but usable cotter nuts to the cause.
This generous raleigh-phile, Neal, has a really impressive collection of old raleighs. Sports, Lentons, D's, competitions, etc. Ranging from the 30's until the 80's. His site is really worth checking out. My favorite one he had is the mindbendingly shiny 1966 Chrome Raleigh Sports he has. The chrome is nice and totally changes the character of the bike, from the flat black and pinstriped understated workhorse, to the blingy eye candy. Apparently these bikes were dealer sales incentives in the 60's. Wow! Check out all the photos on his page, but he also sent me this glamour shot, apparently it is nice enough that it lives in his living room:
click for big
I got another email from Mark who directed me to his customized hot-rodded Sports over in cyclofiends gallery. Here is a photo I stole from the page:
click for source.
Pretty neat bike. I really like the red rims, bars and cranks with the flat black frame. So hot-rod. That is roughly what I had in mind for my sport, but a bit more stock. I am planning on using a similar bendix 2speed coaster brake hub and some 584 rims with fatty rumpkins on them for some fat multi surface tires that hopefully ride better than the 590's that are easily available.
I was just looking at some car show pictures last week and wondering why the clean flat black and red look has not been done that often on bikes. There has to be ways to include the hot rod look without making dumb looking lowriders and chopper cruisers.
click for source at coops blog.
The pinstriping and boxlining and flamboyant paint jobs on the british bikes seem to be the right idea, but a bit of customization from there you could have some nice hot rod bikes. There is some good stuff on the venerable bikerod and custom webpage, but lots of crap. OC chopper style bikes are not the droids I am looking for, but this and this are steps in the right direction.
This generous raleigh-phile, Neal, has a really impressive collection of old raleighs. Sports, Lentons, D's, competitions, etc. Ranging from the 30's until the 80's. His site is really worth checking out. My favorite one he had is the mindbendingly shiny 1966 Chrome Raleigh Sports he has. The chrome is nice and totally changes the character of the bike, from the flat black and pinstriped understated workhorse, to the blingy eye candy. Apparently these bikes were dealer sales incentives in the 60's. Wow! Check out all the photos on his page, but he also sent me this glamour shot, apparently it is nice enough that it lives in his living room:
click for big
I got another email from Mark who directed me to his customized hot-rodded Sports over in cyclofiends gallery. Here is a photo I stole from the page:
click for source.
Pretty neat bike. I really like the red rims, bars and cranks with the flat black frame. So hot-rod. That is roughly what I had in mind for my sport, but a bit more stock. I am planning on using a similar bendix 2speed coaster brake hub and some 584 rims with fatty rumpkins on them for some fat multi surface tires that hopefully ride better than the 590's that are easily available.
I was just looking at some car show pictures last week and wondering why the clean flat black and red look has not been done that often on bikes. There has to be ways to include the hot rod look without making dumb looking lowriders and chopper cruisers.
click for source at coops blog.
The pinstriping and boxlining and flamboyant paint jobs on the british bikes seem to be the right idea, but a bit of customization from there you could have some nice hot rod bikes. There is some good stuff on the venerable bikerod and custom webpage, but lots of crap. OC chopper style bikes are not the droids I am looking for, but this and this are steps in the right direction.
12/13/2006
Raleigh Twenty Hinge
Mmmm crusty:
Click for big.
I generally don't like folding the twenty as I put the big milk crate on the back and I find the steel on all the nice l-bolts are buttery soft and rust quick. I think they are also some weird non metric, possibly raleigh specific size, don't quote me on that. The l bolt holding the seat collar stripped.
See most recent photos here, and some others here.
Click for big.
I generally don't like folding the twenty as I put the big milk crate on the back and I find the steel on all the nice l-bolts are buttery soft and rust quick. I think they are also some weird non metric, possibly raleigh specific size, don't quote me on that. The l bolt holding the seat collar stripped.
See most recent photos here, and some others here.
11/30/2006
Riding in the snows
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Just like much of the rest of the country we got some good snow yesterday. The forecast called for an inch or three, so I rode the raleigh twenty to work in light flurries and an inch of powder. But the snow, she did not stop, it became, STORMWATCH LOSALAMOS 2006. By 5 pm there were 6 inches of powder on the ground. Which, in los alamos, due to us living on a mesa with few routes out of town on somewhat twisty mountain roads, adding that half the lab lives out of town, means complete auto gridlock.
Co-workers who live in santa fe (45 minute drive normally) took upwards of three hours to get home. Wooo. It usually takes 10 minutes to drive from the office to my house, 15-20 during rush hour, and about 15-20 by bike depending on the bike and the weather. It took me 30 minutes of plowing through beautiful fluffy powder on the side of the road to get home. Neighbors took over an hour for the same three miles by car. I passed hundreds of motorists stuck in stopped traffic. It was great. Plumes of powder were flying everywhere. One of my best winter commutes ever.
There was a ton of build of snow build up on the wheels and hub and frame. It even covered the lower headlight. Despite having some nice studded tires for my MTB, the storm took me by surprise so they are still hanging on a hook in the basement. But the good part is that I discovered that the tioga 1.95 tires are fantastic at low pressures in the snow, and not terrible in the ice. I will mount the studded tires tonight to maybe go mountain style bikiling tomorrow.
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Todays morning commute today was a bit sketchy with ice and slop and foul smelling ice melting dirt everywhere, but since schools were delayed or cancelled, most people came in late. So I had the streets and the lovely 3 degree (F!) weather to myself. I think it was my coldest commute since I lived in boston many a moon a go. I had to dig out a balaclava (mmmm delicious buttery balaclava) and the heavy winter gloves and the wind proof sock things The return trip tonight was OK, the roads pretty clear and it was a balmy 17 or so. No problem except for the poorly burning diesel engine. I need to invent a balaclava that is made out of airfilter fabric.
Hopefully this bodes well for a real winter this year. I even saw some xc ski tracks in the park and roads this morning.
Ah gratuitous cat pictures
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11/26/2006
The twenty back on the road...
In august in the midst of moving, I quickly stripped the fork off of my raleigh twenty and ran it down to santa fe to Margo Conover of Luna Cycles whereupon for a minimal fee she brazed on two nice canti bosses on the ridiculous fork. It is nice to have a local framebuilder. Alas, she has retreated to the north, but santa fe's loss is boulder's gain, where I am sure she will do well amid the carnival of superhigh end bikes.
Margo and her nice garage shop in santa fe:
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The canti bosses
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See the whole fork here, it has a cartoonishly long steer tube
Here is the bike rebuilt up.
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This is a good use for v brakes, but apparently I only had super high end paul's Vbrakes in the parts box and the brake levers were canti only. So I dusted off some LX cantilevers and got it running post haste.
The first act was to get a ladder and few rakes from the old place back to the new place. About a mile transfer loaded as such:
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It was slow going, but not too bad. See a video of me riding it here. The bungy cord held it in, the worst part was the ladder forced me onto the nose of the saddle, so it was a bit uncomfortable, but not too bad. I followed it up with a run to the hardware store to get a 30" bow saw and a sledgehammer and wedge so I could split some wood. It works great and stops great. I also replaced the indicator spindle thingy on the sachs 5 speed hub, so I can finally get to 1st gear again. It is easy to bend the spindle on the sachs hubs during hamhanded wheel changes, but easy enough to replace. As winter is here again, it is nice to have another bike with a generator hub going...
See some more specs on the bike here.
Margo and her nice garage shop in santa fe:
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The canti bosses
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See the whole fork here, it has a cartoonishly long steer tube
Here is the bike rebuilt up.
Click for big
This is a good use for v brakes, but apparently I only had super high end paul's Vbrakes in the parts box and the brake levers were canti only. So I dusted off some LX cantilevers and got it running post haste.
The first act was to get a ladder and few rakes from the old place back to the new place. About a mile transfer loaded as such:
Click for big
It was slow going, but not too bad. See a video of me riding it here. The bungy cord held it in, the worst part was the ladder forced me onto the nose of the saddle, so it was a bit uncomfortable, but not too bad. I followed it up with a run to the hardware store to get a 30" bow saw and a sledgehammer and wedge so I could split some wood. It works great and stops great. I also replaced the indicator spindle thingy on the sachs 5 speed hub, so I can finally get to 1st gear again. It is easy to bend the spindle on the sachs hubs during hamhanded wheel changes, but easy enough to replace. As winter is here again, it is nice to have another bike with a generator hub going...
See some more specs on the bike here.
10/03/2006
Garagesus brings me a bike
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Garagesus was good to me last weekend. A quick 3 stops and 10 dollars later I own yet... another... raleigh... project... bike. This time some sort of 1966 (from the AW hub) enamled black raleigh 3 speed roadster with 590 wheels. The bike, judging from the speckled bird crap and horrible sunburn on the brooks saddle, spent some time outside, but this being NM it is in pretty good shape. What is not in good shape, is the bike itself thanks to the too smart for his own good scientist who was the previous owner. It obviously was about 20 minutes into an overhaul by the guy who thought, it was just a bike, how hard could it be. It sports a new rear tire and the right pedal has been taken off. It is also missing the hub cones and shifty mechanisms, the brakes, the levers, the front fender, the nuts from the cotters (?!?) and other bits. I am guessing it was midway through dissasembly when the scientist guy either could not get off the left pedal, or got really scared of the innards of the Sturmey AW hub. Or maybe it took until he went to the LBS to find replacement SA innards and then got scared off. Hmm...
Anyhow, all the stuff missing is not there. The previous owner was sheepish and evasive when questioned directly about missing parts, justifying my theory above. Luckily I have a JC higgens donor bike mouldering about for just such an occasion with a suitable front fender and a seventies AW hub to make things right.
I am up in the air about whether to make this a 3 speed with chromed steel rims, or with Aluminum rims, or if I lace up a coaster brake to the OG rims, or if I make it a 584 bike with maybe with a 2 speed kickback bendix, I can use the 584 rims I got off a schwinn hybrid I got at a garage sale last year. Hmmm...
It was worth it just for the weird B72 saddle:
Lots of proofhide, a bit o' tension and a touch of skirt lacing and it should be good to go.
For those who enjoy such things, here is a high res photo of the developing basement lair. There is a fridge, a workstand and enough room for about 15 bikes behind me when I took the pic. This is the first dedicated bike workshop I have had since 1997 or therabouts.
Thanks to sweetnourishingbikes for garage sale bike display inspiration.
5/24/2006
Raleigh Sprite
As shown before, Elena has a nice Raleigh Sprite she found in an arroyo.
I fixed it mightily for her birthday last year, going from a crappy derailer system to a much more workable SA three speed drivetrain:
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and then went ahead and updated it more this year
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The license plate is Elena's, I added a nice brooks b66 saddle, some different grips and a little handlebar mounted propeller plane:
click pic for movie of plane in action.
I fixed it mightily for her birthday last year, going from a crappy derailer system to a much more workable SA three speed drivetrain:
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and then went ahead and updated it more this year
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The license plate is Elena's, I added a nice brooks b66 saddle, some different grips and a little handlebar mounted propeller plane:
click pic for movie of plane in action.
4/26/2006
We're a Raleigh Family, We're a Raleigh Family
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Me and my Raleigh Twenty and Elena and her Raleigh Sprite. She found it in an arroyo a number of years ago and fixed it up a bit. It had probably the worst, most untunable 10 speed drivetrain I have ever come across, so I ditched and built up some 27" alloy rims on a sturmy archer AW hub. So now it is a low geared three speed and she commutes on it fairly regularly when the weather is above freezing. It is pretty nice as it has the longest seat tube on a mixte type frame I have ever seen. Works well for her height.
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