Ol' Gilbert's Still Got It

The last time I made a specific post about Gilbert was over THREE AND A HALF years ago. I was thinking of selling, but decided against it. After riding that summer and realizing that this 1979 Raleigh Superbe was far too good of a bike to "retire," whatever that would have meant, I was going to write some more. This post was supposed to be published in the fall of 2016, at which point I had the bike for 1.5 years. By next month, I will have been riding this bike for 5. Since I last wrote about this bike, I have put at least 2,000 more miles on it, which is a conservative estimate even with the presence of other lighter, faster bikes. The title of this post has not changed. 

Where do we start? Since rebuilding this bike, the only maintenance I have done is routine oiling of the rear hub and replacing the rear brake cable last summer after it snapped. I haven't had to adjust any of the cables. Truly a set-and-forget situation. Ever since I rebuilt this bike, I've just been riding it. I haven't had to do anything to it that was even remotely noteworthy. It's just that good. Aside from riding in the rain, I haven't even cleaned the bike.

This is what the rear hub looked like two years ago, and this is what it still looks like. I did smear some grime off with my finger at one point to see if it was still shiny underneath and indeed it was.

This picture taken in the summer of 2017 shows how the bike was, from shortly after the last post, until last winter. I keep the Minniehaha saddle bag permanently attached and the bike usually had a pannier or two attached while in use. I also attached one of the Falter frame pumps onto the downtube with clamp-on pump clips, since this bike did not come with brazed-on pegs. I thought it looked good, but the pump doesn't work. I recently decided it was silly and I removed it.

I found a 1972 Brooks B66 saddle in the summer of 2016 that wasn't in great shape, but still rideable. It was weathered and broken in and extremely comfortable. The photo above shows the only thing that was really wrong with the saddle, which was that the right side was warped outward from some kind of uneven moisture exposure before I bought it.

The warped edge of the saddle ended up wearing down my favorite pants in such a way that on my way to graduation in 2017, my pants opened right up. Despite all of the disparaging things I have said about graduation gowns, I can at least say that I was glad something was covering me on that day. The saddle ended up claiming a few more pairs of pants until I gave the bike a new saddle in early 2019, which I will write about (who knows how much) later.

Something I briefly mentioned at the end of the last post how the brake pads I installed were somehow extremely effective in all weather. They seem to be some very hard, chalky variant of the classic gray brake pads with metal backs. They have not worn very much, but I noticed that the surface of the pads were slightly glazed a year ago so I filed them back a little bit. They have worn off some of the chrome from the wheels after all these miles but I'm not really concerned.

Although my mileage is now split between many more bikes, this one still sees its share of work. For a while, I used it to carry a camera, tripod, computer, and notebooks on the daily trip from Carnegie Mellon to Project RE_ before winter came and I started riding the beater. I discovered that one of the rear spokes was broken very recently, and I think this must have been when it happened. I never got around to truing or tensioning the wheels although I meant to, and the rear wheel was never completely straight.

I even used the bike for delivery duty for a short time in October because the bottom bracket of the Stuntman was making noises and the Peugeot was not yet complete. The rear reflector worked itself loose but I removed it and put it away before I lost it. Speaking of which, I got rid of the new plastic reflector shortly after the last post and replaced it with a genuine rubber one from an early '70s Sprite. Being a 1979 Canadian model, this bike would not have had this type of reflector (remnants of the original can be seen in the first-ever post about this bike) but I wanted it for appearance's sake.

I did use clipless pedals during that time (pictured) and it was faster than ever. I also accidentally crunched the chain guard when I left home one morning because my shoe got caught on it and pulled it up, and when I pedaled backward to release my shoe, the front of the guard got sucked into the chain. I will try to straighten it out when I have time but things are looking pretty bad, hence the temporary Dunelt chain guard.

Over the past three and a half years or so, and after moving from Ann Arbor to Pittsburgh, this bike has cemented itself in my life as something that I can always depend on. All of my other bikes at the moment have been constantly changing - being modified or repaired, in and out of commission for one reason or another. Not this one. As I said at the beginning of the post, I really only replaced one brake cable. It hasn't needed anything else because it's just that good.

I'm no longer quite sure what I had intended to write about when I first created the draft of this post over three years ago. I'm sure it would have been more eloquently written and better organized as my posts were back then, but at this point, all I have is a bunch of random photos from times when I rode this bike.

Despite the amount I have learned about bikes and specifically about 3-speed Raleighs, I don't really have a gauge on what the maintenance interval for this bike should be. This is the first bike I have owned long-term and ridden continuously since I got into bikes in 2013 (the 1958 Sports has been in the parents' garage for the last 2 years and is definitely due for a bottom bracket teardown when I take it out). I had meant to tear it down this year to overhaul the bearings again at the 40-year mark, but that never happened. Even though these bikes are known to be extremely durable, I imagine that it's time for a refresh anyway. The chain is starting to show some wear and the center tread of the tires are almost gone.

Being myself, I'm already thinking of things that I want to change about the bike when I tear it down again. I still need to finish wiring up a standlight or filter switch unit so the lights stay on when I'm stopped. I've decided to go with black Schwalbe Delta Cruiser tires this time around to tone down the appearance a little bit, so it's not so conspicuous when it's locked up somewhere.

I'm seriously on the fence about lacing up the wheels with new Sun CR-18 rims. By now, I have built several wheels with these rims and have had nothing but good results. The idea that the bike could be slightly lighter and have better braking is appealing to me, but I'm not sure if it'll feel different to ride, and if so, better or worse. This is a stupid thing, but I sort of enjoy how steel rims don't give off any dust when brakes are used. I'll actually have to clean this bike regularly if I give it aluminum rims. I did have CR-18 rims on this bike for the first year after I bought it, but with different hubs and handlebars. Another thing is gearing. I now live at the top of a steep hill and while the CR-18 rims will definitely help with that, I wonder if I should try another 3x2 setup as I did with this bike. The drawback of this is, of course, increased maintenance and reduced durability. I should probably just leave it because the bike has been so good the way it is.