1948 Raleigh Sports Tourist - Finale

 

After having owned this bike for 3.5 years, I finally think I have it the way I want it. That is to say, I have brought it back almost to the way it was when I got it. 

Two tasks which had been nagging at me for the entire time I've had this bike are the bottom bracket and the headset. I wasn't able to crack them open the first time I tore the bike apart, and sprayed a bit of penetrating oil toward the threads to hopefully get them to come loose. I didn't have the time or motivation to try sooner, but still sprayed oil a few more time over the years, praying that the occasional mileage I put on the bike in the meantime did not lead to much deterioration. I finally sat down and got these tasks done in April of this year when the first wave of Coronavirus and the subsequent quarantine had resulted in a temporarily loss of hours at work. I was pleased, though unsurprised, to discover that the bearings cups, cones, and balls were in wonderful shape. After a thorough clean and a serving of fresh grease, they went back together and were adjusted with no trouble at all, the bearings and surfaces showing no real wear despite being over 70 years old. 

A common question that comes up frequently on vintage Raleigh forums is how to replace a chain somewhat painlessly when you're dealing with a full chain case. This used to be common knowledge back in the day when full-chain-case bikes were being used as daily transportation in more places than they are now, but with the prevalence of cars being used as transportation, this has fallen away from being second nature to most American bike mechanics. Anyway, the method I have been using involves two old spokes. I bend the threaded end of one spoke to hold one end of the chain, and put it into the open back end of the chain case. Using the J-bend of a second spoke, I pull it through until it can wrap around the top of the chain ring. I then turn the cranks to pull the chain around to the bottom half of the chain case (technically the top, since the bike is upside down) and fish it through with a spoke again once it stops being able to be pushed through (chains tend to bunch up when they are pushed). 

At some point during that process, the trailing end of the chain will start to want to get pulled into the chain case so I stick one of the spokes through the chain and through the bolt holes that will later be used to hold the removable end of the chain case on. And now, you can drop the rear wheel in!

I am so happy to finally have the chain case back on the bike after having removed it three years ago. I sat down with it for a few hours to work the dents out, which involved installing, removing, and re-installing the chain and rear wheel for test fitting. Once I got it to a point where it wouldn't rub, it was good to go. I didn't want to work too hard on the dents that didn't cause problems. I should also note that I did not originally have the clamp that attached the rear portion of the chain case to the chain stay a few inches in front of the rear axle. That was supplied to me by a fellow enthusiast. 

 

Originally, after I polished the bike, the decals seemed to start to evaporate. I learned soon afterward that accidentally polishing off decals was a very common thing, exacerbated by not properly cleaning off the polishing compound afterward. 

The awesome chain case decal sadly mostly disappeared, so I bought a replacement from H Lloyd Cycles. It seems to be slightly different than the original, lacking the fancy curl at the lower corner of the R. 

For the drivetrain, I decided to put the original 3-speed rear wheel back on the bike. No issues there. 

To maintain the ability to quickly swap on the 4-speed wheel if I ever wanted to do that again, I used a 1953-56 "3 or 4 speed" shifter that I bought off another enthusiast. He had also detailed it for me, putting some color back onto the face. I have been unable to justify the purchase price of a correct late '40s trigger shifter I've seen come up for sale so far; besides, this one looks a little better in my opinion. I love the little window that indicates the gear, even though the feeling of a trigger is so intuitive that it is unnecessary. 

I put the original stem and bent handlebars back onto the bike. Seeing that I was invested more in preserving the history of the bike rather than trying to make it suitable as a regular rider, I decided against keeping the 1970s bars and forged stem while these parts were just kicking around in a box anyway. 

Even though the lights and stem-mounted lamp bracket are not original to the bike, I decided to keep them. The lamp bracket is period-correct but the headlight is almost a decade too new. As I mentioned in the previous post about this bike, the headlight bucket was painted to match this bike and artificially weathered to match the look. 

A couple of other things that have stayed constant are the Brooks B67 honey saddle and the Minniehaha medium bag. The saddle is comfortable enough for the casual rides I do on this bike despite the fact that it was broken in by someone else's butt. The buckles on the bag are a bit fiddly for my tastes, but the bag itself holds what I need for the most part. In any case, it looks good on this bike, and it would be packed in a box and sitting unused, otherwise. 

I had meant to swap out the rear rack long before I made the last post about this bike. I bought this cheap tubular aluminum rack because it matched the vintage aesthetic somewhat more than other offerings. It arrived in the mail poorly packaged, bent, and missing one of the seat stay braces. After having a weirdly difficult time negotiating with the seller to give me the missing brace, I gave up as I had other responsibilities. It turns out that the rack is stiff enough that I feel fine using the only brace that arrived. I won't intentionally go on any trips with this bike if I think there is any possibility of being heavily loaded.  

 

I had not anticipated to find a rack that had a curved stay to accommodate a tail light, but this rack had one, which added to its appeal to me. It doesn't fit the light perfectly, but it's fine. 

Speaking of lights, I finally completed the wiring to power them with the Sturmey-Archer Dry Battery Unit. It holds 3 D batteries, which doesn't supply quite enough to adequately power the 6-volt headlight, but the tail light works fine. I might give it an LED headlight bulb at some point. 

Something else that is frequently discussed on vintage Raleigh forums is how to replace the double-ended cables that came on these bikes up through 1969. I had heard from Sheldon Brown's article that Odyssey cable knarps could be used on the caliper end of the cable; that proved somewhat dangerous as the flat-sided knarp would sometimes slip off the caliper. I have switched to sliding a brass spoke nipple onto the cable before the knarp which works perfectly for retaining the cable in the caliper arm. 

Also pictured is the Fibrax "Rain Cheater" brake pad which has a leather inlay and was frequently advertised as being better in the rain with steel wheels back in the day. The bike did get a little bit wet on the test ride. I was able to stop; not sure if it was any better than a Kool Stop Salmon pad, but I had been holding onto a set of these pads for a while and thought they were appropriate for this bike. 

I previously wanted to use a double legged or rear-mounted kickstand for this bike, but decided that I still liked the conventional mid-mounted single type more. I bought a black Greenfield KS2 so as not to detract too much from the look of the bike. In this photo, you can also see the remnants (?) of an oil port on the bottom bracket shell. These were supposed to have come with an oil port until the early '60s, but I have no idea why this one appears to be plugged. 

I also took the fork stabilizer spring from the 2werkules and put it on this bike to add some weight to the steering. 

Due to a potential accident that I previously wrote about, the fork is slightly off center among other things. The steering feels odd, but it is a little better with the spring added.  It is hard to see in the photo above, but there are stress cracks in the paint on the downtube behind the first pump peg. That is another bit of evidence that the bike had been in a crash. It is obvious that the frame is not perfectly aligned when looking from the rear of the bike, but it's not a huge problem. 

I have written about the 1959-64 Ann Arbor registration stickers before, but here are some photos of them for good measure. 

The evolution of Raleigh head badges is an interesting topic to follow. This design lasted into the early '50s, after which the words were raised and set into a black, embossed background. 

I now have this bike parked in my bedroom, out of the way of other bikes that get ridden more frequently. I live at the top of Cardiac Hill in Pittsburgh for the time being, so I won't be taking it out very often. 

I find that this bike works best on casual group rides when my usual cruising pace can be a little too fast for everyone else. Its weight and relative lack of responsiveness, even when compared to my other Sports light roadsters, makes it more of a cruiser and less suited to my usual speedy style of riding. As a lot of other enthusiasts can confirm, I used to complain that it felt like an anchor when I tried to push it as hard as I did everything else (a.k.a. "outriding the bike"), but when I take it easy, it feels great.