1969 Raleigh Sports: 4 Year Update

When I first bought this bike from its original owner in April 2016, I was planning to part it out. I then proceeded to get it running anyway, and have been riding it fairly regularly ever since then. It has been through at least 6 iterations since then. 

This bike currently occupies a strange place in my life. It's full of contradictions and I almost have a love/hate relationship with it. I never intentionally make the decision to ride it because I want to ride it, but it's always on the porch and ready to go, and built in a way that makes it so. I've put a great deal of effort into building it to be the way it is, but I wouldn't consider it to be much, if any, better than my bone-stock 1979 Superbe, as a whole. The step-through frame was chosen so that I could carry tall things and not need to worry about swinging my leg over it, but the floppiness inherent in this frame type makes it difficult to handle when I carry heavy loads. The bike was built to carry a lot of weight, but it already feels kind of sluggish as it is. Well? Let's dig in.

Shortly after the last post about this bike, I downgraded it significantly because I felt it was a bit silly to have such a valuable front wheel on it. I went back to a plain front wheel and got rid of the dynamo lighting system. That proved to be a bit of a mistake, since the rear brake cable often froze up where water gathered. With the front wheel being steel, not much happened when I hit the brakes.

I think I also put the rack on another friend's bike because it fit better and didn't need the extension tabs on the legs. I found that the rack off a modern Schwinn Wayfarer (an eye-catching steel commuter bike with fenders, a rack, and 700c wheels) fit pretty well, so went with it. Here it is pictured in May 2017 after a winter of light usage, carrying fenders for the Varsity and coolant for my car.

In June 2017, as I was preparing to move to Pittsburgh, I decided to build this bike up to take the place of my old Ross as a low-cost winter beater. I had found another old steel road bike that I wanted to use, but it had a host of issues with it, including a stuck seat post that would not come out even after a week of soaking.

I transplanted the bars, stem, shifters, and rear derailleur from the Ross. I had to remove the basket because it interfered with the drop bars. If I remember correctly, I actually bought these Sta-Tru alloy 26x1-3/8" wheels new for this bike and had to file the and spread the dropouts to fit the 100/130mm hub spacing. These wheels sort of migrated between different builds before finding a home on a 1971 Dunelt that I built for a friend. The 5-speed freewheel, which is still on the wheel now, had a wide 14-32 tooth range which I paired with a triple crankset. Just like when I was building the Lotus with its 650b conversion, I was very scared of the hills of Pittsburgh before I had the chance to experience them. I believe this was the first time that I did a square taper conversion for a Raleigh bottom bracket without having the shell re-threaded. It's interesting reflecting on this now that I've done it several times. I used a bottom bracket spindle that was suggested by someone on the Raleigh enthusiasts Facebook group. It was pretty crudely made but the spacing was right and I didn't have to replace the bearings. I have since not been able to find another spindle of this type, but I go to Kraynick's Bike Shop in town which has a wealth of NOS spindles I can try out.

I think I rode this setup maybe once or twice but I really did not enjoy it. I felt like it was very harsh, whether or not that was true. I just felt like I couldn't gather or hold very much speed with it, so I basically just parked it for a few months.

I changed the bike again in early 2018. I went back to the 3-speed rear wheel with one cog, keeping the front derailleur and triple crank set operational. 

I also gave the bike porteur handlebars, which I had never used before. This time, I used a SunRace left side friction shifter mounted upside down to toggle the rear derailleur. 

I really was not happy with this setup. The porteur handlebars basically eliminated the ability to yank on the handlebars to get up a hill, especially when out of the saddle. The rear brake also froze up all the time, so I reverted the bike to a single speed coaster brake for the remainder of the year, using the middle ring of the triple crankset and a 13-tooth rear cog. I still did not enjoy riding the bike, so this was the winter that I rode the Takara fixed-gear almost exclusively. 

That fall, I decided on a whole new wheel set for the bike. I bought a Shimano Nexus 7-speed coaster brake hub and prepared a 36-hole 1973 Sturmey-Archer Dynohub for the front which involved swapping internals over from a different one. I bought some basic Alex X101 26" (559mm mountain bike size) rims and DT Champion stainless spokes, but splurged on some red, blue, and silver alloy nipples for some reason. I also put the original cottered crankset back on the bike. 

Here's something I don't understand ... I had wanted the bike to be a low-cost winter bike, but spent extra money on the colored spoke nipples - alloy, at that, which are much more susceptible to corrosion than the standard nickel-plated brass. 

Anyway, at some point later in 2018, I cut the front rack off, since it wasn't working out super well, mounted an Origin8 Classique front rack, and put the bike to work after only finishing the rear wheel. I used the steel wheel off the 1962 Dunelt, which I was planning to swap for alloy at the time. I also gave it some Uno AL-030 handlebars, which are now my favorite handlebar. They are easy to pull on when I need to pedal harder because they are straighter than the originals. 

That winter, I had a constant flat tire problem on the fixed-gear and I was also commuting between my apartment, Carnegie Mellon, and Project RE_ every day so the 7-speed was what I rode pretty much exclusively. I regularly made trips to Home Depot to buy dowels and threaded rod for a project, and also easily came up with a way to carry a second monitor so I could join my girlfriend to do computer work at Pitt's Benedum Hall on some nights. It was a pretty snowy winter, which I enjoyed, and aside from the slow and heavy feeling, I was really happy with how the bike performed through it all. The Kenda Small Block Eight tire was great in the snow and slush. I rode well over 200 miles (this is only the rides that I recorded, and I know I missed some) with it the way it was before the roads cleared up (of salt) and I was itching to ride the other bikes. 

This brings me to the current setup. The bike sat outside all summer, during which I finally got around to building the front wheel. I moved the Origin8 rack onto the Peugeot, put the stays back on this basket, and mounted it to this bike.

The old 6-volt 1.8-watt Sturmey-Archer Dynohub powers the Herrmans LED lights just fine, even though the lights themselves are rated for 3 watts. Strobing at low speeds is a little more severe, but that's about it.

For the front brake, I took this BMX cantilever brake adapter from my parts pile. I formerly bought it from Kraynick's along with a modern V-brake with the intention to replace the old cantilever calipers, but found out that they may be proprietary and I was not even able to modify the brakes to work. The original cantilevers are still slightly lopsided even after attempts to balance them out, but they work fine. Also pictured here is the studded front tire which I had to use for delivery on a few days when snowy conditions were too dangerous for the Peugeot. I had to trim the edge knobs of the tire by hand because it was a hair too wide, which is something I had not done since the first year I had the Ross. The Small Block Eight rear tire from last year was still good, and I actually like it so much for mixed snow/pavement riding that I think I'll get another one after this one wears out.

The night after these photos were taken, I got rid of the full-length housing for the shifter cable and replaced it with a downtube cable stop and guide from an old 5-speed road bike. The cable kept freezing up every time I went in and out of the building and I basically rode the bike as a single speed that first day.

Here are some photos showing the cut-off rack that was JB-welded to the frame, as well as the gear shifter. I really enjoy the rotating dial. I actually used the lock-on grips from the 2018 Raleigh Tourist that I started modifying the moment I got it. I like these grips because they aren't as tacky as normal kraton rubber grips. They have the perfect amount of grip when I use gloves. The aluminum collars on the edges also keep my clothing from sticking to the bike when I scoot past it to get to the trash cans on the porch.

The bike still feels a bit sluggish compared to the other old Raleighs, but I've come to terms with it, given the other advantages that the bike now has. I have a Continental Tour Ride tire that I have since put on the front wheel, now that the snowy season is over. The studs will go back on next winter and in the meantime, this bike will be the weatherproof beater/loaner/workhorse/grab-n-go bike that it was meant to be. 

This brings me to a sudden realization I had a year or so back. I noticed that with the gray step-through frame, 7-speed/dynamo/hub brake setup, front and rear racks, fenders, and 26" tires, this bike became remarkably similar to the Healthy Ride share bikes that Pittsburgh has all over the place. It made me wonder why I went through all the effort to build something I could have easily and cheaply rented, but it's also sort of reassuring to know that the setup works pretty well for a no-frills, heavy duty transportation bike in this city. I know better than to say this for sure, but I think I finally have this bike at a place where I want it ...

... After adding a taller and longer stem, because I was beginning to feel cramped on this bike since riding the Peugeot. And moving the bell to the left side. Now that I think of it, the rear hub is probably due for a rebuild. I think I could use a larger gear on the back. And so on. You know how it goes.