A Raleigh Twenty Refurbishment.

[EltonFrog]

What are your plans for the paint Mr Frog?

I have none, it is my intention not to spend any money on this bike. I did have wild ideas about a full chrome or gold, but the current crisis has blown that to hell.

 

[wafter]

It was bare steel and chrome when it was put on the bike originally as far as I know. I think these bikes it rust in the first place is because of neglect. If one maintains one’s bikes properly they won’t rust. So cleaning and polishing the shiny stuff with a polish and the non shiny stuff with GT85 and and a cloth should suffice, it certainly worked for the Kingpin I restored.

Cool - I agree about neglect; my assumption was that the corrision will have penetrated the chrome so the steel beneth is potentially now susceptible to rusting again. Hopefully you'll have similar success to the Dawes

Looking forward to seeing the finished bike

 

[HMS_Dave]

I love stuff like this. Nothing quite like restoring something most would discard.

 

[roadrash]

I did have wild ideas about a full chrome

hmm,.... a seed has just germinated in my head, but it will have to wait for now

 

[FrankCrank]

Hey Carl, I know how greatly impressed you were when you spotted this one for sale:

Expect you've already got a roll of electrical tape to hand, so it fits in with the 'no spend' idea nicely

 

[SkipdiverJohn]

Festooning a bike with things like tape can be a good way to make a utility hack look very distinctive and less attractive to thieves. I use retro-reflective HGV trailer tape on my main frame tubes. Doesn't do much for the looks but improves night time visibility and lowers the security risk when left unattended, IMHO.

 

[EltonFrog]

Hey Carl, I know how greatly impressed you were when you spotted this one for sale:
View attachment 511793
Expect you've already got a roll of electrical tape to hand, so it fits in with the 'no spend' idea nicely

Someone needs to buy that bike and put it out if it’s misery.

 

[SpokeyDokey]

Not everyone’s cup of tea, but as there’s the square root of feck all else to do at the moment I thought I’d take this old shitter apart and rebuild it. It cost a tenner.

View attachment 510875
Today I’m going to start the refurbishment of a Raleigh Twenty I bought locally for £10.00. Its a basic version of the Twenty the ‘Alpha’ that was supplied without a stand, a rear rack, dynamo lights or front shopping basket. The rack on my example was either added later or a dealer added item.
View attachment 510876
This bike has aluminium unpainted mudguards, Sturmey Archer three speed gear and partial internal cable routing and that is about it for interesting features, it was also a very nice colour originally until Old Father Time and the weather got it’s scrawny hands on it.
View attachment 510877 Heron Logo
One feature I like on Raleigh of this period is the Heron logo stamped on the chain ring.
My aim is to clean, service it, remove as much rust as possible and not spend any money on it, however I have ‘previous’ on that statement and costs sometimes runaway with me. Time will tell.
So far then, I have managed to dismantle every nut and bolt on the bike, starting with the front brake caliper, because there is a wire device on the stem in the head-tube that is attached to the bolt on the front brake that stops the handlebar stem from being pulled out too far, so to remove the handle bars and stem the brake caliper has to come out first.
View attachment 510878
There’s quite a bit of rust to deal with.
View attachment 510879 The wire that stops the handlebar stem from being pulled out too far, a safety feature. View attachment 510880 Getting the pedals off can be a pain. View attachment 510881
Part of the top tube, don’t forget the ball bearing might drop out. Don’t ask me how I know that!
View attachment 510882
One of the things that is often very difficult to do on these old bikes is to remove the cotter pins and bottom bracket bearing cups, however on this occasion I had no such issues, everything came off the bike quite easily for a change.
View attachment 510883 View attachment 510884 Almost there, just the seat post left. View attachment 510885
The saddle was totally shot, top cover split, plastic underneath cracked and missing. In the bin
View attachment 510886 A box of bits ready for the real work.
And now the work begins, cleaning and polishing. Maybe tomorrow, if it’s nice out.

Oh, my late Mum had one of these.

Can't remember whether it preceded or followed her Raleigh 16 shopper though.

 

[FrankCrank]

The stripey one even has stabilisers, so would make an ideal pub bike, especially for the return journey.

Pubs eh.....those were the days.....

 

[EltonFrog]

Oh, my late Mum had one of these.

Can't remember whether it preceded or followed her Raleigh 16 shopper though.

Do you mean Raleigh RSW 16? They stopped production of those in 1975 ish I think, so your mum could have had the Twenty afterwards.

 

[rogerzilla]

Mine has BMX-sized wheels, a BMX fork with V-brakes and a Sachs Duomatic at the back.

It is different to all other Twenties.

It stops.

 

[SpokeyDokey]

Do you mean Raleigh RSW 16? They stopped production of those in 1975 ish I think, so your mum could have had the Twenty afterwards.

Yes, I think that's the one - it had very fat tyres on it.

 

[figbat]

Yes, I think that's the one - it had very fat tyres on it.

Apparently they fitted balloon tyres to compete with the Moultons of the era which had suspension (the RSW did not).

 

[EltonFrog]

The rear wheel was a mess, coverd in dirt, grease and rust, and it wasn’t spinning well either. Over the last few days I’ve been flushing out the hub with GT 85 as suggest by @roadrash , hoping that it would clear out some of old dry sticky oil inside the hub, it seems to have mostly worked.

I removed the tyre, tube and rim tape and set about, de-greasing, removing rust, cleaning and polishing the chrome and spokes. Using a wire brush and white spirit I started with the spoke nipples, at the valve hole a went clockwise around the wheel scrubbing of the rust, then tuned the wheel over and did the same again.

The inside of the rim was very rusty in places and took a lot of elbow grease to get rid of a lot of the rust, it’s still dark in places but it is a lot better. I also gave that a polish with Autosol, it’ll help keep further rust at bay, I hope.

Then the same routine then with each spoke, then the chrome work with wire wool, wire brush and the a rag. I then dabbed Autosol chrome polish on and brought the chrome to a shine.

There’s quite a few years of crap on the hub and cog.

Surface rust

Surface rust.

The chrome on the rims is pitted in places but most of the rim polished up really well, overall I’m pleased with the results.

The hub looked quite bad as well, but the crud and rust was just on the surface and cleaned up quite easily.

Before and after images of the rust in the rim.

I removed the cog and washers to get the mud and grease out easier.

You can just about see Sturmey Archer Made in England stamp on the rim.

As you can see in the last few images it all cleaned up rather well. I’m still haven’t decided if I’m going to take the gears out of the hub and give them a proper clean yet, I’ll see how I feel in a few days.

I wish I had Dremel or wire wheel attachments for my hand drill.

 

[roadrash]

Fantastic job there carl, I can imagine how long that took to do,