Sandra and I are off to France visiting friends and then going to Saumur for the Anjou Velo Vintage weekend.
We had planned on riding a 1932/3 Tandem but a couple of weeks ago it became obvious that it would not be finished in time. This picture makes the tandem look as if it only wants a wipe over with an oily rag. Well I suppose it did but I was not happy with the badly painted rims and spokes, so stripped the wheels for a bit of paint stripping and a respoke. Well one thing led to another a friend was having his tandem painted so I decided to have ours done at the same time, then the chrome work looked bad and needed redoing and then...........and then..........and.............
so I took the bold decision to build two bikes in two weekends instead of just one in a couple of months. yes I know it was a stupid idea.
I had a 1958 Raleigh Lenton Sports (ladies) in the garage that I had intending to restore for Sandra as it is the same age as her. So as happens with these things I had not got round to it. A quick look over the bike on the Friday evening and I thought a quick degrease wash and polish will do. Early Saturday I washed the bike but could not get in to all the nooks and crannies so started removing parts to clean easier well an hour or so later the bike is now in component parts. Sandra asked what on earth have I done now? not to worry I proceeded to colour restore the paint which came up ok and was better with a wipe over with an oily rag. Hours of polishing, attacking rusty chrome with tin foil and Coke, cleaning the 56 year old chain, cleaning the original cables and oiling every part. Sunday started the reassembly which to be fair went better than expected after stripping the Sturmey Archer hub cleaning and re greasing it was like building up a bike with new components. Very satisfying. I thought it a good idea to change the tyres and tubes so a quick search found Woods Valved inner tubes and a pair of 26" x 1 1/4" Raleigh tyres. When the tyres arrived I was a bit sadden to see a card with the Raleigh name but looking at the sidewall it clearly said Chen Sing no mention of Raleigh at all. Still they will have to do for now. Test rides up the garden went well so this Sunday the old girl was set free on the open road for the first time in many a year. I have not had time to take any pictures of the actual resto but here is a few after the fact.
The verdict was that the old Raleigh with three gears was easier to ride than her Giant with 27 gears.
We had planned on riding a 1932/3 Tandem but a couple of weeks ago it became obvious that it would not be finished in time. This picture makes the tandem look as if it only wants a wipe over with an oily rag. Well I suppose it did but I was not happy with the badly painted rims and spokes, so stripped the wheels for a bit of paint stripping and a respoke. Well one thing led to another a friend was having his tandem painted so I decided to have ours done at the same time, then the chrome work looked bad and needed redoing and then...........and then..........and.............
so I took the bold decision to build two bikes in two weekends instead of just one in a couple of months. yes I know it was a stupid idea.
I had a 1958 Raleigh Lenton Sports (ladies) in the garage that I had intending to restore for Sandra as it is the same age as her. So as happens with these things I had not got round to it. A quick look over the bike on the Friday evening and I thought a quick degrease wash and polish will do. Early Saturday I washed the bike but could not get in to all the nooks and crannies so started removing parts to clean easier well an hour or so later the bike is now in component parts. Sandra asked what on earth have I done now? not to worry I proceeded to colour restore the paint which came up ok and was better with a wipe over with an oily rag. Hours of polishing, attacking rusty chrome with tin foil and Coke, cleaning the 56 year old chain, cleaning the original cables and oiling every part. Sunday started the reassembly which to be fair went better than expected after stripping the Sturmey Archer hub cleaning and re greasing it was like building up a bike with new components. Very satisfying. I thought it a good idea to change the tyres and tubes so a quick search found Woods Valved inner tubes and a pair of 26" x 1 1/4" Raleigh tyres. When the tyres arrived I was a bit sadden to see a card with the Raleigh name but looking at the sidewall it clearly said Chen Sing no mention of Raleigh at all. Still they will have to do for now. Test rides up the garden went well so this Sunday the old girl was set free on the open road for the first time in many a year. I have not had time to take any pictures of the actual resto but here is a few after the fact.
The verdict was that the old Raleigh with three gears was easier to ride than her Giant with 27 gears.
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