Secondhand Raleigh Junior Rigid MTB: lemon or worth a punt?

[Reynard]

I'll have a proper gander tomorrow, but the phone number on the sticker does put it into the 1995 - 2000 ballpark. That, and the fact that there is always the time gap between manufacture, getting it to the shop, and the bike being bought.

What's the bet it was some lucky kid's Christmas present in 1999?

 

[Reynard]

Bit of extra info after having a closer look this morning...

What looks to be the frame number is stamped on the seat tube just below the front mech clamp. It's hard to read under the paint alas, and after fiddling around in photoshop, the best I can do is 8045552. Maybe better daylight will reveal more.

Wheelset is Rigida, stamped "Made in England"

Tracer cranks. Can't see anything on the chainrings or freewheel.

One of the reasons why the gears aren't behaving is that the cable guide under the BB is broken.

The cable for the rear brake is internally routed.

And the South Woodford bike shop it was bought from traded between 1984 and 2007.

 

[Reynard]

Can one of the mods move this to the "Projects" section please? @Pat "5mph" ? @Rickshaw Phil ?

Ta very muchly xxx

 

[Reynard]

Can you project bods please go gently on me, as this is my first project and I'm bound to ask some rather daft questions. I'm still at the phase of deciding exactly how I'm going to do this and what parts I'm going to need outside of the obvious like tyres, cables,, chain, brake blocks and saddle. I'll also need to upgrade my toolkit as I see there are some items I will need that I currently do not have.

I spent the afternoon trawling the net looking for possible bits and learnt a couple of useful things along the way. I've found that 7 speed freewheels exist, whereas 5-speed trigger shifters apparently do not.

At first glance, the bike's drivetrain doesn't look great, so replacing the freewheel and chainrings is on the agenda anyway. Rather than botching something, and assuming that a 7 speed freewheel fits (I need to read up on this / ask advice), then the plan is to fit that, ditch the twist shifters and go straight to 7 speed triggers, which are readily (!) available.

Also, I plan on removing the graphics as they're godawful and not in the best condition. I rather like the idea of a mostly plain frame.

 

[All uphill]

I look forward to seeing your project develop!

If it was mine I'd also swap some of the heavy steel parts for aluminium, such as handlebars, stem and seatpost. That wont make a huge difference but will cost almost nothing if you buy secondhand.

There are some good videos on swapping freewheels.

Enjoy!

 

[Reynard]

I plan to hit youtube for various "how to" things.

And yes, the bars and stem will probably get replaced at some stage. You can't see it from the pics, but they are pitted with rust.

 

[raleighnut]

I look forward to seeing your project develop!

If it was mine I'd also swap some of the heavy steel parts for aluminium, such as handlebars, stem and seatpost. That wont make a huge difference but will cost almost nothing if you buy secondhand.

There are some good videos on swapping freewheels.

Enjoy!

i'd suggest the same, but, with it being a Raleigh of that era it is likely that the stem will be a funny size unique to Raleigh although the clamp size is standard so the bars will swap OK

 

[Reynard]

Gave the bike a good once over with antibac cleaner this morning and have made a start.

The pedals are well stuck, so am marinating the threads in WD40.

Have removed the junk tyre from the front wheel. The tube is also kaput as it has a hole the size of my thumbnail in it. No point even trying to patch that, so will be ordering some new ones. Rim tape is good though - well, it's actually been done with an inner tube, but as there appear to be no issues with it, I'll leave that as it is for now.

The wheel is also good. It did need a fair old bit of elbow grease (and plenty of hot soapy water) to get rid of all the dirt and brake goo stuck to the rim. But other than a couple of scuffs, it's come up rather nicely. And unexpected, the rims are alloy, not steel.

The frame *is* steel though, as a magnet found it rather attractive.

 

[Reynard]

My old Emmelle is proving a handy source of random bits and pieces. Except for wheels, as the axles are too short. This morning I threw a tube and tyre I robbed off the Emmelle onto the cleaned up front wheel. I also removed the original saddle and it's weird non-standard clamp, and replaced it with a standard old style clamp and a Selle SMP that's in my parts box.

Then this afternoon I took the bike for an exploratory spin. Despite the fact I had to walk home (yeah, I know, the one time I don't take any tools with me) it was pretty informative, and I now have a better idea of what must be done and then at a later date, what will be nice to do but is currently not essential. As for the musts (in terms of parts), these are:

1) Tubes and tyres - will be going for a pair of hybrid tyres as I've got a set of knobblies.
2) New cables all round, inner and outer.
3) Brake blocks.
4) Layback seat post and saddle clamp - am just a bit too cramped with a straight post.
5) Metal brake levers - plastic-covered wire levers are just a tad bendy.

For all that riding on knobblies on tarmac is like riding through treacle, the bike itself isn't bad. Of course, it will never be as zippy as a road bike, nor will it ever give the impression of being able to keep going comfortably and effortlessly all day long like a hybrid, but it feels stable and sure-footed and is actually quite fun.

Those plastic brake levers are really unnerving though, and I am most definitely not a fan of twist shifters.

The gearing will need thinking about. As I'd presumed, much of the range is too "spinny" for the flat. The freewheel on the back is a 14-28, which is pretty well much standard. Unlike the freewheel, which is Shimano SIS, the chainrings are some no-name el-cheapo unitary construction. They're not in the best shape, so they will go. The derailleurs work, so will probably just clean them and reuse. Rear is Shimano SIS, not sure what the front one is.

On the upsides, the distance between the rear dropouts is 130 mm, so if I have read things correctly, I should be able to squeeze a 7-speed freewheel on there.

 

[SkipdiverJohn]

i'd suggest the same, but, with it being a Raleigh of that era it is likely that the stem will be a funny size unique to Raleigh although the clamp size is standard so the bars will swap OK

It's possible you may encounter a 21.1mm quill stem, I know for sure one of my Raleighs is this size, but I also found one in a donor Schwinn MTB I scrapped for parts. My understanding though is this is not so much a Raleigh-specific spec, but a BMX standard, common to different makers and used because the narrower stem allowed a thicker walled steel tube to be used in the steerer, but still keeping it a nominal 1" size.

 

[Reynard]

The rear wheel has cleaned up nicely too. Tube and rim tape are fine, so will be keeping those. The tyre has joined its cohort on the pile of things to take to the tip, as it's quite badly cracked.

And the old shoelace trick to clean between the sprockets on the freewheel that I ran across on here a while back worked a treat. The amount of gunk that came out of there was insane. The freewheel still needs a good bit of attention, though now that I've got a good bit of dirt off it, it's nowhere near as worn as I thought.

A trip to my LBS has yielded the tools to remove the freewheel so I can finish cleaning it and to hopefully deal with the stuck cranks. And thence, the stuck pedals.

 

[DCBassman]

Shifters: I've a set of EF29 3x7 shifters in the bits box. The only downside is that they are for V-brakes, and you have cantis, correct? A lot of Shimano combis are for V, no idea if there are any for cantis...

 

[DCBassman]

Or if you decide to go bananas and fit a freehub wheel and 8-speed cassette, then I do have shifters that will work with pretty much any brakes.

 

[Reynard]

Shifters: I've a set of EF29 3x7 shifters in the bits box. The only downside is that they are for V-brakes, and you have cantis, correct? A lot of Shimano combis are for V, no idea if there are any for cantis...

Neither - I have centre pull brakes on this. Just being difficult, like...

I've actually been looking at separate levers & shifters, still working things out, as it's nuts how many bits are out of stock right now. Am in no hurry though. I'd rather get this right than simply diving in.

Either way, the current brake levers have got to go regardless - they're the plastic covered wire ones, and it's disconcerting that the levers flex when applying pressure. I was just about to swing for some junior MTB Tektro ones, but I don't mind holding off for now.

Rear dropouts are 130, so a freehub is possible. Another 24 inch wheelset might not be the easiest to come by though., the other option would be to put new hubs onto these wheels. Am also toying with converting to QR skewers.

Really appreciate the offer of help / ideas

 

[Reynard]

Well, it's been one step forward, one step back today.

After several days marinating in WD 40, I have *finally* managed to remove the pedals from the cranks. They are going straight in the bin.

Also going straight in the bin after further cleaning is the freewheel. The middle sprocket has two teeth that have sheared off, and many of the teeth on other sprockets, while not worn, are twisted. Oh, and it was one of those freewheels that you remove with a hammer and punch, and *not* with a dedicated tool as I thought.

I have another 5-speed freewheel of the same type with the same ratios, so it would be a straight swap. But I'd prefer to fit a 7-speed, so will go hunting for some dimensions etc to check for feasibility.