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

[12boy]

A $25 Shimano BB will give you many, many miles of trouble free service. How many is many, many? My Steamroller has had the same one for at least 30 k miles and I've yet to have a problem with it. There are a lot of mid or even lower tier parts that may weigh a gram or two more than ones costing 10 times as much and will last as long, or in some cases much longer. Steel chainrings are very tough, for example, and so are steel handle bars. You may find the bike you plan to ride to spare the "better" bikes may be your favorite.

 

[SkipdiverJohn]

But this is precisely what puzzles me about the bike. Other than a few scrapes plus one bigger area of paint loss on the chainstays, the rest of the paintwork is almost pristine

In my experience, Nottingham built Raleighs from at least the late 1980's onwards, tended to have extremely tough and durable paint finishes that seem to survive well even on hard-used bikes. I believe they went over to powder coat that was stoved to cure it and the resulting finish, even on the low end models, tended to be better than most other makers were producing at the time. I don't own one less than 20 years old, and I've been pleasantly surprised on my secondhand purchases, how well the paint has stood up and how it has retained it's colour and not faded. I picked up a very cheap early 90's Reynolds framed Dawes as a donor/project last year and that is covered with rust spots and really faded. Huge difference in finish durability from bikes around the same age.

 

[Reynard]

The cranks are proving to be hellaciously stubborn. And they're making all the engineering theory about interference fits that I learnt 25-ish years ago pogo around in my head. Anyways, after copious applications of WD40 and some attention with both a crank extractor and a leather upholstery mallet, I have managed to shift them a little - am having a bit more luck with the drive side than the non-drive. Likely they'll take another few attempts to get them off if the pedals were anything to go by.

Now that I've managed to shift the drive side crank, I can see that there is some damage to the chain ring where it fits onto the spindle, and I'm not entirely convinced that the spindle itself is straight. When I turn the cranks slowly, there's something that "catches" at the same point on each rotation. I'll only find out what the issue is when I take the bottom bracket out.

Unfortunately my LBS doesn't have the right BB tool in stock, so I will need to find it elsewhere. Though they said they'd be more than happy to remove the BB for me if I can't get it out.

On a slightly less frustrating note, the brake calipers came off without any dramas, though I've left the cables in place until I decide how to proceed there. The rear cable is internally routed, and I want to use the old cable to help route the new one through the frame - there's no point tackling that until I decide whether to swing for v-brakes or refurbish and reuse the old calipers. I'll take some photos and measurements of the front and rear mounts, and will poll for opinions on what the CC experts think.

 

[12boy]

I've no personal experience with internal cabling but from what I've heard your decision to use the old to route the new was very wise. Pretty soon she will be good to go. A new BB will be sweet.

 

[DRM]

What I did was to thread the new inner through the old outer, then remove the old outer and fit the new outer over the new inner, worked a treat.
you are absolutely right to leave the cables in place for the time being

 

[Reynard]

What I did was to thread the new inner through the old outer, then remove the old outer and fit the new outer over the new inner, worked a treat.
you are absolutely right to leave the cables in place for the time being

That's pretty well much what I was intending to do. And then use the old outer as a template to cut the new to size. All the other cables are external, so a whole lot easier to sort.

I've been spending a fair bit of time reading up in CC's maintenance & mechanics section.

 

[Reynard]

Well, the cranks have come off at last.

And now that I've got them off and had a closer look, the evidence is stacking up that the bike's drive train problems seem to have been caused, at least in part, by the forcible freeing of a jammed chain. The gouges on the inner chain ring can't have been caused by anything else, I don't think.

The cranks are fine bar the odd scuff. Chainrings are a little worn but not massively so. They weren't too gunky either, and the superficial rust has been mostly taken care of with some Barkeep's Help. Have given them a light coating of oil after. Am not doing much more to the crankset as this will likely be replaced at some point, but it's good to go back on. The only real casualty at this stage was the plastic guard on the outside of the big ring - it simply disintegrated when I removed the screws holding it in place.

Next step is tackling the very stiff and grumbly bottom bracket.

The lockring was only on finger tight, as I discovered when wiping away the oil and goo from the spindle - it's one of those that has three equidistant slots btw. I haven't removed it yet, as I don't want anything falling off (or out) that shouldn't. And I still need to read up on how to open / remove / service a square taper BB.

But given how hard the spindle is to turn, I'm fully expecting some kind of metallic carnage inside.

P.S. The fact that the lockring was loose was serendipity, as my LBS didn't have the right tool to undo it.

 

[raleighnut]

P.S. The fact that the lockring was loose was serendipity, as my LBS didn't have the right tool to undo it.

The right tools are a small brass 'Drift'* and a hammer.

* some use a chisel/screwdriver but that's a bodge too far for me however I do own a 6" length of 1/4 " brass bar (150mm x 7mm square for the youths and foreigners who use the metric system)

 

[DRM]

What Raleighnut says, the bb on mine had a raised oblong section in the Centre that a large adjustable spanner fitted, one thing to bear in mind is when you remove the bb axle mark one side so you know which way round it fits as it may not be symmetrical, the bearings on mine were £3.99 from Halfords and came with a little tube of lithium grease, they were the cage type rather than loose bearings

 

[Reynard]

I feel like a right doofus now thanks to you two!

But for the future, I should have various drifts and punches in amongst various boxes of upholstery tools, and hammers and mallets I have aplenty.

I've actually already marked the drive side of the spindle with a "D" in sparkly peach-coloured nail polish, so I know which end it which, as it's decidedly NOT symmetrical.

And I've checked - got a raised oblong as well, have a spanner that fits it, and more importantly, it's not seized. Plus, if spares are needed (temporarily - I live right out in the boonies here) my old Emmelle has the same BB which I can cannibalize or even potentially swap over.

 

[DRM]

1st rule of engineering..... if in doubt give it a clout

 

[raleighnut]

As long as there is no wear/pitting on the part of the shaft the bearing run on (it's only a very thin band) then a set of these at a couple of quid should sort it,


https://www.bing.com/aclk?ld=e8Q8qX...ZW5fR0I&rlid=7cf7f1dec0ec196cd4efaec778202400

Most bikes from the last century (pre Y2K) had shafts with proper Case Hardening on quality steel unlike the square taper shafts on cheap bikes now that seem to be made of 'pot metal'. Yours could be either but if it is still good then whack a set of bearings in with plenty of grease (lots) and then adjust them (hours of fun til you get em just right) and they'll last years.

 

[Reynard]

Anyways, success!

Tipped the bike on its side so I could work over a plastic tray, just in case the bearings were loose rather than caged. But no, the bearings were caged, and it wasn't the carnage I was expecting.

Just a distinct lack of grease.

And a load of dark grit. Water had got in there at some point, and the threads on the frame and cup were rather rusty. So it was just a case of clean everything rather thoroughly, add lashings of fresh grease and reassemble.

I trial fitted the crankset back on, and everything spins really nicely now. Feels weirdly satisfying to have sorted that.

Added bonus was that the area of what I thought was paint loss on one of the chainstays was in fact some weird foam / glue type stuff, which came off by rubbing with an oily rag. So one less area of frame to have to prep for paint.

 

[raleighnut]

As long as there is no wear/pitting on the part of the shaft the bearing run on (it's only a very thin band) then a set of these at a couple of quid should sort it,


https://www.bing.com/aclk?ld=e8Q8qX...ZW5fR0I&rlid=7cf7f1dec0ec196cd4efaec778202400

Most bikes from the last century (pre Y2K) had shafts with proper Case Hardening on quality steel unlike the square taper shafts on cheap bikes now that seem to be made of 'pot metal'. Yours could be either but if it is still good then whack a set of bearings in with plenty of grease (lots) and then adjust them (hours of fun til you get em just right) and they'll last years.

Gawd that's a long linky

 

[Reynard]

As long as there is no wear/pitting on the part of the shaft the bearing run on (it's only a very thin band) then a set of these at a couple of quid should sort it,


https://www.bing.com/aclk?ld=e8Q8qX...ZW5fR0I&rlid=7cf7f1dec0ec196cd4efaec778202400

Most bikes from the last century (pre Y2K) had shafts with proper Case Hardening on quality steel unlike the square taper shafts on cheap bikes now that seem to be made of 'pot metal'. Yours could be either but if it is still good then whack a set of bearings in with plenty of grease (lots) and then adjust them (hours of fun til you get em just right) and they'll last years.

There wasn't any discernible pitting on anything - it all cleaned up really well, even the rust. And that shaft was heavy and undamaged, so unlikely to be pot metal. Will probably get some new bearings at some stage, but this will do for now.

And that 500g tube of heavy duty grease is definitely coming in handy.