Smackhead Express - Raleigh Routier

[Reynard]

Would be nice to get a few dry miles on it before it sees the horrors of winter though

I can hardly disagree with that now, can I? Not sure how fast Spa's turnaround is for orders, but if the weather holds and i don't have too many issues with the rest of the project, I should get a few miles in. Although I'm the sort of person who assumes that whatever can go wrong will go wrong...

Choice words were uttered as the wheel was re-aligned, although I suspect tightening the wheel a bit more when originally fitted might have avoided the situation

I bet! Cycling has certainly taught me some rather... colourful... additions to my vocabulary. My Raleigh did the same to me on my test ride. (I know, I know, I should have checked everything was properly tight etc, but I was excited, like...) I ended up having to push the bike a mile and a half home in the piddling rain.

BUT...

I got passed by a tractor with a trailer full of onions that was a mite overloaded while doing so... I had to keep stopping to lob onions into my jacket as I walked. Missed a trick there though, should've hung the onions from my handlebars...

 

[wafter]

I can hardly disagree with that now, can I? Not sure how fast Spa's turnaround is for orders, but if the weather holds and i don't have too many issues with the rest of the project, I should get a few miles in. Although I'm the sort of person who assumes that whatever can go wrong will go wrong...

Finger's crossed and life has driven home time and again the persistant importance / relevance of pessimism, so you're not alone in that!

I bet! Cycling has certainly taught me some rather... colourful... additions to my vocabulary. My Raleigh did the same to me on my test ride. (I know, I know, I should have checked everything was properly tight etc, but I was excited, like...) I ended up having to push the bike a mile and a half home in the piddling rain.

BUT...

I got passed by a tractor with a trailer full of onions that was a mite overloaded while doing so... I had to keep stopping to lob onions into my jacket as I walked. Missed a trick there though, should've hung the onions from my handlebars...

Oh dear; I guess it all builds character in the end! At least your plight had a silver lining

Tbh even as a reasonably mechanically knowledgeable individual I'm still sometimes taken aback by the engineering finesse found in bikes and the associated potential to cock things up..


Not a lot to report today. I don't feel much like a big ride despite the glorious weather, so have just done a little 2 mile round trip to the shop on the Raleigh; delighting in the absence of things flailing about at the back of the bike but mindful of the light clatter still coming from the front over rough ground.

A bit of inspection concluded this was probably due to the front guard deflecting into the inside of the brake caliper; confirmed by the noise disappearing after a folded leaf was stuffed into the gap. I noticed that the caliper wasn't particularly well-centred (again) so have adjusted this to give a bit more of an even gap, althugh the caliper still contacts the guard when applied. If I can't get rid of the rattle I'll stick a bit of PVC tape or similar on the guard to give some cushioning.

During the past few weeks the roads seem to have been especially generous with bungee cords; gifting me a fetching pseudo-leopard print item and yesterday a squashed but useable sky blue job... both of which have been added to the rack in case I have cause to carry anything large on the pannier; the new cords allowing the carriage of a lot more girth as I can wrap them laterally / across the rack. I'm genuinely excited about this, as one might expect only a sad middle-aged man could be

I've also been eyeing up bar tape as I'm growing increasingly intolerant of the slippery, thin, tatty and slightly 80's-and-not-in-a-good-way bar tape.

I'm keeping an eye on some sources to see if I can pick some up on sale.. while I appreciate all the usual arguments for keeping the bike looking tatty I think I can justify this to myself on practical grounds.

Finally I'm still getting impure thoughts about removing all the stickers; only my default mindset of keeping things original and the knowledge that they probably make the bike look cheap and nasty (and less thievable) preventing me from whipping out the hair dryer and getting busy peeling..

 

[Reynard]

Tell me about it - even simple engineering can drive you bananas sometimes!

Why don't you go with white foam bar tape? It'll be comfy, but doesn't half get very grubby very quickly. I guess it's one of the times where white bar tape kind of serves a purpose.

FWIW, I have white bar tape and saddle on my roadie. But I did switch from the OEM foam to the pierced leather-look stuff which, so far, has stayed reasonably clean. And that's how I know how grubby the foam stuff can get!

P.S. My chainset turned up today. Ergo there may be much swearing emanating from my garage when I start putting the drivetrain together tomorrow...

 

[mavric123]

I recently picked up a black Raleigh Routier and I've enjoyed it but have an itch to modernise it as much as possible (lockdown boredom).
Unfortunately I know next to nothing about bikes so this will be a challenge.
I'm ditching the steel wheels and swapping them for an alloy pair and also want to delete the front mech & convert it to a 1x system.
I originally planned a 1x9 but after reading this thread I see 9 may not be possible.
Ill be spending the next few days looking at drivetrain parts to see what will & wont work.
If you have any advice for me before I take on such a task it would be greatly appreciated.

 

[Chris S]

I doubt if there is enough space between the rear dropouts for anything more than a 5-speed freewheel.
The alloy wheels will let you stop in the rain though.

 

[mavric123]

I doubt if there is enough space between the rear dropouts for anything more than a 5-speed freewheel.
The alloy wheels will let you stop in the rain though.

You're right! I contacted a local old school bike shop today and they are going to build up a new rear wheel for me with a 5 speed freewheel over the next few days.
My next step is finding a new derailleur

 

[Chris S]

@SkipdiverJohn would be the best person to advise you on that, my knowledge is limited to 3-speeds.

 

[SkipdiverJohn]

@SkipdiverJohn would be the best person to advise you on that, my knowledge is limited to 3-speeds.

If you want to fit a slightly wider hub into a steel frame the simplest and easiest way is simply to spring the chainstay open a bit more with your fingers. Obviously there are limits, but even if you go down the route of cold setting, you have to consider the width of the seatstay bridge where the brake mounts. The correct way, if doing a significant respacing, is to remove the bridge and fit a wider one to compensate, but that obviously requires access to the steel tubing and workshop facilities to braze with, and will destroy the paintwork.
I've fitted a 126mm wheel into a 120 mm frame and a 130 mm wheel into a 126 mm frame using just finger pressure with no problems, but that is as far as I would go - only one width increment up from what the frame was originally built as.

 

[wafter]

Tell me about it - even simple engineering can drive you bananas sometimes!

Why don't you go with white foam bar tape? It'll be comfy, but doesn't half get very grubby very quickly. I guess it's one of the times where white bar tape kind of serves a purpose.

FWIW, I have white bar tape and saddle on my roadie. But I did switch from the OEM foam to the pierced leather-look stuff which, so far, has stayed reasonably clean. And that's how I know how grubby the foam stuff can get!

P.S. My chainset turned up today. Ergo there may be much swearing emanating from my garage when I start putting the drivetrain together tomorrow...

Apologies - evidently didn't spot your response before going AWOL last year!

While foam bar tape would doubtless fit perfectly with the '80s aesthetic I'm not fan tbh. I have no moral issue with white tape if it fits, however I think in this case the bike would look so much better (and more thievable of course) with matching brown tape and saddle.

Glad to hear you've made more progress on your project! I hope now, a year down the line it's finished and being put to good use - I've had a quick look but can't find a link to your build thread - might you be able to provide one please? I'm intrigued to learn how it all panned out



So, sod all of any consequence to report on this beastie really; since moving back home has rendered it redundant as utility journeys are usually either so short it's not worth getting it out or long enough to need the car.

It has, however been out on three glorious occasions (racking up a grand total of about 15-20 miles, although the speedo's apparently broken out of spite for being relegated to the shed for the past 12 months). Some months ago it got thrown in the back of the car to get me to work while it was being MOT'd (with less-than-straightforward consequences with which I won't burden this thread) then more recently on two consecutive runs to the next village to get some eggs from the local farm shop.

On each occasion this humble, battered old metal brought a smile to my face; of magnitude that would no doubt deeply confuse the consumptive, status-obsessed hoards that seem to dominate this country. Tbh I was grinning just dragging it through the kitchen on the last trip; such has been my starvation of cycling-derived dopamine of late.

So much did I appreciate using it that I was moved to return home for my camera and take some celebratory shots. Again, viewed in the context of current skewed, shallow values it seems that deriving such pleasure and satisfaction from something like this feels akin to pishing myself to an in-joke only I (and a select few others ) get

Still giving me far more pleasure than by rights I should be getting from something I found in the street and that owes me less than half a tank of fuel

 

[Reynard]

Oh yes, Max is finished bar a couple of nice but not essential tweaks (waiting for parts supply situation to improve) and I've had lots of fun riding local back roads, gravel trails and farm tracks. Good for muddy winter roads too. Not the lightest bike in the world, but very forgiving on rough surfaces.

And it's a bike that turns heads wherever I go.

And HERE is the thread you were after...

 

[wafter]

Oh yes, Max is finished bar a couple of nice but not essential tweaks (waiting for parts supply situation to improve) and I've had lots of fun riding local back roads, gravel trails and farm tracks. Good for muddy winter roads too. Not the lightest bike in the world, but very forgiving on rough surfaces.

View attachment 619710

And it's a bike that turns heads wherever I go.

And HERE is the thread you were after...

Excellent - looks like it turned out splendid



A pitifully unexiting update on the Routier.. Saturday saw a return trip for eggs and a bit more nancy-gravel action; only for the whole thing to be ruined by a slow puncture when I got back (well, along with fatigue, wind-chill and general misery.. but I digress).

This is the first puncture I've had on this bike and not something I've been looking forward to fixing. I took the chain off to make things a bit simpler, inverted the bike on some wooden blocks to protect the tat bolted to the handlebars, cracked out the spanners and waggled the really-too-large tyres past the unfeasibly-close-fitting mudguard at the chainstay.

Once the appropriate bits had been separated the culprit was found to be a good, honest thorn though the tyre and tube. Tube patched and back together, I noticed the rear wheel was far from aligned with the downtube. I figured this was because I'd dished it wrong (during all the brutality to make the horrifically-abused rear wheel serviceable again) and subsequently skewed the wheel in the dropouts to centre it in the mudguard at the front.

I got out the spoke key and worked my way around one side of the wheel tweaking them loose by half a turn, then tightening them in a similar manner on the other side. This was repeated (with adjustements at the dropout as appropriate) until a total of 1.25 turns had been administered..

The wheel now seems parallel to the length of the frame; however is now noticeably offset to one side. Basically everything seems on the pish; the wheel offset to one side relative to the seat stays and to the other relative to the mudguard - the rear stays of which I've had to significantly straighten on one side and bend on the other to get clearance.

As much as I love this old bike and respect the old-skool craftsmanship of Raleigh; I can't help but think that this might be a bit of a friday afternoon special - perhaps after a particularly sustained liquid lunch (something that's supported by the pished caliper mounting hole in the fork)..

I also found a randomly-excessively-worn patch on the rear tyre - odd as the brakes are physically incapable of of locking the rear wheel - as much as I'd like to do some skids to impress the ladies.. I wonder if this is associated with the pished wheel; but I can't really see why this would only affect one spot.

Anyway, it is what it is. I might give it a run to the shop shortly to acquire a (fermented, cereal-based) dinner. If I don't post again in the next few days please assume the hateful contraption has killed me.

 

[wafter]

Well, it got me the half-mile to the co-op and enabled my unrestrained gluttony on reduced sandwiches and pastries for dinner.. I'd also like to say that it genuinely felt good to ride - although that might just be within the context of having sat here in the dark with my thumb up my arse for the past four days.

Anyway, the shopping shed lives on to fight another day

 

[SkipdiverJohn]

@SkipdiverJohn would be the best person to advise you on that, my knowledge is limited to 3-speeds.

My advice is stick to 5 or 6 speeds at the back and forget about the current silly fashion for 1 x derailleur drivetrains. It's just marketing nonsense designed to con riders into buying "gravel" bikes that are really reinvented tourers minus half their gear range.
The Routier was a budget bike fitted with budget components - the sort of durable no-nonsense bikes Raleigh excelled at making that many of us grew up riding.
Any low end MTB/hybrid derived rear mech should fit one of these bikes, as will any similar MTB derived front chainrings, so long as the BB axle lengths are suitable. You just have to mix and match this old stuff as you go. It helps if you are like me and salvage any scrappers you encounter on your travels, so have a pile of spare parts available to choose from.

 

[wafter]

Noticed earlier that the Routier has had a couple of "birthdays" recently - June marked 35 years since it was apparently manufactured (according to its frame no.) while it's two years since I found it abandoned.

Not a lot has changed recently; I've tweaked the spokes a little in an attempt to true the battered rear wheel a bit more, while the brake blocks have been removed, soaked in isopropanol and sanded in an effort to kill the banshee-like screaming that eminated from the front wheel under braking - with some success.

Bits of brittle plastic continue to flake off the saddle and the foam is starting to get abraded now; tempted by a new replacement but also by the thought of trying to get a bit more life out of it by re-covering it somehow..

It continues to give good service in its new home at the office, while every ride brings smugness about how much enjoyment this bike gives considering how little it owes me

 

[fossyant]

Stick a new saddle on it for it's birthday, and some decent black bar tape.