Ivandarken

After purchasing my 1937 Dawes shown below, I realized that it is a quantum leap in restoration and finding period components. This thread should showcase your oldest bike and serve as a guide to the expanded challenges restoration and keeping these bikes as original as possible.

Please feel free to point out the important details of these bikes and remember to illustrate with detailed photos. This will help others looking for enlightenment.

I'll start with a repost of my Dawes from another thread.


Cyclo Oppy derailleur

Lugs and paint

beech333

Is that really a derailleur or is it for keeping chain tensioned?

cudak888 

In comparison to that Dawes, my oldest is a young whippersnapper - a '51 Raleigh Sports "C" Tourist (technically, three of them - one men's, two ladies. One remains a frameset w/chaincase.











-Kurt

Amani576

It's definitely a derailleur. It's of the pull-chain variety. It operates on a similar principle to modern "rapid rise" deraillers. It consists of a spring with the tension arms and jockeys mounted on the end, a pull chain and guide on the other. Pull the chain, it moves to smaller cogs. At least this is how I understand it. Of course, those are crude compared to modern derailleurs, but when that style was invented it was a breakthrough.
-Gene-

southpawboston

1951 raleigh DL1 (not 100% original, but front and rear hub dating points to 1951):

Ivandarken

This is precisely why I started this thread. Some of the old stuff is unfamiliar, and I am always interested in finding things I was unaware of.
Below is the rear drum brake hub with 3 cogs used with the Cyclo Oppy derailleur.

[IMG][/IMG]
...and from Disraeli Gears web page...

ftwelder

'36 golden arrow

Fortysomething Rudge roadster


more Arrow pics

clubman 

This Cyclo is slighly different to the later pull chain models. It uses a double cable that loops up to the shiftr and back again. It has little "teeth" soldered onto the cable to engage the shifter and move the derailleur. The diagram shows the two cable leads entering the top of the mech.

clubman 

The first is a 1920's Massey Harris Silver Ribbon...
MH..jpg

This is a '37 CCM Road Racer "path" bike...

RRacer10..jpgRRacer6..jpg

I've got an older Hawthorne frame made in Brantford Ontario that likely goes back to the turn of the century but I can't find anything about it. No pics, it's boxed up but any info would be welcome.

nlerner

My two oldest are a 1937 Raleigh Sports Tourist and a 1939 Raleigh lady's DL-1.

Here's the '37 Sports as found (it's been somewhat cleaned up and in riding condition now):




And the '39 Lady's DL-1 as found:


Neal

auchencrow

- And who couldn't love that chain wheel on the Hawthorne?
Another amazing post Clubman!

Picchio Special

Yes, pre-war bikes take a good deal of patience to restore well. I have a circa '39 Hobbs Continental Superbe frame that I may just punt on and redo with newer components. For pre-war bikes from the UK, the Brown Bros. catalogs are your friends - it's worth the effort to track down the reprints (available on disc).

cobrabyte

This is my oldest bike. This one is from 1942, but from what I have read, the design did not change since 1911 or so, and it shows: rod brake, single speed w/ coaster rear brake (this I'm sure was an "upgrade from the older models) dynamo light front and rear, that still work perfectly. oil ports in the bottom bracket and hubs.

What I would like to do is replace the original tires to preserve them. I believe they are 650A? They are marked 26x1.25
And the saddle is pretty shot too, so a replacement is in order



spoke "lock" with key

streik

I really dig swiss military saddles. They went in raildesign-boldness where brooks never dared to...

cudak888 

Curious you should say that.





-Kurt

tcs

26 x 1.25 is supposed to be the rare ISO599mm size. See the Sheldon Brown tire sizes page.

Somebody else has surely replaced the tires on their Swiss military bike and discovered the size and a source, though.

tcs

sailorbenjamin

I've heard of people getting the Schwinn 26x1 3/8 (597) tires to work on a 599. I'm not sure what their definition of "work" is.

SirMike1983 

I have a 33 on my Sports and love it

sailorbenjamin

Here's one I sold a couple of months ago. It's a Barnes model 1903. Probably built in the early teens.
It had a one piece crank but the bearing races were held in with threaded rings. The balls were held in place with a snap ring and the cones held little rubber rings for a basically sealed bearing Ashtabula crank.
The tires were 28" singletube tires, a one piece rubber casting that incorporated the tube and the casing with no stitching or anything.
The rims were wood dipped in lead and cased in steel. Lighter than you'd think.
The hub was a New departure model A. Supposedly the first coaster hub but there might have been an earlier one in england.

Oldpeddaller

The oldest in my current fleet is this 1935 Claud Butler Super Velo











As you can see, not everything is original but I built it to ride regularly. I've tried to keep it in the "spirit" of the original, based on the 1935 catalogue description and drawing. Viscount sent it to me as a damaged frame and luckily the finish was not original as there wasn't much left after brazing work was completed. Original & authentic decals obtained from H. Lloyd Cycles in Penrith Cumbria. Tubing is Reynolds HM - 531 didn't come out until later in the year in 1935. It really is a smooth riding bike. Here's how it looked before restoration - it had been refinished previously in the late 1960's or early 1970's and even the down tube transfers were wrong also the paint colour. The bell is a genuine 1930 Bakelite model I managed to buy for just £0.99p! Bikingbritinmex sent me a Bluemels pump in the same green as the frame, which looks really neat.

cobrabyte

I love this thread. Thanks for the leads on tire sizes yall

I think the rims on mine are the same as the lead dipped wood, cased in steel deal as the Barnes model 1903 above. They look exactly like that and have a very different feel to any steel rims I have come across, they seem "softer" I have been trying to figure something out about them as well.

That Brooks model certainly fits the bill, but probably not the budget lol

This thread has definitely served it's intended purpose, at least for me I'll keep doing some research on my bike and post here when I find information.

cobrabyte

I love this thread. Thanks for the leads on tire sizes yall

I think the rims on mine are the same as the lead dipped wood, cased in steel deal as the Barnes model 1903 above. They look exactly like that and have a very different feel to any steel rims I have come across, they seem "softer" I have been trying to figure something out about them as well.

That Brooks model certainly fits the bill, but probably not the budget lol

This thread has definitely served it's intended purpose, at least for me I'll keep doing some research on my bike and post here when I find information.

sailorbenjamin

This is the 1936 catalog as posted at https://www.nostalgic.net/bicycle199.htm. Not much changed there for the first half of the 20th century.

mickey85

Here's a shot of my '56 Raleigh Dawn Tourist. It's rough, and at the moment, it's torn apart. I've tried aluminum-foiling the wheels to not much effect...I fear it's going to at least need the rims sandblasted and rechromed. I'm curious as to the amount of work I should actually put into this thing as (a) it's a ladies' frame, (b), it's got an SW hub, and (c), it's 2" too short for me.



Neat bike though. Pretty rough paint, but absolutely no rust on the frame, fenders, or chaincase.

I'm tempted to take the parts off of it that I need (hubs, fenders, chaincase, light, etc) and sell the rest, but it's absolutely complete, and $120 is quite a lot to spend on a handful of parts that may or may not work.

Andrew F

My oldest is a 1910 era project bike, 20" internal lugged frame, sweet heart chainring ( not the schwinn pattern), New Deparature A Hubs on 28' steel clad wood rims and a B block chain. Currently residing in a box

This 30's - 40's era Hercules Renown is my oldest roadworthy bike. Any info on the model would be greatly appreciated.