BigPolishJimmy

The hunt for my large-frame Raleigh continues. Yesterday I took a road trip to pick up a couple of old raleighs that a fellow was generously giving away. He told me he had an old lady sprite and some parts but when I got there he gave me 2 raleigh frames including this 23" mens sports.




It's pretty beat, with quite a few dents in the tubes, but If it's safe to ride I might fix this up depending on what else I come across.









Last night I thought I saw a crack in one of the lugs, but today in better light I see it looks to be made that way.






Original spec... I think not. It has mtn bike thumb shifters, a rampar saddle and to my surprise some Tourney Brakes



Don't get me wrong, I'm not complaining, I'm glad to have it, just surprised at how it's outfitted. Were Sports ever set up as 10-speeds? It has a double up front and this in the rear.




I like the pedals

BigPolishJimmy

He also gave me a 3-speed wheel. The rim has a dent and the hub is siezed, but maybe it's fixable. We shall see.

BigPolishJimmy

He also gave me a raliegh sprite that a tree fell on







and a 23" fuji dynamic 10 that has seen far better days

auchencrow

Wow - That guy is hard on bikes ! (Can't complain about an AW hub and frame pump at that price though.)
The Sports frame has some real character too. It would be fun to build it up in some novel way !

BigPolishJimmy

He said that he picked these up at a police auction which may explain the damage and neglect. One of the bikes had a dynamo hub, but he's using that on one of his other bikes. I would have liked it, but I'd have had to buy him a new one. If I'm going to buy a new one then I might as well use it.

frantik

that'll buff right out

Amesja

10 speeds in an IGH is too much and they will explode outwards and rip a hole into spacetime in the process.

Oh, I see it is one of those do-railly thingies. WTF are people thinking? Be aware that the frame was necessarily cold-set to fit in the larger OLD of a 5-speed freewheel. I imagine they pounded a bigger dent in the chainstay to allow the 2nd chainring enough clearance rather than get a longer spindle for the bb.

That thing should either clean right up in an OA bath or totally disappear into a cloudy blue-brown sediment at the bottom of the kiddie pool.

The hub should be fine. Pull it apart and boil the parts in vinegar and water solution. it probably needs new bearings and perhaps clutch and pawl springs (or maybe even not). If nothing else it is parts.

You got a good deal for free. The pump, pedals, and reflector are worth the trip just in themselves. If you are lucky the bb and maybe the top headset races are salvageable. I've got a feeling the seatposts might be a little stuck...

Fenway

Clean everything up with Never Dull first, then do an OA bath on the nasty stuff. Once that's done you'll have a better idea what can be reused and what needs to head for the recycling bin. Sometimes things look a lot worse than the really are once cleaned up and lubricated.

BigPolishJimmy

There are mounts for a chainguard on the mens frame, so I doubt the double up front is original. The rear chain stays look good though, if they were spread, someone did an ok job of it. The more I look at it, the more I like it. With the patina and all the dents, it's sort of craptacular. I need to visit the headbadge and see if I can get a clue on dates. I won't be dating it by the hub or chainguard that's for sure.

Velognome 

Paint the old raleigh black and ride it. I'd ride it, just not down big hills

Amesja

I'm sure they were spread. 3-speed Sturmey-Archer hubs are 110mm OLD. A 5-speed freewheel cluster probably has 126mm or maybe 120mm. They were spread -maybe not set, but certainly something had to be opened up to get that extra 10-16mm of width. Maybe you'll get lucky and it'll just snap back.

cudak888 

The Raleigh lugs are stamped steel, welded together at the center of the socket end - that's the line that you see on the lug, for Raleigh wasn't that fastidious in grinding that weld mark out.

I'd be a bit cautious with any TI-era Sports that's been abused that much, but if it's going to pull a tube out of a lug, it'll do so with reasonable warning. I don't care for those dents in the headtube, but they probably didn't compromise the lower lug joint, if the joint was brazed correctly to begin with. Use a seatpost of similar ID to the headtube to massage some of those dents out.

It looks as if it'll make for a pretty decent all-around beater, and those Tourney brake calipers (as with the other fittings, all add-ons - and a rather decent set of modifications, back in the day) are nice upgrades to the steel Raleigh sidepulls.

-Kurt

Amesja

I wonder if something like this would work to get the dents out of the head tube if it were done carefully enough?

zandoval 

Dents in tubes scare me... Again there is the old corollary of just how many parts I have laying around the garage to determine a next rebuild...

BigPolishJimmy

I'm not so concerned with the look of it as long as it's safe. I have no idea how thick the pipe is on these. Normally I ride slowly (15-mph) even down hill. Ah well, I've got the jones, but no need to commit to it just yet, I've got a couple more leads to chase down. And there's still the annual pilgrimage to my local flipper to see what he's got stashed behind the fence. Something better may turn up. I suppose I could even post a WTB and widen my craigslist activity after covering my local bases. The search is fun.

Ha, I took the pump off the pegs and rust poured out of the open hole...

relyt

I think the tubing on those old Raleigh frames is so thick it is probably still safe to ride despite the dents.

cycleheimer

Raleigh used the "Sports" frame to make 5-speed Sprites around 1970. They didn't have the "Sports" name on them. Somebody got pretty creative with this one. I like their use of thumb shifters.

ryansu

beware of zombie threads @blackbomber this one is 8 years old

blackbomber

Doh!

I'll take that as a "no" then :-) Thanks.

cudak888 

That thing just makes me wish I was building my hot rod 1980 Sports around a green frame instead of a silver one



Yours is a '78, I take it?

-Kurt

Road Fan

I'd say its safe to ride if everything works the way it is supposed to and the frame and fork have no cracks or other mechanical deficiencies.

The bike is 50+ years old, so who cares if what we say is in a context that is five years old? This kind of answer is kind of true for nearly any old bike, no matter how new it is.