PeterLYoung 

1957 Phillips Step Through Frame No K651746
Original Posts from 2018 brought together as compilation, I thought it should be given its own discrete entry:-

This bike was made in 1957 and the SA SW 3 Speed is stamped for 1957. Thus this bike is pre Raleigh takeover and the high quality shows in how the bike has survived in such good condition.
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Part 1
I have been restoring in 2018 in the USA a 1957 Phillips Step Through working on and off this last 9 months or so. It was in apparent good condition when I obtained it but when I stripped it I found the toggle in the 3 Speed was missing or broken inside the hub. It has the notorious Sturmey Archer SW in which the pawls act by cam action with no springs to return them. When I went back to UK in February I managed to obtain two of these hubs which seem to appear rarely on eBay (from my experience). One was in apparent excellent condition and the other poor but useful to raid for parts. So I brought these back to USA a couple of weeks back and since have dismantled the wheels to have them rebuilt with the original cleaned up front hub and the better of the two SW hubs. The rims buffed up really nice and so I expect to receive a nice pair of wheels later this week to build back into the bike.

The rest of the bike has been treated as follows:-

Frame; The paintwork was pretty good but dulled with age so I compounded much of it taking care around transfers/decals (which were very fragile) and then once cleaned up I have clear lacquered it. Same for Fenders and Chain Guard.

Components; I soaked all chromed items in White Vinegar for around 48 hours to de rust and then cleaned them up and all the parts came up very good, the chrome overall was in very good shape considering the bikes age.

Bottom Bracket, Headset, Pedals and Front Hub; Stripped, cleaned and rebuilt these replacing all the ball bearings. The bearing surfaces on these old bikes survive amazingly well.

Brake Cables; The brake cables on this bike were seized in the outer covers which needed replacing. The inner cables are thicker than modern and the nipples are larger than modern. The brake levers do not take the modern size but I wanted to keep the levers as they are very nice. I took the cables back to the UK in the hope I might find some correct ones there but no success with this approach. I decided to have a more determined attempt at removing the old cable from the outers so I kept soaking them with WD 40 and Gasoline and eventually I managed to pull them out. They turned out to be in very good condition. I then found the old outers were the same size as modern outers though the thicker cables are a very close fit inside so I rebuilt the cables with modern outers. The amazing thing was that the cables never frayed at the ends so no problem re feeding them into the outers as they are in such good condition once cleaned up.
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Part 2
Later update:-
Just completed the refurbishment of my 1957 Phillips P2 step thru bike.

I don't know where it was kept but it survived in good cosmetic condition, all the chrome work polished up well after 48 hours in white vinegar.

The rims I polished up after dismantling the wheels, so much easier when no spokes are present. Had the wheels rebuilt with stainless spokes. The paintwork was all original with decals in 'fair' condition, some were flaking off so I compounded as much as I dare to clean up the paintwork and then clear lacquered the frame, fenders and chain guard.

All bearing stripped cleaned and reassembled with new balls except in side the Sturmey Archer SW 3 Speed (the original I thought had lost the change toggle so I obtained and couple more 1957 SW's and and used the best one as a replacement to rebuild the rear wheel. When I stripped the original I found it still intact but by that time the wheel was rebuilt with the replacement hub) which has been stripped, cleaned and re assembled. It works fine, changes gear OK and engages correctly, it runs silently as it should.

The bike is all original except for the following:-

Tires & tubes

Spokes

3 Speed (same vintage as original)

3 Speed change cable

3 Speed Trigger (identical to original which was distorted)

Brake cable outers (original inners reused, they were in good condition)

Brake blocks, replaced with Koolstop 45mm.

Been riding it a fair bit and it rides beautifully, really pleased with how it turned out.

The Sturmey Archer SW 3 Speed has performed perfectly and it is strange experiencing silent freewheeling. I must have a really good one as it has never failed to engage.



Sellers Original Photograph of the bike.



Frame totally stripped for conservation.


Chrome Components soaking in White Vinegar.


Bottom Bracket Cups and Spindle in excellent condition.



Fenders and Chainguard prepared for conservation.



Bottom Bracket re-assembled.



Re-assembly of components to frame.


I really liked the brake levers, so nicely constructed but modern barrel ends not compatible.


Chrome parts came up like almost new, see rear callipers here.



Here is the finished bike, a real pleasure to ride and looks almost new.

markk900

Looks beautiful Peter! I have a 1955 "Standard Model K" where the paint was dulled as well - i could not get it to come up as nicely as yours did! Is the saddle a Wrights?

repechage

One can look at the details on this bike and understand why Raleigh could buy them out- high quality effort in a price driven world.

My first bike was a step through Phillips Pilot. 20" wheels - 13 years later I would buy my sister the Raleigh Mountie version of the same as her first bike.
My mother was worried that a top tube would lower her chances of becoming a grandmother when I was ready for my first two wheeler. I liked the deep blue.
my grandmother gave me the reason why boys bikes were red and girls blue.
the school uniforms way back in the U.K. were so color coded.

rhm

Makes sense, but that's not what happened. Raleigh was the big fish, and the only big player that the TA conglomerate, who owned all the medium sized fish (Phillips, Hercules, Norman, and others), didn't own. So they bought Raleigh and then proceeded to consolidate the whole industry-- basically closing all the factories other than Raleigh and Carlton.

PeterLYoung 

The Saddle is labelled Phillips but could have been made by one of the main saddle makers and badged for Philips:-


Phillips Badged Saddle.

PeterLYoung 

Yes, but it is also true that makers such as Phillips originally produced high quality bicycles that the slump in demand for bicycles in UK in the 1950's made uneconomic and in the resultant consolidation organised by
TI-Raleigh were relegated to lower quality badged Raleighs.

Here below are extracts from 'Graces Guide' Timeline for Tube Investments from 1946 to 1960 which covers the consolidation of the UK Cycle Industry under the TI-Raleigh Banner:-

1946 Purchased Helliwell Group, including Swallow Coachbuilding Co, and Hercules Cycle and Motor Co.

1948 Formed T. I. Aluminium to bring together the administrative, research and marketing activities of its aluminium subsidiaries, namely Reynolds Light Alloys, Reynolds Rolling Mills and South Wales Aluminium [18]

1948 The companies in the cycle division, taken together, formed the largest bicycle-producing unit in the world[19]

1950 Cycle and cycle component brands were Hercules, Phillips, Norman, Armstrong and Brampton [20]

1953 Purchased Round Oak Steel Works from the Holding and Realization Agency for £1.6million, and loans of £4.2million to be repaid shortly[21].

1954 Purchased the name and goodwill of the James pedal cycle business from AMC. Production of cycles would continue at TI's Hercules factory[22]

1954 New rolling mills installed at Desford and Wednesfield[23]

1956 Purchased Park Gate Iron and Steel Co, Renishaw Iron Co and a half share in Byfield Ironstone Co[24].

1956 The British Cycle Corporation subsidiary was formed to take over and control its bicycle making subsidiaries in the Birmingham area, namely Armstrong Cycles, Brampton Fittings, Hercules Cycle and Motor Co, Phillips Cycles, and Walton and Brown [25]; the activities would be concentrated in a large factory at Handsworth; large redundancies followed; Norman was also in the TI group but does not seem to have been included in the new Corporation. TI cycle brands at the time were Hercules, Phillips, Norman, Armstrong, Aberdale, James and Dunelt [26].

1958 Tube Investments took-over Wrights Saddle Co Ltd [27].

1958 Tube Investments took-over Sun Cycle and Fittings Co[28] which was later incorporated in British Cycle Corporation.

1959 Some overseas operations had been put into joint venture companies with Raleigh Industries to cope with the over-capacity [29]. Norman and Phillips mopeds released as well as a scooter from Sun.

1960 Tube Investments acquired Raleigh Industries, bringing with it BSA Cycles (This included BSA owned Sunbeam Cycles which BSA bought in 1943 from AMC. Note added by PeterLYoung) and J. B. Brookes. The board of Raleigh enlarged with a director of TI and the MD of British Cycle Corporation would control all cycle, component and motorized activities of the TI group[30] which soon announced it planned to concentrate cycle production in Nottingham[31].

PeterLYoung 

I compounded as much as I could without doing further damage to decals then sprayed Clear Laquer over all paint. this is what gives it the shine. Decals in photos below:-


Seat Tube Decal.


These decals were flaking off so lacquer saves what remained.


'Made in England' on lower down tube.

Chain Guard decal fairly complete.


Upper Down Tube Pattern preserved.

Velo Mule

Wow, nice job, the chrome really shines. Even the hubs look brand new.

One question. I would think that the upper cable stop for the shifter would be on the down tube on the ladies frame, however, I know that you do your homework based on this and your other posts, so I am thinking that this might be the way Phillips mounted the upper shifter, on the top tube. Is that correct?

markk900

i wondered that too but it is the same on my wife’s 55 Standard and I have no reason to believe it wasn’t like that originally...

PeterLYoung 

Hi Velo Mule: Thanks for your comments.
Good question. I replaced the upper cable stop back where it was originally but because I was not sure that was correct did do some research and found other bikes with it in same position. If I remember correctly I did try it on lower tube and I think the outer sleeve was not long enough. I am sure this is how mine left the factory, there were no marks on lower tube indicating it had at any time been there.

Regarding the chrome, The chrome on the bike had survived really well, it must have been 'dry stored' for many years but having said that I think the quality was very high as there was very little pitting, all I had to do was soak the smaller parts in white vinegar and then buff on a cloth wheel. The rims I just used a chrome cleaner and finished them on the buffing wheel (easy as I dismantled the wheels and with no spokes I just rotated the rims against the buffing wheel).

PeterLYoung 

That is a very nice bike, hard to imagine moderns surviving in such good order after 64 years.