Road Fan

About 8 months ago I lucked into a 1952 Rudge Aero Special, a three-speed clubman type of bike. It has 27" wheels, a S-A AW hub, a 531 straight-gauge frame, and is fully equipped except for a saddle. Needs attention to rust, all bearings greased, and most likely brake shoes. I found some Specialized Road Sport tires, which fit the Dunlop Special Lightweight rims perfectly.

This bike feels like it will be comfortabe and rideable.

My question is, who has significant riding experience on one of these bikes, or the "corporate twin," the 1952 Raleigh Super Lenton?

I have a few months of work before this will be in shape and ready for the road (not to discount our Midwest winter weather). I feel this will be a great rider once I have it going. Can anyone tell me about the ride?

Attractive features: 44 cm thin chainstays and thin seatstays, 71 degree seat tube angle, 73 degree head tube with about 38 mm trail, very thin fork places with a "D" cross-section. With the 71 degree seat tube, the bike should position a B17 just about perfect for me.

In years when a Raleigh Record Ace was not offerred for sale, these bikes (with the top Raleigh Lenton) were the top road performance bike in the Raleigh stable, and were used in attempts to set records on grualing rides like Land's End to John O'Groats. I expect a ride experience that really helps a rider cover ground, once acclimated to the bike.

I have some "before" pictures, but I'm having a photo-showing problem.

bikemig 

I'm looking forward to watching this thread. I'd like to find a 50s era British clubman one of these days.

Road Fan

I saw a frame for a Raleigh Record Ace maybe 6 weeks ago, but I passed on it. It was in excellent condition, but nearly $1k. But the first Clubman-style bikes were single speed and three speeds based on the same wheels and (seemingly) the same frames as sports roadsters, the 26" "English Racers." They were basically a Raleigh Sport with drop bars. I actually made one of those when I was about 13, from a pre-Raleigh Phillips that I had.

The British bike industry had very inventive marketing departments from the '30s through the '60s (and beyond). Incremental changes like going from steel fenders to Bluemels plastic ones was a shift to a high-performance competition-ready machine for the hard rider within you, for example. (I hope I don't have to search Peter Kohler's writing to find the reference that was the inspiration for that line!) As I read the articles in Peter Kohler's website on the Raleighs and other British bikes, it's clear that Britain was bike-crazy and the spirit of the boy-racer was alive nearly 100 years ago!

Hudson308 

Please jump through the necessary hoops to post some pictures of this!

BigChief

Back in the 30s, the Raleigh Sports started as a lower level club bike. Then a "Sports Light Roadster" was offered with the same frame in roadster trim. Then for some reason, the club version was dropped, but the Sports name continued on the roadster. Confusing since it wasn't a sports bike. As far as I know, except for that one model, all the Raleigh made club bikes used a totally different frames from the roadsters and were made from 531 tubing. The older ones used 26x 1 1/4" rims. I'm looking forward to seeing this bike too.

3speedslow

Road Fan

The only summary I know of covering a wide range of Raleigh and sibling clubmans is the set of articles written by Peter Kohler and availabe on his website. I think there were a few that did not have Reynolds tubing, though more than a few of them did.

Can't argue with you re the Sports/Clubman connection. Year to year, Raleigh seemed to play "shuffle the cards" with the bike names. At least, I couldn't keep track of them. I was actually only interested in my bike, so ultimately I only focussed on it and its lineage. 531 was pretty common, but fully DB tubesets were not.

Different frames? I can't say you're wrong, but I did not get that impression from my reading of Kohler's stuff.

nlerner

I've owned a 1950 and a 1951 Raleigh Clubman, which also came with 27" wheels. Ride was okay with the biggest limit the quality of 27" tires that you can buy, particularly if you want something with a skinwall to keep things looking reasonably period correct (I ran some Continental Sport 1000s back when those were available). Geometry is the same as the Raleigh Int'l, I believe, and I felt the ride was pretty similar. I still have a '49 Clubman, and that one has 26 x 1 1/4" wheels. Good tires are even harder to find!

Road Fan

Latest steps :

I took about a dozen pictures and have them in my dropbox and in my Gallery here on BF. I don't see how from either one to load a picture into a forum posting. I'll need to keep trying.

Current task is to remove the chainset so I can clean the BB and the parts. The non-drive side came out "like buttah" using the Stonich cotter-pin press, but it bent the threaded stub on the drive side. At the moment I'm making a wooden anvil to rest the chainset end on as I hammer, and preparing to drill the flattenned end ot the remaining cotter pin. I just bought a center punch to set a starter hole.

After that I can take a bunch of spindle and cup measurements and see if I can use a 68 mm square-taper spindle. I'd ultimately like to install a TA 48 tooth single speed chainset, and even more ultimately a compact double.

Somewhere along here I'll take it either to Franklin Frames or RRB Cycles to assess the finish and the frame itself. My dream is that I'll love the geometry and want to replicate it in modern tubing, but ,,, we'll see. I really want to ride it as-is before doing too much hot-rodding and weight-weenieing.

Other fixes needed: overhaul brakes, cables, front hub, and headset, choose a saddle, bar tape, get the brake levers matched, preferably GP Rapide. Oh yeah! and get a new set of Bluemels fenders!

curbtender

Choose "go advanced" then "manage attachments" download pictures from your files and then upload.

BigChief

I think you're on the right track with the wooden anvil. This has worked for me every time the press started to bend the cotter. First, I file a flat on the top of the bent cotter and center punch it by eye. Then I use progressively larger drills to make a deep countersink so a heavy (as possible) punch fits snugly inside. Then I support the spindle with a 2x4 with a clearance hole against a cement floor and go after it with a large hammer. It's a good system. Better than trying to drill through and stave up the spindle flat.

rhm

Yeah, the BikeSmith press is not made for lightweight cranks, and it does not work if the cotter is too close to the chain ring. I have mentioned this before, but my remarks seem to get lost in the overwhelming praise for the tool. I use a small vise instead of the BikeSmith tool.

rhm

Yeah, the BikeSmith press is not made for lightweight cranks, and it does not work if the cotter is too close to the chain ring. I have mentioned this before, but my remarks seem to get lost in the overwhelming praise for the tool. I use a small vise instead of the BikeSmith tool.

dddd

Whenever I see the first indication of the cotter's threaded stud starting to yield, I leave the tool tightened in place on the crankarm and heat the end of the crankarm to a smoking temperature (the oil is smoking out at around 375F), then have another try at tightening the tool.
Since using this method, I have yet to lose a cotter to the removal process, and even 500F won't damage steel or chrome plating.

Once a cotter is destroyed, drilling a ~3/16" hole into the fat end until the bit meets the flat will make removal with just a hammer very easy.
The trick here is to guess at a path to achieve the deepest drilled hole.

Road Fan

Thanks, I was thinking of drilling. "Into the fat end" means into the end without the nut?

Road Fan

Rudy, I'm sorry I didn't have this discussion a few months ago, but better late than never, I hope. Now my goal is not to salvage a cotter, of course, but to get it out without additional destruction. I don't have a cotterless installation sorted out yet, and I'l probably want to reinstall the steel system for my test rides. Besides, the flatted spindle already has the chainline accounted for, and I would need to wrestle with all that to get a TA installed., and even then it will be suitable for a double, not a single.

I'm surprised to see the Aero Special crank (mine looks like a Williams but is imprinted with "Raleigh Industries") referred to as "lightweight." Why? Would the crank on a Sports have the same issue?

And what is the issue with the tool? Is it that it does not fit the drive-side arm so that the bolt head clears and the pusher end mates axially with the cotter stud? If I had thought to remove the chainring before attacking it would have been somewhat better.

rhm

It's simply a spacing issue. The BikeSmith tool is made for a crank that has room for a chain guard between the crank arm and the chain ring. Those bikes have a longer spindle, and there's plenty of room between the cotter and the chain ring.

The racier model bikes didn't have a chain guard, so there was less space between the crank arm and the chain ring. On these cranks, the BikeSmith tool just doesn't fit right, and it bends the cotter. At least, that's been my experience.

dddd

Yeah, even the modified chain breaker that I fashioned into a cotter press has needed a few additional rounds of grinding over the years to fit every crank that I've come across, but it's no big deal to hit it with the bench grinder as needed. Heck, I remember having to grind the heck out of that casting to use it even for the first time!

If the cupped driver can't fully self-center on the cotter, the cotter will tend to fold over under full force of cotter removal. Removing metal as needed to clear the spider is just an adjustment that expands the range of cranks you can service with the tool.

Road Fan

Yes, that is exactly what happened - the cupped driver was not centered over the end of the cotter. I do need a bench grinder. First I need a bench. Sheesh!

Road Fan

My apologies to the Rudge fans I forgot about! A lot of water has gone under the bridge since 2018, in the world and in my life - Covid, Long covid, other subsequent medical matters, seeking jobs, committee work related to my former jobs, et cetera. I've kept at it with the Rudge, but it's still is not in riding condition. I have some pictures in my Profile, but few are recent.

Changes/restorations so far:

• Pasela 27 x 1 ¼ Tserve tires with wire beads. Not ridden, one needs an innertube patched or replaced.
• Original (possibly) Dunlop Special Lightweight rims replaced with alloy Wolber Super Champion Modelle 58 alloy, 27 x 1 ¼ both Presta. The Dunlops are as in the adverts quoted in Peter Kohler's summary, except that one rim requires a Presta and the other one a Schraeder. The Raleigh hubs (steel AW rear and Raleigh Industries steel small flange front) are 40/32 spoke. I laced up the 32 4x and the 40 3x with identical spokes, which appears to have been Raleigh's plan. In high-voume assembly lines, little features like that can save a lot of money, when you look at the whole picture. Any case, I think the rear Dunlop was a shop replacement, at a time (when you need a rim sometimes you gotta take what the shop has!) when Presta was not common in the USA, in what may have then been a backwater Michigan location. The tension of the wheel rebuilds is nearly at modern standards due to the Sapim spokes I scored - same butting profile as the zinc-plated originals, wheels assembled with J-bend washers.
• Still attempting to replace the original steel-shell AW IGH with an alloy FM. I have the FM and its trigger. I'm planning to meet with another nearly-local Sturmey fan to open it up, inspect it and clean it, but we ave not been able to hook up yet. But once it's all cleaned out I can ride it and do the real test.
• Some of you may recall that opening up the BB was quite a challenge. My use of the BikeSmiths tool was fantastic on the non-drive but stuck on the drive side. Used drilling and filing to reduce the pin to where the fragments could be pulled. 'Twas done, but I carved away some of the original BB spindle material. The BB cups are the old proprietary Raleigh threading but the races looked smooth and free of wear (!!). I decided to keep the cups in the frame and look for a good spindle which fits the shoulder width. The Raleigh bearing saddle and TA bearing saddles, with 55 mm between the outer edges of the bearing saddles. Using the Sutherland's handbooks, which mostly have a chapter regarding substitution of BB spindles, one may find other examples which may work for this application. I'm not certain I have a good match betwe front and rear chainlines, but I think there are some other spindle choices and adaptations I can try. I haven't had a long ride yet, so I don't know if I'm going to have chain derailling problems.

So I have a build under way, not quite so ambitious as my plan.

1. Front end: prepare the components of the front wheel and fork, and assemble. This seems very successful, I even fit the recommended 25 balls eah for upper and lower headset. A stem and GB rando bar have been inserted, with a 3 or 4 shifter trigger. Need to clean up the original Hiduminium brake calipers. I have some GB drop-bar handles from 1962 or so, until I can get the correct 1952levers in good condition and sort out the cable ends needed. I think I can use a set of Mafac Racer levers and other sidepulls, maybe Weinmann 500?
2. Rear end: Finish truing and tensing the original AW rear wheel just to have a riding base. Have a new SRAM PC-1 chain to fit this. Brake needs overhaul, removal of a stuck brake shoe, new shoes and cabled up.
3. Central: I have added a TA 5-vis in 170 mm, and a track chainring in 49 T. I think the original steel one is 46, but I'm researching that again. Then I'll be able to connect up the trigger and see if this little pony rides!

Will add a companion thread with in-process pictures, I think this one is getting too long. Then at least for those who wanted build post, now you got it.

For the BF technical experts (such as CB400), is there a way I can make a bike build sub-thread, be able to add my posts to it, and have other C&V ers be able to post questions or suggestions? I can add more posts to the C&V group, but they won't be connected together.