AliH

A couple of years ago my friend (a hefty mid 40's Englishman) showed me the bike his sister had given to him - a trendy singlespeed conversion that he was much too old for. It required some fixing up but his LBS told him it wasn't worth it. I asked him to store it for me as I was out of the country for a couple of years. This was the state I got ot in.


As you can see - it has some pretty nasty mid section rims, gp4000s, straight bars and I think they must have removed the big ring.

This is what it would have originally looked like.


Much prettier!

So I took it part as much as I could for now and will clean it up as best I can.


Decent condition with only one dent on the top tube.


Frame number in keeping with July 1975 Worksop Raleigh/Carlton build

Shop sticker from L H Brookes in Manchester (shop is still there I believe)

I love these wrap around seat stays

ITM short stem - not original

A pretty punked cotter pin crank!
There are some Weinmann 977 centre pulls and levers also.
What to do?
It's a good size for me - I'm considering keeping the straight bars and setting it up as a city bike. Maybe a 3 speed sturmley archer hub, mudguards and a front rack.
Sadly, the 1975 frame is one year off my birth year bike!

repechage

not an investment, other than a fun bike to ride when done if it fits.

clubman 

Agreed, whatever you do to it, do it on the cheap. It would make a fine 3 speed city bike.

randyjawa 

Make is road worthy and safe to ride. Spend as little as possible and enjoy the Junk Bike experience. I always have a Junk Bike in my little stable. A bike that I can use for utilitarian riding and not worry about damaging, getting it wet or stolen. My best Junk Bike ever...


My present Junk Bike...


Do not make the mistake of thinking that I cheaped out on safety or dependability! Not a chance, these junkers work perfectly and darn near forever.

Kabuki12

Yup! Some bikes that are aged just work if properly maintained and set up right. I have a few. That would make a great errand bike .

AliH

So here is what I did with it - a workhorse with prettyish lugs I guess!

The only salvageable were the frame, fork, bottom bracket, cranks, chainring, seatpost and brakes (and a Carlton branded seatpost bolt!). All other bits were from my local bike co-op and my parts bin. The co-op built some nice wheels (new Kinlin rims to a reconditioned SA dynamo hub and Maillard Sachs front hub). A couple of racks and some new dynamo lights make it a solid winter workhorse for the dark Scottish roads.

It might need a couple of tweeks like a longer lower stem and does anyone have any tips to tidy up the wires? or do I just accept this as cheap necessary bike jewlrey?!?

canopus 

As for the wires, I am having the same issue on my 710. If you can't route them internally (and who wants to drill into their CV frame) I would recommend going to the home store or an electrical shop and locating either some brown wire or shrink wrap along with some brown zip ties. You could also die some white zip ties with some Rit die heated in a pan, essentialy boil dying the ties. We used to do that with RC car parts.

ridelikeaturtle

For the wiring... there could be a creative solution using copper tubing. Run it along the top tube; bend it carefully. I bet there are brown zip ties available somewhere online.

steelbikeguy

As bad as it sounds, I've had good luck with using packing tape (a heavy duty clear tape) to just stick the wires underneath a frame tube. This is what I did on my commuting recumbent. It's still not pretty, but at least it isn't also covered with zip-ties.
Also, it's not as if it started life as a beautiful bike.



For more stealthy wires, teflon insulation will be smaller. I believe that teflon insulated wires can be found in small quantities on ebay and such.
I'm an electrical engineer and dug up a cheaper and probably less toxic equivalent to teflon insulated wire. It is made by Alpha Wire (alphawire.com). The 22 ga. version (0.32 square mm) is only 1.24mm diameter. The Alpha part number is 6713 for the family of versions.
https://www.alphawire.com/Products/S...ber=*6713*&e=0

I bought a spool of the stuff from Digi-key: https://www.digikey.com/en/products/...-BK005/2192840

Steve in Peoria

3alarmer 

...you can make a sheath for wire bundles like those out of vinyl tubing, which is available at home improvement and hardware stores in different diameters, sometimes in packaged lengths, but often in large rolls where you can buy it by the foot. It holds the curve that is molded into it, so you can spit it open, insert your wiring bundle, let it close back up, then zip tie the tubing to your frame.

But other than internal routing, which I would not attempt in your case, I got nothing else for ideas.

shoota 

Wait! I thought 1X was a brand new invention!

merziac

Great save, well done.

Ya gotta wonder what shop can afford to turn away work when it might up their game, endear them to a customer, give them a niche that others don't capitalize on, etc.

As I often say, threadless, cartridge, disposable, throwaway, cookie cutter, profits at all costs crap is a good part of the reason we're in half the predicaments we're in.

And we ain't getting out anytime soon.

TiHabanero

That bike has an uncanny resemblance to the Super Course I had. Same color, same crank, etc. Looks just like it.

AliH

Well here is my solution - 8mm brown wiring cover split and cable-tied with brown cable ties. Not perfect, but as good as I can be bothered doing!

Thanks for the tips

Apologies for the blurry shots.


Less noticable than before I think

They say red makes bikes go faster don't they?

NDS chainstay