Road Fan

With the lockdown, my retirement, and reduced interest in driving a car, I want to make a utility bike for shopping and errands. Best of such I ever owned owned have been my pre-Raleigh Phillips or Hercules that I had in my early teens. I have a mens Raleigh Sports that my wife rode in college, but it is as rusty as a bike can be and still roll. I'm pretty sure that to de-rust the frame I need a biiiig tub that I don't see renting. So I can buy a 21" frame/fork and maybe a set of OEM fenders, and transfer all my Raleigh sports parts over, overhauling as I go. The old (1974? gotta check the codes!) Raleigh's SA AW turns and clicks nicely, so ... it's worth a try.

So at the moment I have three questions:

1. Is there a significant quality difference between vintage Raleigh roadster frames (26") and the other Raleigh brands, such as Triumph, Phillips, Robin Hood, Dunelt, and others? I know the Sports was a down-ticket model compared to the Superbe, but are Robin Hoods (just to name an example) a tick down?

2. What modern wired tire is the best choice to use with the original rims? I can't read the rim markings but the dried tires are Cheng Shin 37-580. 580 mm BSD?

3. As a modern working bike it would need good brake tracks, so an upgrade to Al rims is called for. The brake shoes cannot slide down any farther, but can be raised. I could replace the 580 BSD rims with 584 bsd, which are 650b. But any 650b rims that come in 40 spokes?

WGB 

Road Fan Either I'm confused or you've typed 580 meaning 590mm. I have three Raleigh Sports and all have 590mm rims. Never seen a 580 tire (tyre?) on a Sports. Agree with 584 as an alternative

Per Sheldon Brown website
ISO 590 mm - 650A, English 26 x 1 3/8 E.A.3
This size was the norm for most English 3-speed bikes, and used to be very, very common. It was also used on some inexpensive 10-speed bikes in the '70s.The 590 mm size has fallen out of fashion since the advent of the mountain bike in the late 1970s, but there are still lots of bikes on the road that use it. It remains fairly popular in Japan.

WGB 

Sorry - also meant to say that many companies had Raleigh make 3 speeds for them. In Canada I've seen Eatons (a former department store) badged Sports with "Made in England" stickers. The difference that I've seen seemed to be in having less chrome and things like lacking pump pegs on the department store models.
Perhaps someone else can weigh in on quality and perhaps some of the companies purchased a licence from Raleigh and either built or contracted out their own production?

bikemig 

Alternatively, old MTBs make great platforms for utility bikes. They have clearance for fat tires and fenders, they tend to be very reasonably priced, and make terrific grocery getters/townies. They're not as retro cool as a British 3 speed so there's that.

52telecaster

Cr18 rims come in 590 and 40 hole.

Road Fan

Sorry, an MTB-based utility bike is not an option for me. Way outside my tastes, and I don't believe I need tires wider than 35 or 38 mm.

Road Fan

Thank you, you are not confused. I read the "580" on the tire tread in a dim basement with a dim flashlight, and with only a dim bulb lit in my head, since I didn't think to just check Sheldon! But the Sheldon site came up a little while and I just read the ERTRO table. You are correct. I'm just circling back now to make the correction and see if I'm in trouble. You guys are fairly easy on me!

This tells me if I am going to replace the rims with aluminum, I can't go smaller than 590 because of brake reach, so 584 will either require longer calipers or surgery to open the slots on the original calipers. 52Telecaster says in his reply that the Sun-Ringle line has a 590 BSD rim in 40 holes and presumably in a 32, and I see nothing wrong with that rim, I made some touring wheels based on it and they are still just fine. So I should be able to use a pair of those.

Now to search for EA-3 tires!

Unca_Sam

You have the bike, and rust removal isn't bad with some tricks. You don't really need a tub or a lot of solution, just use a 'waterbed' method. You'll need to clean as best as you can, because Evaporust doesn't work underneath grease.
I asked nicely at the LBS for an empty bike box. I'm not sure if that's still an option at the moment but if you have scrap lumber you can still do it.
Block out the frame and fork with lumber Take a heavy poly drop cloth or other waterproof barrier of choice, and line the box/lumber frame. Put the bike frame in the lined box and start adding balled up paper to create a rough mold for the bike. When you're done, add a thinner poly drop cloth over the mold, gently press it into place to avoid poking through it, and nestle the frame into its place. Pour in a gallon of Evaporust and let it do its job. Check the frame after 24 hours for progress, or longer.
Remove the un-rusted frame and wipe or rinse off the Evaporust and black build up. Treat exposed steel with etching primer or rust stabilizer or Ospho, depending on how much work you want to put in.
You can (and should) recover as much of the evaporust as possible, because it's expensive and reusable until it's black.

That way for $40, you get to reuse that frame. Everything but the steel protection is reusable too.

Road Fan

Sounds good! What's Ospho?

Unca_Sam

You can read about it here. There are similar products available with their own idiosyncrasies.

nlerner

clubman 

Re #1 . The further back you go, the better the quality for pretty much all marques. Many Sports frames in the 60's are equal to Superbes in build quality, they usually just lacked extras like pump pegs, integrated locks, colour matched fittings and Dynos. You start to see fit and finish issues in the 70's, plating, paint quality but nothing serious. There's few Raleigh 3 speeds you couldn't trust before the late 70's and even then, they were better than much of the crap we see in mass distribution today.

Classtime 

No pictures yet? Oh. You don't have the bike yet!
Ann Arbor CL https://annarbor.craigslist.org/bid/...088532141.html


I had a Triumph and it was a nice rider.

Road Fan

Wrong, I do have the bike - it's Mrs. Road Fan's bike from University days. She wanted me to toss it but I hid it in the garage instead. But our garage leaked like a sieve, so it got soaked and rusty, and the 40 year old B72 self-destructed. I wish I had the saddle frame now, I'd send it to Rudy for re-skinning!

Unca_Sam

https://www.ebay.com/itm/254559810359
For a new B72?