Here is a new one on me and the seller who gives plenty of background say possibly unique a Hobday Brothers 3 speed, too far away from me luckily, I am not sure I have room for another.

https://cimg8.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...33d454b9ee.jpg

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/326085113828

Thanks for the offer, but I don’t foresee needing any. I know where they are if I ever do.

Ah, the classic middle of April Connecticut snow! I remember how you could be wearing a t-shirt outside one day, and the next day it’s snowing. While I miss a lot of things about New England, that’s not one of them.

The week before we had two days that made it up over 60. Of course the weather calls for "cold and rainy", and the two inches of snow at the end of the storm strike as an unpleasant surprise. Two steps forward, one step back in April around here...

It's amazing what 5 or 6 hours working on a bike like this will do. I like the period rear lamp.

First ride of the season. The boat launch is always my first. Brought some lunch and my new mini-binoculars, but all I saw was herring gulls. Nice spot. Sunny, breezy. 60F https://www.mapmyride.com/workout/7877989039/
https://cimg6.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...4339c24e1a.jpg
Ready for a sandwich of salad greens and tahini.
https://cimg8.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...cdb2d9409a.jpg
Had to put a piece of bark under the kick-stand to stabilize the bike.
https://cimg1.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...c2de9aa872.jpg
You can see where the high-tide line is. Tide was coming in.
https://cimg2.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...a7eb4a4462.jpg
A pier behind someone's house

Lovely original bike with an FM hub goes for 37 pounds . Mudguards could be celluloid. Deal or what.

Monitor Sheerline brakes, too. Someone with a polishing wheel is going to be a very happy man
https://cimg9.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...9e167d5e35.jpg

1972 Superbe
https://cimg7.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...7a1daa738b.jpg
I've not had this one out for several years but needed to cart some stuff downtown
I was having a hell of a time in third gear and
thought I must be getting old....
Most of my bikes have 19/20/21T cogs
and I thought the original cog on this one was an 18.
I was very surprised to find this one had a 17T cog.
This bike is very original with all of it's "R" nuts etc so
I've always assumed the back cog was original as well.

Beautiful, warm evening here last night. I took this 1957 Schwinn Traveler three speed for a ride.

https://blogger.googleusercontent.co...429_182249.jpg

What is that bag, it is sweet!

Need some wisdom. Where would l find a replacement fork? Yes, I need the steering tube length. Wheels good. Bike a good size as a commuter which my son is doing in Portsmouth NH. Wanting some tips or wisdom to find the parts to put her back on the road. AW hub reads 70 5 so a 1970 era bike. Used to be easy to find parts at the dump. Less so these days. I must assume straightening the fork is not an option?
https://cimg8.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...85282b5e64.jpg

Decided I needed to take it apart and measure the exact length of the fork steerer tube. 205mm. Now the hunt begins. It also let me see the rest of the frame naked and whether there were any bends I missed. Just the stem and the fork... I need to reacquaint myself with where or if there is a trade forum. It would be nice to put this 1970 Sports back into use. PB soaking into the cotters. Then a deep clean.

Thanks for any suggestions on where I might locate obsolete parts.
https://cimg0.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...aff586d261.jpg

You're lucky the frame is not damaged from whatever caused the damage to the fork. These forks are often fixable but I think yours is toast because the bend is so severe. I'd try to find a direct replacement in coffee paint, keeping a close eye on eBay. Your measurement sounds right - a 23 inch Sports frame usually has a fork steerer tube of around 8 inches. You should be able to eventually find a direct replacement - 1970s era coffee bikes with 23 inch frames still do turn up. I haven't seen anything like this at the dump or thrift shops in quite a long time. I'd keep an eye on eBay or Facebook Market. I'd also put out a Want ad here in the C&V market forum.

Good luck with your project bike.

Noticed you gave the stem a metric measurement.....
These bikes were built to Imperial dimensions; you may find using feet and inches will always take you to an exact fraction of an inch.

Another issue on looking for a replacement fork: You might find a temporary substitute while you wait for a coffee brown one to show up, but keep in mind that the threading on these was 26tpi, so the existing headset cups won't work on a more easily found 24 tpi fork streerer.

Thank you all for your encouragement. She even got a bath today and a bit of polish just to see how good or bad the patina would be. Tough paint but plenty of scrapes and scratches. But I get ahead of myself.

SirMike. My ride went to a child...how we love them...and the bike was left out for a winter and a snow plow pushed snow hard enough to bend the fork but NOT the front wheel. Oh well. She has been hung up on my collection of bike stuff for 5 years, disappointed. I should have been searching more actively for a fork. Taking the fork out would be plenty of loose bearings. But she is stripped and I have a measurement. I will post in C&V wanted.

Cyclespanner. I am not sure if you are having some fun with me or if you are serious. I was surprised at how many metric wrenches were required. Cotter nuts, 11mm. Front wheel nuts, 14mm. To use SAE would have been sloppy. I just assumed by 1970 Raleigh had gone metric. Don't know. My 205mm steerer tube is also a short 8.125".

Nlerner. I see a few 8" forks out there. Some I wonder if they are 26" forks? Since mine is twisted in about every direction I am not sure what the correct measurement from crown to axle would be. I will have a look. Hopefully someone will post a Root Beer Brown fork in the right length. One of the appeals of the bike is the large frame size.

Stopped by the local shop and once they got off the ground laughing.... Ya, I don't live in Portland OR that is for sure!

https://cimg0.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...2a52c1c2be.jpg

1959 Schwinn Traveler out for a ride this evening.


https://cimg0.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...a3caac795c.jpg

AD-SLE, hi.

Isn't 8.125'' = 8 1/4''? (decimal = fraction)
SAE spanners don't cut the mustard; you need Whitworth BSW.
Most if not all component dimensions should be to the nearest fraction.

I was 15 in 1970; we were just then being introduced to the 'future' Metric system at school.
The first pocket calculators were becoming available; these suddenly made sense of the Metric system.
As a consequence I still think in Feet & Inches, but revert to Decimals for fine tolerances.

AD-SLE: I was looking at the headset cups on your frame and they do not seem parallel. You might want to check this. The crown race seems askew.

It may be just the pic angle and the edge of the badge but the head tube seems to have a little wow in it. Difficult to measure even with a steel rule and it may affect the ride once built. Maybe two straight edges placed on the head tube milled faces may show deformation.

This message appeared in my inbox this morning; the Lake Pepin 3-speed Tour is two weeks off:

The 17 might be original. That is the original cog on my 1952 Rudge Aero Special, with a 46 chain wheel.. hub choices were AW, FW, and FM, but I doubt they all used the same chainring/sprocket sets

8.125" = 8 1/8"

I believe a 21" ladies model may also have a fork that will work, Most used a taller head tube to give the ladies model a more upright bar position.

SA false neutral
 

My question pertains to the false neutral on British AW hubs and is specifically technical. I have pulled down and successfully reassembled an early '50s AW hub so I "sort of" understand how they do their magic. I have read that early pre-AW SA hubs did not have the false neutral and that the newer Taiwan SA AW hubs don't either. So what exactly was and is now done differently.
And why did the mid-century hubs deviate from that. ( $$ or sturdiness or ease of service? )

The original AW hub had a neutral space between 2nd and 3rd gear that could happen when the shift cable went out of adjustment. In the 1980s, Columbia Bicycle Company persuaded Sturmey-Archer to slightly change the design to eliminate the neutral position; this version was known as the "No Inbetween Gear" (NIG) hub. When hub production moved to Taiwan, the NIG design is what was used there.

One challenge that had to be overcome was preventing the hub from simultaneously engaging high and normal gears, which could potentially damage or destroy the hub. The model K avoided this problem through ramped engagement surfaces that forced the hub into one gear or the other, but prevented engagement of both at the same time. This held true from the introduction of the K right after WW1 through the 1935 revision.

The ramped surface engagement used by the K model hub has two drawbacks, one was that it added manufacturing cost, and the other was wear on the ramped engagement surfaces, leading to parts replacement. Modifications to the K in 1935 led to the no-drive position. This reduced production cost and reduced the engagement surface wear issue, but it introduced the issue of free spinning between normal and high. The trade-off was felt to be worthwhile because, as the thinking went, if you adjusted/maintained the hub properly and if you understood how to shift while riding, you wouldn't have a problem with the neutral position.

Several modifications made late in the life of the K hub found their way into the AW, including the no-drive position. The AW lived on with the neutral position inherited from the late model K until 1984. Evidently over the years, SA's assumption that the neutral position would not be a serious problem turned out to be somewhat misplaced. The neutral position caused problems with mis-adjusted AWs and proved a serious safety issue on the TCW series hubs. Columbia at that time was a fading manufacturer of bikes in the US and requested an AW without the neutral gear. SA made changes to the hub. Eventually the NIG became a standard adaptation to the hub. Much of this willingness to make changes was because of SA's dire economic situation in the early 1980s. The early 80s were not a good time for Sturmey Archer overall, and they needed to sell every hub they could and keep as many customers as they could.

Brilliant! Thanks much.
The sturdiness of the AW hub is obvious since I am still regularly riding on one from 1952 that has all it's original bits. I pulled mine down, cleaned out the nasty-fied oily gunk and re-assembled with fresh oil - works like a champ.
Unfortunately relying on a cable not to stretch or a clamp not to slip was not a realistic solution. For the non-mechanically inclined it only has to drop into freewheel once, at the wrong moment, to lose confidence in the machine forever.

Jessica Fletcher’s Raleigh
 

Anybody else here enjoy seeing that beautiful Raleigh on Murder She Wrote?
I’m sure I’m showing my age, but these days I’m enjoying the old reruns. It’s always a treat to see her perfect condition women’s Sports in green with original fork-mounted generator headlight.
Anybody with me?

…or is it a Sports?
Superbe, or some other model?
I’m no expert.

There are constant re-runs on UK television including a clip of the bike when they announce that an episode is coming up but I have never managed to note what model it is.

https://cimg4.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...9400c685b.jpeg
Light and pump, but no full chain case.
And is that an original rack underneath the aftermarket folding wire baskets?