The backup of three-speeds at Syke's Cyclery is starting to hit the road. The first out is my 1971 AMF Hercules. Bought as a pair (man's and woman's) for $10.00 each, they were the kind of bikes to make your cry. Completely original and unmodified. In perfect working condition.

And left hanging in a damp shed for 35 years, at least.

This project was my first major use of oxalic acid, which cleaned the chrome up beautifully. As I was determined to keep the frame original, I didn't bead blast it and repaint (which probably would have been the better solution), but kept it original. Which means the bike isn't in near as nice a shape as the pictures allude to. Both bikes were disassembled, the woman's frame was parted out, and the best of both bikes were used to build the men's.

At present, it's my daily work rider which gets me to and from the nursing home where my wife is currently kept. It's doing it's job very well, reminding why I rode a 3-speed roadster as my daily transportation 40 years ago.

To those of you very sharp of eye: Yes, the wheels are Raleigh Sports. The bike was rusted badly enough that I disassembled the wheels, scrapped the spokes, and soaked both rims and hubs. They cleaned up nicely, and will be rebuilt sometime this winter. Right now, I needed it back on the road, so the set of Sports wheels I had sitting in the attic were pressed into service.

http://i132.photobucket.com/albums/q...FHercules1.jpg

http://i132.photobucket.com/albums/q...FHercules2.jpg

Next project is the Ranger. As of this writing, it's about 70% cleaned up, and the paint is in as good a shape as I counted on when I bought it. I'm getting real excited bout that one, although it's going to take some time sourcing a couple of parts to keep them original.

Part of my collection
 

Heres a few bikes I have, the superbe found on craigslist removed the bottle generator, replaced the cables and overhauled the front, bb, and sturmey archer hub, i even have the fork key for it.
http://i132.photobucket.com/albums/q...e/IMG_6211.jpg

Heres a Raleigh Tourist which i just recently found. i have the original grips which were uncomfortable, original raleigh tyres and the big bulky brass bell that came with it pretty soon it will be overly overhauled greased and cleaned up.

http://i132.photobucket.com/albums/q...e/IMG_6215.jpg


I have a few more upcoming projects. will post when im done

Pawl, they're great. The Tourist has gone way up in value, so you're very lucky to have found it.

The shift cable that I have has the ferrule without threads actually, kind of like a notch shaped instead. Will the one shown on the picture works on my shifter?

It should, but you can just reuse your current ferrule if you wish.

I usually have to file those ferrules down a bit with a jeweler's file to fit my shifters, the diameter of the smaller section is a bit too big.

This looks to me like a Raleigh Sport that someone added drops, a Humber fork and chainring to or is it something truly unique?
The asking price is outrageous $599.

Interesting. Any chance you have additional pictures; headtube showing headbadge, chainguard? I know for a fact that Humber offered a Sports version with the Duplex fork and drop bars in the 30's/40's, but that Raleigh Sports decal is certainly puzzling. I checked the Humber catalogs scans that I have and nothing shows a Raleigh decal.

Edit:

I just saw this bike posted on e-Bay and I'm now convinced it's a Raleigh Sports frame built up with parts from a Humber. The frame has the Raleigh Heron Nottingham headbadge. I sent the seller a message letting him know he is not selling an original Humber as he states.

Here's a link: http://cgi.ebay.com/Antique-Raleigh-...item19c1d6db6f

gbalke - The bike is less than a mile from me. If someone said "holy cow" I'd been there in a flash, my thought it was muddled up Sports but I wanted to be sure. Thanks for the confirmation.

Just wanted to follow up on my question about brake pads, since several kind experts here advised me to go with Kool Stop Continentals.

I asked for them at my preferred LBS, but it can't supply them. I have store credit there, so I went velo cheapo (my default) and ordered the nearest thing they can get: Cane Creek Gray Matter pads.

http://i170.photobucket.com/albums/u...oesandpads.jpg

May the C&V gods and the experts here forgive me!

If you think this is a horrific mistake, feel free to inflict buyer's remorse.

I've been using the cheap black ones that cost about $1 each and they stop me. I'm sure the grey is even better.

Those are good, too. No remorse.

^ great thanks! the brake pads are installed and my Herc resto is pretty much done.

Just one annoying problem. One of the tires won't seat correctly in the rim. A section of tire is tucked too far into the rim, in a way that looks like it will create a hop when I ride it. When the wheel spins, the sidewall goes all wavy. I've tried deflating and reinflating the tire hoping it will correct itself, but no luck.

Has this happened to you? Any advice?

http://i170.photobucket.com/albums/u...eatedwrong.jpg

This will cause a hop if it's bad enough, and you should correct it.

Or you could exchange the tire, because it's a defect.

The way to correct it is to inflate the tire to the magical pressure where you can move it and it will stay. Then move it. Moving it takes a lot of effort. The magical pressure is around 10 or 15 psi. Bring a lot of patience to the job, because you'll need it. This happened to me recently, and I had my LBS fix it. That's pretty amazing, because I never bring my bike to the LBS. I just knew that this is a super-annoying job and didn't want to do it.

^^

I don't completely agree with Tom on this one. Sometimes a dip/hop like that is very easy to fix. Sometimes it is difficult, as Tom says. Sometimes it is impossible. It really depends on how your tire and rim get along. If you haven't had this problem before, you should definitely try to fix it. If it turns out to be easy, then you'll probably find that this occurs (almost) every time you get a flat tire and you'll find that it is always easy to fix. If it's very difficult, or impossible, you might want to try a different tire. If a different specimen of the same make/model has the same problem, try a different make/model.

2 thoughts 1: rim is slightly out of round 2: wrong size tire for the rim, Kenda are usually sized for schwinn, I think, and will not work on Hercules or Raleigh rims because thye are slightly too large in diameter.

I had the same problem with a Kenda on my Schwinn twinn sport, ended up being a rim slightly out of round.

Kenda makes tires in both EA3 590 (English 3-speed 26x1-3/8) and Schwinn S-6 597 (Schwinn 26x1-3/8). I've had good luck with Kendas on my Raleighs. Make sure you have a 590 and it should be the right size.

Back in my bike shop days, our technique for getting those stubborn tire beads to fit properly were to (1) put some lubrication along the bead (I use WD-40 now, but be sure to wipe it off the rim afterwards); (2) pump up the tire beyond the rated PSI (yes, it might blow off of the rim, but probably not); (3) use this tool (I think it was marked Schwinn) that was kind of like jaws in a scissor handle--we'd grab the offending tire and just pull. As in all things, ymmv.

Neal

^^ Thanks for the suggestions. These Kendas were cheap ($10 each I think) and I'll need to confirm tonight that they are 590. But I ordered them specifically for the English 3-speed from a knowledgeable shop, so I expect they are. And the other tire is seated fine. (EDIT: yes they are 590s.)

Actually both tires were initially pretty hard to get onto the rims, and they both inflated with a badly seated section like this. But I left them inflated overnight and by morning they had fixed themselves. Until I deflated & reinflated one, and then it refused to fix itself.

The tire bead feels impossibly tough to manipulate, even with no air in the tube. Hope I don't flat because it's very hard to force a tire lever under the bead. Maybe the tires will grow more supple with time.

Based on the suggestions so far, think I'll try adding a little WD-40 and inflating slowly to try different pressure levels.

EDIT: PS - Tom, I am going to go on the assumption (in my wishful-thinking way) that this is is solvable and the tire is not a defect. I ordered them a while ago (had hopes of doing this build last winter) and they are probably beyond exchanging at this point.

Tyres can handle much more than their rated sidewall pressure and on some you do need to over inflate them to get them to seat properly although on a non hooked rim the odds of it blowing off increase somewhat... I'd wear ear plugs just in case.

The rim could be damaged or the tyre could be defective... and sometimes these are just a pita to install.

Talc works well for this as it lets the tyre slide and move a little more when it is inflating and helps it seat.

Perhaps a very dumb question but I would hate my self or my wife (now as well) to cause a kerfuffle at a 3-Speed bicycle cocktail party. I was lucky enough to find a his and hers Raleigh Superbe. In my quest over tha past year I would always inside my head call these Super Bees. When I showed my wife her "new" bike she also said "Ah a Super Bee". Is it a Super Bee or a Superb with olde shoppe "e" on the end?

Mike on the first leg of around the world in a very cold Seoul

That's fine. I'm a bit prejudiced against Kenda. I'm probably not being fair, because my sample size is small. It's definitely not that I'm anti-Asian products or anti-Korean tires. Most Schwalbe tires are made in Korea, and they're good. I'm just not enamored of Kenda, at least not yet.

rhm, I agree. It can be easy. I was prejudiced again by my most recent experience. I can do a lot more complicated things, but this is one job I don't enjoy. My tire was a Cheng Shin. This brand has come a long way. They used to be crappy, and now they're good. But this one tire was giving me trouble. The LBS mechanic did it, and he said no charge. So I tried to tip him with a $5 bill, and he turned it down. I insisted, and he eventually took it.

And as others said, this could be a rim defect, not a tire defect. So check that the rim is round, too.

This is a Super Bee...

http://ultimateperformancecar.com/Bl...h_superbee.jpg

I have heard that one should pronounce it "Superb," with a silent "e," but just about everyone I've met calls them "Super-bee." Hey, they're your bikes; call 'em what you want.

It's pretty simple. It's the original English (country) spelling of an english (language) word. The 'e' is silent, so 'Superbe' is pronounced the same as 'superb' in the same way 'colour' or 'derailleur' are pronounced the same as 'color' or 'derailler.'

Mikehs, please don't call it a 'Super-bee'. It's a classic british roadster, so call it 'Superb'.