I got this one yesterday and already got it running perfectly after replacing a spoke and making adjustments to almost everything. It was really dirty and had lots of grease on it. Sturmey works great as do the the brakes... suprisingly after proper setup.http://www.bikeforums.net/clear.gif

Clean machine !

Thanks to the caked on grease that saved the paint. She is in as nice of shape as I have seen a late 60's 3 speed. I'll probably ditch the current pedals for a more euro pair of Lyotards with some metal Christophe toe clips.

I'm not buying the "protected from caked on grease" bit. You are obviously in posession of a time machine and I'd like to borrow it.

Very pretty. Looks a lot like my '68 and is similarly without pump pegs. Same guy must have brazed on the pegs for both lines and was on sabbatical.


Totally unrelated: Does anyone know why only some (otherwise identical) bikes have the whiting on the rear mudguard? Country regulation?

@hatrack71 - lovely Hercules. It really looks like new. My old Phillips had baked on grease and underneath was unfaded paint. Good job.
@arex - pictures or it didn't happen.:thumb: I'm glad I could help out. How much more work until it's rideable?

I'll try to take some pics tonight.

I pretty much have all the bits to start reassembling the bike. I built a new front wheel a few nights ago, but even though it's only a smidge wobbly, I want to take it to the LBS to true and tension it, I don't trust myself to do it right.

I need to rebuild the AW hub, mostly just to regrease the bearings...it seems to work fine otherwise. Then I'll build a new wheel around it; I already have the rim and spokes.

I still need to fabricate a spacer for the headset before I reassemble that end of things.

Love this color. Beautiful bike!

What a beauty! Not a mark on it? I concur with artclone - that bike looks like it came out of a time capsule, or a museum. Nice score! :thumb:

I just have to repost @DQRiders sweet find he put in the Are You Looking For thread:

1964 AMF/Raleigh Hercules

Not our usual fare here, but I found this on my Sunday morning peruse of CL:

http://images.craigslist.org/00X0X_c...wW_600x450.jpg

Asking price is $75, and the thing is nearly immaculate.

https://minneapolis.craigslist.org/a...523187393.html[/QUOTE]

After seeing @hatrack71 's gorgeous find, I went over to CL to see if we had anything similar locally. While the color is not quite as nice as Mr. Hatrack's, it is from the same year, and with a different, peculiar chainguard. I remember that period (late `50s to early `60s) of transition from the old traditional rounded aesthetic to the new, angular design ethic and, even though I was only a toddler at the time, I wondered why the new cars I was seeing looked so much different from the majority of the older cars in the neighborhood. The dawn of the space age, I guess. It would be nice to find an AMF bicycle catalogue from that time so we could see how many different models of 3-speed they built in `64.

What year is it, do you know?

Here is the Robin Hood I fixed up for the Lady:

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/nz...=w1004-h753-no
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/kw...=w1034-h775-no
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/l3...=w1034-h775-no

The "barstool" seat might have to go eventually, but i've tried it myself and it is pretty comfy

That's gorgeous. I like the look of the whitewalls with the white grips and cable casings. Pretty sure it would have originally come with a 2 tone, white and black mattress saddle like this Royal Scot variant. Raleigh moved into the black and white 2 tone look in the mid 60s.
These saddles look the part, but they are unusable for me. I put it on for the picture.
http://i536.photobucket.com/albums/f...l_scot001a.jpg

Funny, I've noticed the same thing with two tone Schwinn "S" saddles

I saw this somewhere online and decided to try it. Raleigh Twenty folding bikes have notoriously long brake caliper arms which are flexy upon braking. I used a zip tie between the fork and the brake caliper arm to decrease the flex and it actually seems to work. I'm waiting for it to rain again so I can take it out and get the wheels wet and see how much of a difference it makes. It's not pretty. Heck, maybe I could get some Carradice leather straps and use those instead of zip ties!

https://farm2.staticflickr.com/1600/...9f7de8361e.jpgZip Tie on Brake Caliper by velocivixen, on Flickr

https://farm2.staticflickr.com/1716/...f784059d31.jpgRaleigh Twenty Zip Tie Brakes by velocivixen, on Flickr

I have a bad feeling about this, to quote Indiana Jones.

Just cleaned out and lubed the SA hub on my 1979 Tourist. I've disassembled and reassembled the hub three times now because the index rod is not protruding from the axle by the one millimeter prescribed by all hallowed Sheldon Brown without unthreading the rod until barely a single turn of threading is mated to the cross bar in the gear housing.

In addition to this indignity I have to thread the gear cable adjusting sleeve almost all the way off the threaded rod with precious little thread connecting the cable to the chain after adjusting the wheel far enough back to get a reasonable amount of chain tension. Third gear is very touchy now, jumping before it catches and occasionally freewheeling entirely.

I should have noted these relationships when I took it all apart but I failed to do so. Are these extreme ends of adjustment the norm with old Sturmey Archer hubs?

Not all indicator pins are the same length. The Sheldon Brown method isn't always reliable. I don't use it.
You do have some more adjustment by moving the fulcrum clip on the top tube. You can get the adjuster barrel closer to the chain by moving the clip toward the seat a bit.

Yeah, they were popular. They look nice. Too bad they're such crappy saddles. I knew Raleigh used them on the kids bikes like the Colt and Space Rider, but I never thought they used them on Sports models until I saw this old catalog. Apparently, not all Sports models were DL-22s. There was a cheaper model, S22 that used these very same saddles. Your bike is inspiring me to put white walls on the Scot.
http://www.sheldonbrown.com/retroral...talog-1962.pdf

As BigChief says, screw the adjuster barrel, say, half way up the end of the chain/pin, then loosen and adjust the fulcrum clip rearward to give you more slack on the cable. I hope that makes sense. If not someone can come along and clarify.

Did this hub work prior to your disassembly? The indicator pin screws in finger tight only so as not to strip the tiny threads, then back it off so the chain makes a smooth transition to where you attatch the adjusting barrel.


This fellow does an excellent tear down & reassemble of an AW hub. He has two other videos where shows more detail about the gear ring sub-assembly and the planet cage sub-assembly in great detail. When in doubt I always watch these videos.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=ea6krXSs-lc

Glad you found a work around to the reversed cup situation. I'm wondering why you need a custom spacer for the headset. Are you leaving the nylon bushing or changing to the usual bearings?

Melting brown eyes? Gimme a break...it's the roadster.
The truth behind Sir Paul McCartney's rise to the top of the charts * | Daily Mail Online

Putting in a threadless headset, using the original top nut and a spacer, so I can use an tall quill stem. Rather than use multiple spacers to fill the gap, I have a piece of thick-wall aluminum tube that I need to cut to length and open up the inside to the full 25.4mm ((currently 24.8mm or so).

I don't know that it's a work-around, so much as accepting the situation and hoping it'll do for the long term. I'll check the cups regularly and tighten as necessary...short of putting in a different bottom bracket, I can't think of anything else to do.

Oof, ok. Another piece of learning, here! I was taught that replacing cables is part of basic maintenance on any bike. Apparently not always true. I will take your advice and clean up the current cables instead. Because some of the housing is worn out, I can replace that. Probably with standard housing for now, unless/until I can find some that matches the look better. Need to get this project moving!

Can't replace the casing without cutting the cable. Even the plain end brake cable will be chewed up by the pinch bolt. The way I figure it, if the cable has broken strands or is choked up with rust and is still feeling crunchy even after oiling, I replace em. If they still run smoothly, I leave em.

Roger. Ok. Thanks for the hand-holding on this one. :beer: