P_M - The cap protects the indicator spindle from getting damaged through daily adventures... like scrubbing it up against something or laying the bike down on the drive side.

Sixty Fiver - thanks for the reply. I see more bike without them than with them, hence my curiousity.

Get Koolstop brake pads and the brakes will be much better.

Switch out the Lauterwasser bar for a Northroad bar. This will make your wife happy. Sell the Lauterwasser bar on ebay; it should bring a couple hundred bucks.

The cap was ugly and most people either took it off or it got busted off -being plastic. Many were taken off by the LBS I would guess. I almost never see them. I wonder when they started putting them on? Late 60's and 70's I would guess.

... or keep them even after switching to North Roads bars, or just flip them over, top-to-bottom, because if you sell them, they are probably irreplacable (very rare, hence, the high sale price).

The latest find and project: A 1969 Raleigh Superbe. $50 on Craigslist. A rare find for the young state of Arizona, and a restoration project for the girlfriend.

https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-K...0/IMG_9156.JPG

The bike is currently stripped except for cottered cranks/BB, and the fenders, front fork, and chainguard are all soaking in an OA solution. I'll be starting a thread to share progress and ask for a few opinions on how to tackle the badly oxidized frame and formerly rusty parts.

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-v...0/IMG_9158.JPG

https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-B...0/IMG_9157.JPG

Yeah, I would keep them, myself. There is a reason they went out of fashion, though: they're not very comfortable.

I put North Roads bars on my commuter. I like them more than the straight, flat mountain bike bars they replaces but they are not my favorite. They curve to the rear and you hands are almost parallel to the top tube and are very close to you (poor leverage when climbing). You have a very erect posture. I was thinking something a little more Albatross-ish would be better.

Okay, I have one more issue. I've found a ladies Raleigh 3 speed (looks like an older Sports - certainly older than mine) that I'm going to look at tonight. But from the picture it appears to be missing at least one (can't see the other side) cap on the fork crown.

I don't know what the construction is so I'm going on wild speculation. Is it open at the top of the fork blade inside that crown tube? If so, any concerns about rust from the inside out? If not, does anyone know where I can order or otherwise pilfer some caps?

This should not be an issue...The fork crown on Sports is fully enclosed, not open, and capped of with a welded-on lugged crown that covers over the blades. There's nothing removable or "capped" about it. Either (a) you're wrong about the photo and are noticing a flaw that doesn't structurally exist, (b) the bike is seriously damaged and/or structurally flawed in some way, or (c) I'm completely misunderstanding your question.

Any photos? I've dealt with low-end gaspipe bikes and cruisers (such as 80's era Huffys and an old Centurion LeMans, not 3-speeds or Raleighs) that had a chrome aluminum sleeve-like ornamental "cap" or "cover" that slid over the steerer and sat atop the fork crown, but I've never seen a Sports with such a thing. Could that be what you think you're seeing on the bike? If so, I don't know what to tell you -- I've never seen a Raleigh Sports with one. Perhaps that could be what you're referring to?

Sure, here is the ad:

http://edmonton.kijiji.ca/c-buy-and-...AdIdZ308816461

The caps I'm referring to are the two (one on each side) at either end of the crown "tube", just below the lower headset race.

To be honest, Raleighs (although the fork on a Pashley seems similar) are the only bicycles I've seen with these details.

Someone on PayBay usually has some thimbles for sale. They are not unobtanium. I wouldn't worry too much about rust forming inside the forks. They are going to rust inside regardless of if there is a thimble installed or not. Condensation will pretty much gaurantee that there is some moisture in there at least some of the time. It's not going to be a big deal. If one is worried about it then squirt some 3 in 1 into the weep holes and let the bike sit upside down for a while. It's about the only thing that crap is good for anyhow as a poor-man's frame-saver.

Thanks Amesja. Hopefully this works out. My girlfriend will be getting a new bike if it does.

Unless the frame is totally bent out of shape and destroyed just about any basket-case Raleigh Sports can be restored to its former glory for under $100 in parts. Maybe a bit more if you want to make it really "nice" and fresh looking. Or go all out and put alloy rims on it and new spokes for another $100 or so. The parts are pretty robust. Usually the only difficulty I've found is sourcing the upper headset nut/race since it is 26tpi. But if you want to spend $20 for a new fork and headset you can just dump them for new.

Those "caps" are known as thimbles and they do go missing occasionally, Flea bay or someone's parts bin is the first place to look for replacements.

Aaron :)

You know, I searched for every term I could think of and thimble was not one of them. Thanks for steering me in the right direction.

Yeah I'm going to swap it out, but I might try it on my 30s Raleigh Sports just to see what it's like.

Yeah the more I ride my sports the less I like North Roads, at least upright - there just aren't any comfy hand positions.

Actually, it is because most were bought for kids. I do not think the 25 inch frames were ever imported into the USA. What you did not know they even made a 25 inch frame?

(GRIN) A 23 inch frame if they were smart. Actually, most 3-speeds in the 1970's were probably bought by college students & retired folks. Kids all wanted "Tens", as they called them. Gainfully employed adults probably wanted 10-speeds too, but not the cheap ones. In actuallity, a properly sized 3-speed sport would be about 2 inches bigger than a properly sized dropped bar road bike when you take into consideration the slacker frame angles and the smaller diameter tires.

Prior to the 1970's no one even considered being able to straddle the top tube being important. Any boy who did not want to be called a sissy did a flying mount and dismount, and any adult bicyclist (not very common in the USA) learned to ride as a kid. Girls were delicate things and did not count, besides their bicycles did not have top bars anyway. The simple fact was that 99.9% of the "English Racers" (what any self-respecting kid called his 3-speed) were sold for kids, and that meant 19" girls, and 21" boys models. Mostly the larger bike were only sold in university towns for college students, who were not allowed to have cars on campus (especially freshmen), which is why most of those larger bikes are found in those areas today.

PS: My I got my first 3-speed in 53, I think, when I was 9 or 10.

This sounds entirely plausible, because now that you mention it, I too cannot recall any fixation on "stand-over height" either. - So what we might consider a small adult-sized bike today, could well have been intended for a child.

-Indeed, it is more likely that mom and dad would have purchased a 21" frame for their nine or ten year-old (average height 4'2"), so he could "grow into" it (like his shoes).

New three speed...

http://bikeforums.net/attachment.php...hmentid=217203

My dad bought my (now) 21" Sports in '54 brand new at the LBS when he was 13 with his own paper-route money. I'm sure that at his age the stand-over was about 3" too high to straddle. He soon grew into it as I'm sure was his plan.

Nice! I'm think of doing something similar to give to my girlfriend. Which hub did you use?

1964 AG (Aw with a generator)... wheels came off my now retired from winter service Kuwahara.

Got the headlight wired up to the generator and now just need to source some adequate fenders.