The lists of serial numbers you'll find isn't very reliable. Many anomalies. We can find a reasonably close date with frame features, graphics and accessories. That information was gathered by catalog pictures and Sturmey Archer hub dates on known examples. So not perfect, but pretty close. I can see from the shape of the steering tube lug front that the frame is 1955 or later. I think I can see a bit of the joint from the steering tube lug and top tube enough to see a shape that is 1957 or later. The next frame feature in the timeline would be the shifter cable guide wheel. Is it brazed onto the top tube or clamped on the seat tube? All through the 50s, the wheel had a mount brazed on the top tube. Then around 1960-1961, they changed to using a clamp on steel wheel with a gray finish and 2 piece band. Somewhere around 63 they changed to a plastic wheel with a one piece band. Also around that time, they eliminated the oil port in the bottom bracket and the full chaincase mounting lug on the drive side chainstay. The fork is a bit less conclusive. Safe to say that if it has the bullet shaped ends where the dropouts are brazed in, it would be 1964 or later.

Here's a Hercules with a little extra muscle.

https://richmond.craigslist.org/bik/...561867664.html

1970's Hercules motor bike 3spd - $300 (Goochland)

https://images.craigslist.org/00J0J_...vV_600x450.jpg

70's model Hercules 3spd hub and Bike Bug motor. Bike and motor appears all original and very low usage. Inside of tank looks like brand new. I got it running and riding but will need a rubber grommet for the gas tank and the original tires are dry rotted but hold air, parts available from bike bug online. Ate oh 4-8seven4-6994 text or call and leave vm

Major Tree Failure Toronto
 

A BIG limb broke off last night landing on the garage
during the ice/wind storm.
Vintage bikes and cars are all OK.
Attachment 607469
Missed the shed which has 7 bikes inside...

I see you have a ladder up. Me, I'd wait until the snow was off that shed roof before I started to limb that tree out. Not much pitch on the roof, but still, slippery snow on a roof puts me off on chainsawing.

Agreed. ladder was already there when the limb broke.
Thanks

The ladder was already there? Now that's planning ahead!

Close call there @gster ! We have a lot of small stuff down here in Port Dover this morning but nothing big came down. Other than the sump pump running almost continuously we (and the bikes) are doing fine. Nasty storm.

Yes. my sump pump is discharging about every 15 minutes or so...

Looks like the garage, as well as its contents, is C&V.


During the PO's tenure our garage was hit by lightning, the neighbors tell us. Quite a show, evidently.

Yikes!

You could! A friend locally has one. All the bike bits (rims, hub, handlebars, cranks) are alloy! Apparently it took two years to get once it was ordered in the early 1950s.

No. The 9-point was transitioned out in 1972- the 6 point is an indication of 1972 or later.

All SA rear hubs on most British machines were 40-hole until near the bitter end. You can get 40-hole Sun CR-18s which is the goto rim in most cases. Fits 650A (IOW 26" x 1 3/8" tires).

Another gripe about my '74 Sports. The OEM Brake calipers are soft and bendable. The pads keep catching in the seatstay when applying the brake. Good thing I have a '67 Hercules. I'll end up swapping everything over in time. I really like the 23" frame of the Sports. Fits me perfectly, but the quality of the 67 is of no question.

While researching some ideas for a custom cycling cap, it occured to me that it'd be fun to put some classic-styled Raleigh decals on my drop-bar 3-speed, which is built on a 2008 Raleigh One-Way frame. The question is, what style exactly? I'm a big fan of the old script logos (1930s style like on Tourist chaincases, and also the style seen on some 1970s bikes), and I feel like the build has a bit of "Clubman" style to it. Thoughts, anyone?

https://www.bikeforums.net/attachmen...2&d=1516566768
https://www.bikeforums.net/attachmen...3&d=1516566768
https://www.bikeforums.net/attachmen...4&d=1516566768
https://www.bikeforums.net/attachmen...5&d=1516566768

I like it, I have a 71 step thru sports that is all good.

Thanks Gster, that checking against another crank for straightness reminded me, as the bend in mine was closest to the pedal end, I used a right angle square to check against the pedal.
It's amazing what you can do with a length of pipe - I watched a bike mechanic fix the curve of one of the fork blades from my DL-1 with a piece of pipe. It's one of the bike tools on my 'must get' list :)

Glad you and your vintage mechanicals survived. I once left the house and returned to a tree in my driveway right where my car had been.

BC deserves the credit.

As kids our bikes would fall over--all by themselves!--and the cranks would get pushed in. Eddie at the bike shop had a big notched crowbar he'd use to pry them straight again. Then he'd tell us to get lost.

The fact that they get bent in the first place suggests that they can be re-set.

Seems like SUN discontinued those somewhere after 2013.

All I have been able to find are the Velocity Dyad 700C @ 525 gram and the Velocity Cliff Hanger 650B @ 600 gram in 40 hole vs the CR-18s 440 gram.

Then again, I believe the bike has 700C wheels + fenders with plenty of space so the Dyad probably makes more sense. Just curious what else is available.

Sun CR-18 in 40H 590 are still for sale on Amazon. I hope they're not out of production.
https://www.amazon.com/CR-18-40-hole.../dp/B001CJVGOM

HarrisCyclery also has them but Sun's own website doesn't show them in 40H anymore.

From Santucci-cycles:

[MENTION=301310]gster[/MENTION] - Wow. Sorry about your tree falling. Glad to hear you, your family as well as your structure and bikes are all ok.

What kind of tree was that? Was it healthy? What you gonna do with the wood?

[MENTION=171383]agmetal[/MENTION], I would go with the early 1960s style decals with the large capital letters.

This is kind of bad news.

How about this style [MENTION=171383]agmetal[/MENTION] ? In the white of course.

That was a hundred + year old Silver Maple.
Now firewood.

Nice! I think that might be the one for the downtube. What to do about others? Maybe the little fork blade decals, something on the seat tube, top tube...maybe a heron on the rear fender?

Ah, I didn't say I went 34 years without a flat, just that I hadn't changed the tube on a Sturmey 3-speed rear wheel in 34 years - the last time would have been in 1984 when I was 11 and riding a beat up 1970's Puch picnic delivering Sunday newspapers in Leicester, England. I spent most of my paper-round money on tires, tubes, brakes and other bike maintenance, but it was a good bike to learn on I remember my older brother showing me how to open up the bottom bracket and grease the bearings. Still at the earliest opportunity I bought a used Peugeot racer and hadn't ridden a Sturmey 3-speed until three decades later, and on another continent, I pulled two Raleigh 3-speeds from my father-in-law's garage where they had sat unused for almost as long. Here they are just as I found them

The owner of my local bike shop Papillon Cycles in Arlington, VA, Bailey Garfield, started out as a wrench in a Raleigh shop back in the 70's and he's done a marvellous job rebuilding the Sturmey AW's on both bikes and replacing the cables and brake pads. My wife opted to keep the original steel rims with new kenda gumwall tires in keeping with the look of the original tires, but the diamond frame's rims were eaten away with rust so I had Bailey thread the original IGH into a replacement CR-18 aluminum rim, also replacing the front rim, fitting a larger sprocket, new rear rack, new grips that looked remarkably like the original black plastic one's, new chain, and Kool Stop brake pads. I kept the original Brooks saddle and fitted Schwalbe Marathon greenguard tires, Planet Bike blinkie LED lights, and a mirror. With the rim upgrade my bike feels lighter and stops much better than my wife's shorter mid-step frame. I love riding it, the 26" tires feel a more comfortable height than the 700c's on my commuter, and of course there's the pedal feel and click click sound from the Sturmey I recall from my youth - it's a wonderful time machine!

Here it is now, I should really get a wider axle to mount the Chariot hitch cup, and someone on this forum suggested it would be a good opportunity to learn how to build a Sturmey AW but I wouldn't know where to get the part and currently don't have the time to learn how to do a gearbox overhaul. I bought a spare axle nut from Harris Cyclery just in case I strip the old one. We use the bikes now for family leisure riding.

[MENTION=48202]DEWEY[/MENTION]001 - when they rebuilt your front wheel you said they replaced it with a bigger “sprocket”. Do you mean a bigger hub in front? Or new sprocket for rear?

I’m asking because my cone on one side of my R20 is slightly pitted and I’m thinking about building a new wheel with a better hub.