love the green , very nice bike

Thanks BC, I took a heap of photos that day and this was the only one that looked any good. I like the contrast of blue sky/orange gravel. I much prefer the Heron crank over the utility crank I had on it before.

I measured the travel at only 2 1/2 ". I've been insulating & re-arranging the garage workshop, so probably won't get to tweak the levers til the weekend.

Quote:
Originally Posted by JaccoW
At what point does everyone here replace their drum shoes? Can you describe the feeling for me?

[QUOTE=clubman;20085304]Sturmey drum brakes are a mystery. Some work well, some don't, some improve with new shoes, others get worse. I think that the cable actuated models have an edge over the rods. I have a '48 AB hub on this CCM that is a marvel. Feather it to a stop or hit the panic button and burn a 10 foot skid. I hope it never requires service.

I agree! I have 70mm SA drums that work really well on a bike that is probably almost as heavy as my DL-1. I'm using the big 80's diacompe mtb levers. I'm starting to think that this might be the case - cable pull with a nice big lever will work better than rod pull, which has flexibility and a little slop through it's joints.

Velognome - love the Triumph and that Clubman is cool!

I don't know about drum brakes, but the added lever travel made a substantial improvement on the rod brakes on both of my roadsters. I had a similar problem with my scorcher. I was using the standard Raleigh brake levers with Tektro 559 dual pivot calipers. The front brake was fine, but the rear leaver was full on too close to the grip no matter how close I set the pads to the rim. I added a couple cable stops to the top tube and eliminated 18" of cable housing from the rear brake cable. Just the small amount of travel I gained from eliminating the compression of that housing made a huge difference in braking. Having full on braking at the right spot in the lever travel made a bigger difference that I thought it would.

Interesting that both of them are 23" frames. Took me forever to find one and nowadays they seem to be everywhere.

Thanks for the background info.

These days when the weather is too bad to ride, I'll use my break times to browse the internet and look at vintage bike and motorcycle ads. I would have never had this sort of information back when I used classified ads and flea markets to find bikes. I'll estimate that 21" 3 speeds outnumber 23" by at least 4 to 1. I think I know the reason. Back in my childhood, (early 60s) even though I lived in town where a bicycle would have been very practical and most families only had one car, the sight of an adult on a bicycle was rare. Bicycles were considered a kid thing. This didn't change until the late 60s, early 70s and by then 10 speed bikes started dominating the market.

Given what shows up for re-sale, it does seem that Raleigh produced far more 21" Sports models than 23"--or perhaps the 23" are far less likely to go into circulation, i.e., they're keepers?! But Raleigh could be a bit odd in its sizing: The 1948-51 Clubman only came in a 22" frame. I guess they figured that size would capture enough of the possible riding market to make it worthwhile. I suppose that keeps manufacturing costs down.

I pulled this out of a dumpster a few months back. Its a 24" framed Robin Hood, complete with center stand.
The wheels are near perfect, the thing rides like a new bike. The only issue I had to deal with was that the chain guard was bent into the chain pretty good, most likely from its toss into the dumpster.

I was sitting across the street from the place eating my lunch when I watched a guy wheeling out several bikes from his apartment and tossed them into a dumpster on the other side of the fence.
I wheeled my truck around and pulled out this, plus a pair of cheap full suspension no name mountain bikes.
I took them all, gave the two mountain bikes to a buddy with kids. All three were in ridable condition other than a pair of flat tires on the one mountain bike.

I'll snap a few better pics once I get it cleaned up, I snapped these the night I brought them home with my cell phone.

Good save. I hate seeing bikes being thrown away.

There ought to be a law against tossing old bikes in the bin, especially a Robin Hood!

My experience is mainly in men's frames, and is that 21 inch frames are more common than 23. When the 23 turns up, it's usually a mid-1960s or later bike (bike boom era, late 60s-mid 70s seems most common).

With the US-spec DL-1 it's the opposite: the larger 24 inch frame turns up more often than the smaller 22 inch frame. The 22 inch frame is usually a 1970s-era bike, often late 1970s.

I absolutely love the 23 inch frame on the 26 Sports wheels in terms of fit and ride.

funny how it seems my best bikes were found after somebody decided to discard them as opposed to sell them .

My DL-1 research is limited to catalog scans. As far as I can tell, the 24" gents frame was the standard for many years. It's roots seem to be the Popular Model 1. When extras like the enclosed chaincase were standard, they gave it a different name and model number instead of the DL (deluxe) designation. In 1950, "Tourist model 2" By 1958, It only appears in 24" and a hockey stick guard as the Police Model 4. So far, I haven't found any reference to this bike with a 22" gents frame until the 1977 catalog. Very confusing

For those of us in the snowy Chesapeake area.


Raleigh Sports Classic Vintage 1974 3Speed - $40 (Pasadena)


https://baltimore.craigslist.org/bik...443668354.html

Hmm, kinda odd that it has a Shimano-type bell-crank on the rear hub:

https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4733/...9579a00804.jpg

Yes and then you re-read the cleverly worded ad, 'classic' 'many original parts' 'extra wheels', TLC & cables'. It all amounts to a tragic mess.

Brinksmanship, phooeey

Oh my.... that color..... :love:

Interesting, thanks BC. I thought DL must have stood for 'dealer line' or something like that... should have just asked here of course :) I'd like to try the 22" DL-1 some day.
From what I can tell there seems to have been a change at some point in time from 7" cranks to 6 1/2" cranks - not just for Roadsters but more as a general thing. I wonder why this was done?

Woe is me. You fellas did not warn me that the DL-1 has a longer axle in the AW than others like my sports. I spent the afternoon carefully inserting the innards of a 77 AW into the 77 DL1 hub and wheel only to find its too short and not spaced correctly. Both bikes are spaced at 110mm but the mudguard stays and adjusters on the DL1 take up more space. Now all I have is two piles of parts! Looks like about 15mm longer (6 1/4"?)

Yup, the DL-1 uses a 6 1/4" axle. It's an easy swap.
edit
Do you already have a 6 1/4 axle? If not don't worry. Easy to find on eBay. Unlike the bottom bracket spindle. That one is a bear to find. Guard it jealously!

So, I think you've got the axle yes?;)

Yeah, bit of a mess. Tall frame though.
Might be worth it for the frame and some useable parts.

Both those bikes really look like they want to go somewhere.

You are right of course, I do have a longer axle. I had hoped to just slip out the whole assembly and not have to rebuild. I guess I'll be doing my first rebuild of an AW. I am amazed at how much rust were in both hubs.

This is good, you're going to have fun with this. A couple of tips. There's an English guy and an American guy showing AW rebuilds on youtube. Watch both of em.
Some people use OA for rust removal. The trick is knowing how strong to make it for each application. Personally, I like to use Evapo-Rust because it works well and never wrecks anything. An overnight soak usually does it.
And...tools! You will need a cone wrench to get a good bearing adjustment. In fact, it's best to have 2 so you can do a final adjustment while the wheel is mounted on the bike. I have 2 of those little Sturmey Archer spanners, love em. Good luck!

Anyone care for a Reynolds 531 3-speed?
Gazelle 'Superlicht' Reynolds 531
https://i.imgur.com/VriyCPZ.jpg