My first bike was a CCM Mustang (muscle bike) with a 3 speed and a stick shifter... when you constantly drop your bike off curbs and jump things you learn how to keep the hub adjusted lest you have it slip and find yourself launched into the stick shift.

I think the '61 Sports is a classic - it has all the right stuff - fluted handgrips, white ribbed cable covers, metal pulley, etc. and the decals are iconic.

I did the boil out procedure today. It was so bad that I had to pull the parts out of the pan and clean out the pan and do it again as there was so much grease floating on the top of the water that the parts probably just couldn't get any cleaner. This is after I hosed the parts off and wiped them all down with paper towel before giving up on the shellac and heading towards the old pot of water and vinegar trick again.

Well, I spoke too soon about the condition of the AW hub on the '69 Sports I'm overhauling. It rides fine in 1st, but slips badly in 2nd and 3rd. I replaced the clutch (which didn't look worn), but that had no effect. Any ideas, 3-speed cognoscente?

Neal

Here's a Raleigh Superbe for $80 in NJ. I should be on my way to pick it up right now but I found my secret grail bike in upstate NY and I'm going to get that on Sunday. So I just can't but it's taking every ounce of charity I have to just sit and watch it go by. So you should go get it. That way at least I'll get to see some decent pictures.
http://newjersey.craigslist.org/bik/2417977359.html

Did you make sure there wasn't any goop inside the axle? If there is it could be dragging the axle key and/or the indicator and getting stuck in between 2nd and 3rd in the neutral space.

THAT didn't last long!

I'll check that. I thought the indicator and axle key were moving freely, but perhaps not. I read online that another candidate for causing this problem is a worn gear ring. I didn't inspect that very carefully, so another tear down is coming up.

Neal

Wore as in the teeth where the planetary gears ride or how the pawls sit? I could see if the pawls were not pivoting correctly that could cause some problems but that much wear should be obvious I would think. I've never seen any wear like that in the hubs I've worked on but really only one of them was super high-mileage. The only real wear in that one was where the main dirver gear was pinned onto the axle. It was really sloppy which caused a lot of driveline lash but no shifting problems.

PJ, thanks for the more pictures. That's bike porn if there ever was bike porn.

Did you use polishing compound? Or what?

PJ...you have a couple of nice bikes there. My wife has a 71 Dunelt. It looks similar, but there are a few differences (chain guard and rear fender are different). You should ride with the TC3-SAS group ride. I'm hoping to join the one on Father's day sunday if i can...maybe i will see you there.

I was going to mount the brakes on my Golden Arrow today but stopped because I thought I might need a different color housing.

. . . So time for a little Raleigh esoterica:

What was the color of Raleigh Brake/shifter housing in the '20's, '30', 40, 50's ... ?

I've seen different non-descript green-gray-beige colors, ivory/white ribbed housings, black cloth lined housings, etc - but I don't know which belongs to what decade.

auchencrow, My '36 GA has light grey ribbed rubbery plastic. Who knows if they are original or not. They are in pretty good shape, just a little splitting at the ends.

3-speed sizing: I noticed this bike on eBay http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...=STRK:MEWAX:IT which appears to be larger than my 23". Were larger size Sports common.

Also on sizing there is this Clubman eBay http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...=STRK:MEWAX:IT The seller documents all very well. It appears that a size 22 1/2" is larger in a Sports. This bike has a 33" stand over height. My 23" Sport is around 32". I wonder is there a way to predict what size Clubman should fit me given that 23" Sports is good fit.

Sports models in larger sizes are rather hard to find... bicycles at the upper and lower end of the sizing spectrum are always built in lower numbers because there are fewer buyers of these so after some decades the numbers of these tends to be even less.

Thanks Carl -
Mine came with 2 of those greenish-gray smooth rubber housings and one ribbed white, like what was on my 70's Super Course.
I am pretty sure NONE were original because the GA's quad shifter was replaced.
Meanwhile, my '53 Sports has smooth black housing with a woven liner. (Below)
- Now you would think something even older would constructed similarly. (-or maybe out of papyrus?)

http://i254.photobucket.com/albums/h...rts1953008.jpg

Auchen, here's a shot of the brake housing on my '37 Sports. Much of it is wrapped in what looks like black electrical tape, but you can see that the outer housing is mostly made of some sort of fiber:

http://web.mit.edu/nlerner/Public/Bikes/37Sports3.jpg

Neal

Thanks Neal - that certainly looks original, but the woven (outer?) housing is now very weathered - Any idea what color that outer covering was - originally?

^ I would guess black.

Neal

I'm going with black then.
Let's say they used the cloth lined black housing from at least the late 30's into the 50's, and by the 70's we saw that ribbed white stuff. We'll just need to acquire more original examples to fill in the rest of the blanks. ;)

I've had 1950s bikes that had ribbed plastic housing and smooth plastic housing, some of which was likely original. I think it's been around a long time!

Neal

The woven fabric looks like cotton.

Could someone recommend a good chain for an old Raleigh Sports ('73)? I was given a recommendation on the Izumi Eco Track chain but thought I'd run it by here first.

This thread.....is now my favorite on all of the forums here-and I don't even own one of these bikes (YET),LOL!

I read through all (ok...most of the 78 pages) in the last few days,some REALLY nice bikes you guys have. I've never restored a bike before (got as far as disassembly on one once,it was too far gone with rust and bent frame),but I want to soon :thumb:

I have the SRAM PC-1 chain on my bike. Any singlespeed/three speed chain will probably do. KMC makes some good inexpensive chains.