Nice set up. Are you using the shifter with an AW hub. I considered getting one but was not sure it was compatible with older hubs.

I agree - you need to be comfortable with the bike so that you *ride* it....however, is it possible you are still comparing to your road bikes? They will always feel more powerful but may not actually stop you that much better. I have ridden the Humber (with original brakes and steel rims, Kool Stop Continental gray pads) and then immediately rode the same route with my IGH converted Trek (alloy rims, semi-modern Dia-compe brakes, etc) and really didn't notice a huge difference....it does serve however to make you ride "up the road" trying to anticipate issues.
@Salubrious: Guzzi clutch hard?!?! my bevel drive 900SS had the reputation as a real workout though I never had much of an issue! And I bet you start your bike with a button and have a seat that is not a 2x4 with a vinyl cover! :)

@Salubrious - The ONLY way to get ride of the knocking of the headset is to tighten it just enough. Then when I turn handlebars to EXTREME right or left (in the stand - no need to ever functionally turn them this far in life while riding), it gets tight like the headset is not as loose as it should be. I have adjusted it multiple times. You must adjust with bike on the ground so the self leveling floating headset piece will level. The minute I adjust it so it turns all the way EASILY in both directions, then the headset is too loose & a tiny bit of "knocking". So it doesn't affect the ride, or steering.

I never had the luck or money to get a big Guzzi that you could kickstart :) I gotta little one though...

That sounds a bit like the steering tube is ever so slightly bent, or else the bearing cups are not perfectly in locus with the headtube of the frame. In which case I would set it up as your text in bold, which it sounds like you did.

If it is the latter problem and related to the the bottom cup, it will seat over time, in which case it will seem as if the headset is getting looser.

@Salubrious - yes, I simply adjusted just enough to take away the "knocking". It rides and steers just fine. So I will leave it at that, at least for now.

Keeping in mind the requirements of the time: Poor material supply, labor unrest, worn machine tools and a pint or so at lunch for the workforce and it's quite amazing that anything like "steers just fine' is the result so many decades on.

Some times good enough, is indeed Good Enough.

-Bandera

Nuances
 

I ran into an issue servicing out the Brampton hub on my Riva-Sport.

The oil port was missing its cap. So I looked on ebay and found oil ports for sale. After I got the part, it turned out that the oil ports that fit Sturmey Archer hubs are a larger thread size. The Brampton uses something smaller (smaller thread diameter) even though otherwise it looks nearly identical.

The missing thread cap explains why the bike was likely put away. When servicing it out, the rear wheel was really a mess! It would have leaked out any oil without the cap on the oil port.

Right now my plan is to drill out the hole in the hub body and re-tap for the SA oil port thread, which seems to be very similar to a 1/4" -28 thread. Sacrilege I know, but once done it will be nearly impossible to spot without removing the port itself.

I could put a rubber plug in the old oil port. It would probably leak less oil... but it wouldn't be styl'n.

Yep, have an ol' AW hub, 1954 vintage, and it works just fine. The bar-ends don't work exactly like the trigger shifters do, sometimes you have to over-shift a li'l to get the "click". But it works. While I still like the look of an old trigger shifter, the one that came with mine was janky (plastic face plate coming off) so I decided to try something different.

@Salubrious - you will take pictures won't you? Include a brief tutorial, as I'm sure you're not the only one who would want to do this. Waiting....
@adventurepdx - yes I liked seeing your SA bar end shifter. Very nice, and I've considers it. Will it fit in an original English handlebar?

On a different not,munch I don't ride the lovely 3 speed daily, I presume oil leaks out. How do I know when to oil him (Prince Phillip) up again?;) Also Harris Cyclery sells old timey brake calipers that they recommend for replacement for the kind I have. Any good?

Probably not. As with most bar-end shifters, the S/A shifter is meant for road bars, not mtb or upright bars. The Nitto Albatross bars I have on the bike now are one of the few (if only) North Road style bars I know of that are designed to accommodate bar-ends. (Which is a big reason why I went with the whole Albatross and bar-end combo in the first place!)

The 49 hub on the humber was missing most of the oil port, and it did not look like it would thread out easily. Not wanting to wreck the hub I went to Widgetco, ordered a bunch of 0000 and 00000 rubber stoppers, experimented a bit and filled the oil port that way. Works great and looks like a regular oil port - only disadvantage is oiling through the indicator hole but that's not a big deal....

Actually the oil port has a hex at its base and so can be removed with the right size box wrench. If the cap is missing, then if you have a socket that is the right size its even easier. You can use a socket to install the new one though- that will require a box wrench.

I would guess that half the complaints about lousy brakes could be remedied by stronger hands, if that were an option. I've ridden and owned lots of bikes that others have said have lousy brakes, but they work great for me. I don't want to brag that I have an unusually good grip, but maybe I do. I've had people borrow my bikes and say, "These brakes don't work!" but they stop on a dime for me.
@Velocivixen, if you haven't loosened your brakes yet, please do try it. Having your fingers closer to the bar when you squeeze might let you squeeze harder. If that doesn't increase your confidence adequately, switch to dual-pivot brakes. And if you can provide a link to Harris's calipers, please do. If they're not dual pivot, forget it.

@noglider - I will loosen up the brakes a little and try. The brakes on Harris site are "Action (brand) Extra Long Reach" side pull. I'm in the process of disassembling the Moto GJ, so I do have the Tektro R559 brakes but they would look goofy on the Phillips. Prince Phillip shows his age and the "like new" Tektros are very shiny.

As as an aside, and I don't mean to throw salt in the wound, but it's been and will continue to be SUNNY with blue skies, minimal wind, and upper 50's. It will be lower 60's in a couple of days.....fantastic riding weather.:lol:

Thanks, I may try that set up on my next 3-speed build. Likely will be next winter though since favorable riding weather is right around the corner.

We have had lots of weather samples in the last few weeks. Last week we had 11" of snow which stayed on the ground two days, today we have 70 degrees with 20 mph wind and forcast tomorrow is high of 30 degrees. :( So ready for the real spring to arrive. :)

No, those Action brakes are craptacular. Don't buy them.

Surely we have people clever enough who can "antique" modern calipers such as Tektros. Maybe there's a lacquer you can spray on that looks like chrome, and then you can beat it up with a chain to make pock marks.

If karma evens things out, you'll have a harsh winter next year, and ours will be mild. But I'm not holding out hope.

+1

Brake-Shaped Objects

NEED ADVICE: Installed Tektro R559 long reach on front of Phillips and they look fine and brake GREAT. However, and I'll have to post photo later, on the rear I'm having challenge figuring out how to route cable/housing. Unline the original calipers, where the cable enters from the bottom going up, the Tektro enter from the top going down. This makes for a strange cable situation. Go up seat tube then bend down??? Seems odd.

Please advise with photos to help. Cheers

Its supposed to be nice this weekend here in Minnesota- looks like it will be spring here before it is on parts of the east coast...

Yup! And right there is one reason I hesitate to change out the brakes especially if its a step-through frame. The rear brake is often more unusual that it appears at first glance and often has the cable wired in backwards just to be even more arcane. I like arcane FWIW...

One of the problems of course is if you look at it, the brake cable looks like it was swaged together right there on the bike- with the cable end inside the adjuster. I've been lucky so far that when I have run into this, the cable was in plenty good enough shape to continue using the brake.

Anyway, what I would do is remove the brake and cable together as a unit and place them in a box of parts that goes with the bike should it ever be sold. To install the new brake cable, you probably want to run the cable on the bottom down tube rather than the top, as it will have to make the curve to go up the seat tube and then another curve at the top to get to the brake. Its either that, or you will have to get creative to find a way to install the brake cable along its original path, likely with the help of a machinist to sort out the brake so it can be used in a similar fashion to the original, and then the cable will have to be assembled to the frame in the same way.

Or- you could just have the Tektro only on the front- that is where most of the braking action is anyway.

In order to have the cable pull from the bottom one would need to get a little creative and modify the brakes a little bit. A cable stop with a barrel adjuste from a donor brake caliper could be swapped out for the pinch bolt used on the lower arm of the Tektro, and then a cable knarp could be placed at the top arm. It's doable but would take some extra knowledge and mechanical skill to accomplish and be a good strong and safe installation.

Another option would be to use a 135-degree brake noodle at the caliper and route the cable up the seat tube and then back down to the caliper through the noodle. This would be smoother and avoid the housing compression that a tight bend in the cable at the top of the loop would have. The friction and housing compression in the lower bend as it comes off of the top frame tube will not be nearly as bad.

Can you detach the two anchor points from the arms? Some sidepulls allow that, but I don't have an example in front of me. I've switched them on some calipers. I like the coming-from-the-underside cable routing on ladies' bikes.

@Salubrious's suggestion to leave the original brake on the rear isn't so bad. You're not going to take this bike off road or into the snow, so relying primarily on your front brake is fine. I left the ultra-craptacular rear brake on my Twenty after replacing the front caliper brake with a drum brake front hub.

Great ideas everyone. I have to be at Physical Therapy in a few. That's why I've run off. I will check the caliper at home and see if I could change things around. Thanks a lot for quick responses!

Nice link; thanks. It appears that this "Roadster" [not the immortal DL-1] was more or less meant to be a lower cost "Sports" model much like the earlier LTD-3 models were. That answered my question!

Re fallout shelter lights... I can vividly remember the "under the desk" and "out in the hall" drills we had in the early 60's to save us from the Nukular Meanies... Ha-Ha!