David Newton

Jason, get the garage cleaned up will you?

Pretty BSA badge!

mkeller234

Nice! More DL-1 pictures please.

fender76

Ha still moving in so gutting the garage from former tenants is a project to say the least!

mkeller234

I don't think I ever posted these here. I fixed up this 1970 Sports a while back, ended up selling it because of it's small size. It's just like the one wahoonc posted, made in Malaysia and without the frills of a normal sports. I thought the red tires and grips were unusual and interesting.

As found, the original handle bars had wooden dowel extensions forced in the ends:

ColonelJLloyd 

^ Nice work! Where'd you find the tires?

mkeller234

At a local LBS. I have a feeling they are almost as old as the bike, the brand is Cheng Shin

fender76

....a few more. I'm part collector, part hobby seller...

here's my (American!) daily commuter...a 65 Columbia which I really like




a blue '63 that I sold in great shape..



a shot of my BSA before I bought it...


and another DL-1 close-up. I guess I don't have too many far away shots of this bike yet...maybe because it's so big!



a 71 Sports that was used very briefly before being stored that I just sold..

chris902

I think I may have tracked down a usable Sport for my club bike conversion but I have a question that I should know the answer for:
Can I mount the break levers from a sport onto drop bars or am I going to have to track down "new" (i.e. salvaged) drop bar specific break levers?

Sixty Fiver

The very old drop bar models used the same steel levers on drop bars but if you ride on the hoods as most do they are not comfortable and don't offer a lot of braking leverage... but they do have a very authentic look.

My 1955 Lenton has it's stock steel levers and stops rather well but my '54 conversion has modern Dia Compe levers which are comfortable on the hoods and deliver some decent stopping power from there as well... my wheels are alloy 700c and the brakes are also Dia Compes which helps.

fender76

as a sidenote - does anyone have a picture of what my 1951 Dawn Tourist's chainguard SHOULD look like? I'll be sanding it down soon, and I want to make it period-correct. Thanks in advance...

gbalke

This was posted on Flickr:

https://www.flickr.com/photos/damonab...n/photostream/

fender76

awesome thanks - I just need a close-up of the pinstriping and font...

Andrew F

Mkeller234- That is so clean, it looks NOS! I like the tires and the handgrips, very nice indeed!

David Newton

Just a note, this ebay seller has just listed this alloy wheelset in 26 x 1 3/8" with rear freewheel threading. Usually you can get thinner locknuts and axle spacers so these can work on Sports, they have on mine.
But I haven't used this exact pair of wheels, so beware the front hub is probably 100mm, and the rear 120 or 126mm.

https://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...=STRK:MEWAX:IT

mkeller234

I know I have posted this one in this thread yet. It was a 1958 Western Flyer with Norman of England decals. I regret selling this bike in hindsight.

Check out how long the front fenders is:








Norman decals:


Upside down trigger shifter:


Cool chain guard and Williams crank:

noglider 

Why don't we see paint colors like that any more. Exquisite. I've had an emotional response to that shade of blue since I was a kid. What is it called?

David Newton

Great bike!
You should post it on the "can a man ride a woman's frame?" thread.
I'd love to have ridden that.

mkeller234

Yeah, I really like the color too, especially with the grips, saddle and white head tube. The white box stripping seemed nicer than usual on that bike too. One quirk was the shifter cable clamp, it only fit the top tube, not the downtube. You can see the cable runs at a strange angle, it's how it was when I found it. RHM speculated that it may have had a higher grade of tubing but I never checked the seat post diameter. The lugs also had a really nice shape with "key hole" cut outs in the back.

Oh, believe me I wanted to but it was way to small for me. I really wanted a reason to keep even though my wife did not want it for herself. The women that bought it was pretty thrilled... looking back I sold it really low. I just hope it's being cared for. The SW hub was frustrating and untrustworthy.

noglider 

What was the selling price?

mkeller234

I sold it for 100 dollars. It's not a give away... but at that price it was rare enough that I wish I had kept it. I think I even used Phil Wood grease in that one. I would have swapped the SW hub internals with an AW had I kept it. Even the kickstand on that bike was cooler than normal.

I paid 10 dollars for the bike at a thrift store, but it was filthy.

noglider 

I ask $150 for English three speeds, and I'm not as good at cleaning bikes as you are.

Sixty Fiver

If it makes you feel any better you can't swap AW internals with an SW... it is a completely different beast and has a small hub shell.

mkeller234

Well, maybe a tiny bit. I never got to the point of actually researching it and just assumed it was that simple. I did disassemble that SW hub when I worked on the bike and saw how different it was. The springless pawls were neat looking but I would hate to have to replace one. Actually I seem to find just as many SW hubs as I do AW, which seems unlucky to me. I had a Red Western Flyer

The thing that comforts me the most is that it would have sat idle in my garage. I guess it could be doing the same somewhere else but I know I would have felt wasteful for keeping it.

Tom, that was the first time I ever sold a bike so I wasn't really aware of the value.

Sixty Fiver

I have an SW laced into a wheel and at some point would like to do some of the modifications many have suggested to make them a more reliable unit...

https://www.sheldonbrown.com/sw.html

mkeller234

I did the spring stretching thing once with the Norman. I don't know if I did it right or not, or if the hub benefitted from it. I don't know if I switched the pawls around or not. Now I did have another Raleigh built Western Flyer that had an SW hub that seemed to work as well as any AW I have had. I didn't ride that bike extensively so it's hard to say, but it never once gave me a issue engaging the gears.