JaccoW

I am this weekend.

As far as I know there are two different sizes for rack mounted reflectors, 50mm and 80mm bolt distance. I've used the thin B+M version on my girlfriend's bike. Here is a post of someone who has it on his Tubus rear rack.

• Spanninga 80mm
• Spanninga 50mm
• Gazelle variety 80mm
• B+M 313/3Z reflector

And there are tons of light + reflector options from Spanninga, Axa, Contec (though you have to browse their catalog to find it), Herrmans and Simson

cudak888 

The reflectors are all sinfully ugly, but the Spanninga Elips or Herrmans H-Track Dynamo are exceptionally nice looking. Pity they're dynamo-operated - after all that work to get the dynamo light on the fender.




The Spanninga is available in Canada, and the Herrmans on US Amazon, so I should have no problems getting either. The Herrmans is also $10 cheaper.

-Kurt

repechage

about what I found. I use Cygolites. To please my wife in the dead of Winter I run both, one
bright, other flashing and aimed higher. Endurable. I use planet bike taillights - at the time they appeared to me to have a variable pattern instead of just a blinking. That catches my eye when I am driving best, so I went that way. I will note that when using those passing vehicles give a wider birth, a good thing.
i use one now during the day even.
my wife mentions that she would rather not collect on the life insurance.

cudak888 

For the millionth time, I'm updating this thread with information that is not pertinent to the 1980 Sports (apparently, square taper Heron cranksets off Raleigh Choppers or Raleigh PUBs aren't easy to get used) - instead, this has to do with the original, first-generation Sturmey X-RF8 which seemed to be unfixable.

Well, it's fixed.




Absolutely nothing was wrong with it, except lubrication. Filling a Sturmey hub with ATF - which seems to work for the later X-RF8(w) and later Sturmey hubs - does not provide enough lubrication.

The cams that actuate the pawls have a fair bit of friction, as do the pawls against the axles. It's super easy for them to jam when the gears are shifted, engaging the wrong pawls when shifting though the cluster.

These are the bits that fit onto the shaft as shown in Fig. 10:




The simple solution was to liberally grease the axle, cams, and pawls with "00" grease - namely, the generic equivalent of what Sturmey-Archer specifies for the internal parts of these hubs in the first place.

This is a semi-runny grease that sticks well to parts when you apply it. Turns those friction-prone machined surfaces into super-slick contact patches.



This might seem obvious to the point of stupidity - namely, "grease the hub with what Sturmey recommends in the first place," but I can tell that when I opened this X-RF8, it had barely enough grease to be passable, and it didn't have the consistency of the 00 grease that I purchased. This is why the hub was malfunctioning in the first place and why the ATF didn't cure it either.

Now, taking in mind what some have suggested earlier - in operation, you can definitely tell this hub is really not meant for use on anything larger than a 20” wheel. The crank rotation before engagement w/the X-RF8 on a 26" wheel (and 28t front chainring) is terrible. However, I presume the effect is quite the opposite if you pair the same hub with a small wheel and a large chainring, as is usually found on the small-wheel bikes these were intended for.

Here it the hub on its current testbed - one of the unfinished Bike Share Museum bikes (which is named "Proprietary Parts" - the irony should be obvious). The Gazelle was sold a long while back when I realized it didn't fit as well as my Spin Gen 2, and would otherwise duplicate it.






-Kurt

Kent T

Now for some bike inspired Georgia musical velo de pun. By way of the B52's rock band. This is the "Love Bike". "I Got Me A Gazelle bike, it's as big as a whale, and it's about to set sail" so "Bring Your Jukebox Money"

cudak888 

This may be the first time a Hollotech crank has ever been installed on a Raleigh Sports. Hold your jeers and boos until I can clean off the "Motosuv" lettering from the cranks.






-Kurt

noglider 

I like the crank, and I'm sure you're right about a Hollotech in a Sports.

cudak888 

Meet the Unicorn Hollowtech Sports.











Unfortunately, Goof Off wasn't taking those tacky Motsuv letters off. I'll approach it with different tactics at another time.

Also, excuse the photos - they're not the best framed of the lot. Half of them were ruined by what appears to be an autofocus issue with my el-cheapo Panasonic 14-42 lens.

-Kurt

pastorbobnlnh 

Kurt, I vote to keep the lightning bolt in running down the center of each arm. It will make the Sports 25% faster.

Looks great actually. Is that one of the China made cranksets?

cudak888 

We'll see what will take it off without damaging it. No lightning bolts for me though - too bad I can't silkscreen a Sir Walter onto them

I found it on AliExpress. My guess is that it's Chinese-made for the Russian market, given the name slapped on it. It's a pretty nice piece too, and the chainring is all beef.

-Kurt

DiegoFrogs

Regarding the rear rack-mounted battery-powered light:

I bought a cheapo light (looks like they still offer it some 7 years later for ~$7!) to replace a broken one on a used Finnish city bike I bought in Sweden. I had just figured that the spacing was standard.

When the mounting hardware didn't line up with the holes in the rack, I looked more closely at the lamp. The plastic body was moulded in such a way that the mounts could be moved to the other standard of spacing once I gently punched out the perforated plastic. Came in handy when I replaced the broken rack with one that had the other standard...

It's possible that some can be easily modified for either standard.

cudak888 

Oh! I forgot to mention that I wound up putting the dynamo version of the Spanninga Pimento on the rear rack. Thin, unobtrusive, and sharp looking. Just have to sneak the wiring under the rack when I get a chance.

I'll post a photo when I take a rear-angle shot of the bike.

-Kurt

jackbombay

I love putting a nice set of cranks on an old Raleigh!

This is a Raleigh Sprite, not a Sports, but, campy record crank with the little ring removed, I did have to make some aluminum block spacers to get the chain guard to fit, but I love the look of the 53 tooth ring under the chain guard!

cudak888 

I've always found that 53T ring on your Sprite quite an impressive feat. Didn't even realize until now that you put spacers under the guard (the picture angle has always hid it) though it explains how you were able to fit that monster!

I went for the stock 46T ring size just to ensure no issues. I probably could have stepped it up to the 1950's standard and used a 48T, but given that it took a month for this crank to arrive, I figured I wouldn't press my luck. I do want to put a silver guard from a 1975/76 Sports on this thing though. The later one that's currently on the bike looks downright awful.

I just noticed - that's some significant Schwalbe meats under it. Has that thing been 650B'ed?

-Kurt

jackbombay

Here is a pic of one of the spacers, a solid block of aluminum with 2 holes drilled and tapped to 5x1, the chain guard got lifted far enough that the holes were not near each other, I also did some "fine tuning" of the chain guard placement by bending the tabs on the frame and the guard slightly.



46T ring under a Raleigh chain guard will always look great to me!

Yep, 650b, As long as I was buying rims and spokes I figured I'd try to "future proof" it, and I got a big order of parts at wholesale prices through a buddy for this project and another one... Those are 41c tires, and they are a very snug fit, and that is with some tweaking of the fenders, I had it set up like that for some gravel touring, that didn't come together this year due to Covid, so I pulled the gravel tires and went to a 38c asphalt tire and am notably happier with it for its every day townie use. The rims are Pacenti Brevet rims, and the current tires are Vee tire co Speedsters, https://www.modernbike.com/product-2...hoCcowQAvD_BwE

cudak888 

Is the upper spacer offset? I figure the front tab made the seattube tab move forward quite a bit.

I was about to ask about fork clearance. After putting ISO 559 1.95's on a SPIN made for EA3's, it's opened my eyes to just how limiting the Raleigh frame is in this respect. Not that I wasn't aware of it, but it's something when you can go straight from an EA3 to effectively a balloon tire without batting an eye (provided you have provisions for discs, rollers or drums).

The ridiculous price of 650B's have kept them off all but one machine that I'm building at the moment - that and the lack of affordable used rims out there. I went the VO route only because I was lucky enough to get the 32/32's cheap. I don't think I could justify them for a Sports. Half of the motivation for this project were those aluminum EA3's too. I don't think I would have considered this project otherwise.

-Kurt

merziac

Oldschool carb clean, Berrymans, Gumout, foamy, soapy type, not the kind that evaporates will take it off, maybe judiciously enough not to hurt whats underneath. I always start out with less than I think will do it and increase with need, I can usually get stubborn paint transfer off of cars without compromising the good paint underneath, if I'm careful then it shines right back up with Meguiars fine cut cleaner/wax.

Sharpie coverup could show what it will look like if you take it off, maybe leave some of the lightening bolt to look like an "S" for Sports, 1x single ring or Sturmey.

jackbombay

It is a bit offset, I am running a 24t cog on the back so I had to move the rear of the chain guard up the seat stay a bit, which pushed the whole thing forward, it was all a "perfect accident" really.

The back of the rear fender took the most tinkering, and I have about a 1/4" on either side of the tire at the chain stays, but the fork was pretty tight too.

Yea, 650b rim brake rims are uncommon for sure, even getting wholesale pricing on most of the bits for my Sprite, it still ended up fairly expensive, but it has an S5 hub and I ride it almost every day, so I'm happy with the cost.

Aluminum rims on a 3 speed really make them so nice, the expense only hurts once, the light wheel set provides smiles forever!

cudak888 

That's the one nice thing about the 1977+ Raleigh fenders. They widened the stays at the exit from the fender - significantly. It doesn't make that much sense with EA3's, but I can see it working with 650B's.

Closest thing I've had on a Sports are the stainless rims on my '51. After 15+ years, this will be my first EA3 Sports with aluminum rims, even though I've gone through a gazillion Rigidas and Super Champions on the road bikes.

I have pushed the limits of the lightweight experience though, as the bars formerly from this are on one of my '75 Professionals at the moment. Talk about a sporty Sports - this combination deserves a LOT more recognition for being super comfortable, yet very zippy.

The geometry might not be perfectly dialed in for upright bars, but the fact was that I was making e-bike pace on this thing on its first test ride. I wasn't even trying to do that.



Still looking for that front Record caliper...

-Kurt

jackbombay

The first three speed I owed was a Hercules with 27" Super Champions on it with Specialized tri cross tires, I liked that bike so much that I've built up several since then with nice wheel sets, generally 700c, which doesn't leave much room for tires, but you can squeeze a 28c in the fenders, the Sprite 650b was new to me, and makes for a great townie.

I love it! Thats one high performance townie!

cudak888 

It'd be better if it was a '74 with eyelets. Can't do jack with a bike that doesn't have a rack, doesn't have fenders for the wet, and doesn't have an IGH. The Nuovo Record rear mech is particularly a useless PITA for the constant stop-and-go of commuting. But it looks good

I wouldn't mind throwing full Dura-Ace 7200 on it. Black-knuckle RD and brakes too. Haven't seen a '75 Pro built up like that.

-Kurt

cudak888 

Went over it with mineral spirits, acetone, and liquid carb cleaner...zero effect on it!

This stuff is tough. Also appears to have a 3D effect on it; it's not solid silver. Closeups later.

-Kurt

merziac

Huh, ok , well I have used the good stuff and never failed to get anything off. It may be some kind of powder coat or embossing so a different animal.

FWIW, when I have something really stubborn, I use Motorcraft PM-2 carb cleaner which I usually keep on hand, it seems to work even better than the others. You have to get it at the dealer so its not cheap and some states don't have it cause its too nasty.

If its that tough you might want to let it sit with a puddle and keep adding until it softens up.

Not sure what you mean by liquid, its all liquid whether spray or in a can, it takes the non evaporative type for the tough to get off.stuff.

I took the "RECORD" off a modern version Campy HS, the imprint was thin and still took a lot cleaner, elbow grease and work to get it off.

cudak888 

Should have clarified - liquid as in "not-in-a-pressurized can."

I don't know what type of application these are; first time I've come across anything this tough. The drive side arm transfer is only silver, but the non-drive-side has that 3D shadow bevel effect in it:









I figure anything this tough would come off with the paint, so I might leave them as-is - or strip them entirely and have them repainted in the same black finish using the remainder of 2-pack paint left over from the Twenty.

-Kurt

jackbombay

Sand it all off and leave the side of the crank silver?