cudak888 

Good news - the Michelin World Tour tires have arrived (and also some reproduction grips from @kohl57 - to be installed once the bar is taken care of) from the land of Gazelles, Koga-Miyatas, and @JaccoW. It's nice to be able to get a pair of quality EA3's these days with a sensible tread pattern.



Now that's a proper retrogrouch tread pattern!




Also noticed the rear tube has a branded Dilletric patch on it. Holds air fine. Unfortunately, the original front tube is leaking.



And some mockups! Fender stays haven't been adjusted yet.















-Kurt

cudak888 

Two more:





-Kurt

JaccoW

This scream "KMC gold chain" to me.

cudak888 

If it was open, or closed?

That's the original Perry chain, so I'm not changing it out on principle of the build. I am debating whether I want to fine-tune the rear wheel position by installing a half link, or increasing the rear cog size. Still, that doesn't seem to match the spirit of what I'm doing, so I'll probably just try some light reshaping and positioning of the rear fender.

-Kurt

cudak888 

Dunked the handlebars in an oxalic bath last weekend.



Dug up some suitable caps to protect the grips:





A look at the 1950's era "Pat.No" stem - before TI slapped Sir Walter all over everything:



The result with @kohl57's reproduction grips look great. Interesting to compare this bar with the nearly identical bar I did with the same grips ~15 years ago:





A comparison of the correct early 1950's sleeved Raleigh bar, and the slightly later mid-1950's bar that the '51 wears currently:



-Kurt

knittykitty

Really enjoying this restoration, looks great! I'm really impressed by how well some of these parts are cleaning up. It's making me want to pull out my mom's old Robin Hood Sports 3 Speed again.

Narhay

Very nice. Those michelin world tour tires were worlds better than the Kendas in the 500+km I rode on the tan wall version but I always wanted to try the panaracer col de la vie 650A tires.

I used a half link to get the fender line proper and I would recommend it here too.

cudak888 

I couldn't get the chaincase accessories polished up before the sun went down, but snapped some crappy, dynamic-range-challenged photos anyway.









That saddle reminds me - I need to nag @rhm to see what he'd do to recurve that flared edge. I think I've heard that one needs to dunk it in water, then reshape the area? Not sure. Will pick his brain first before screwing anything up.

And yes - Specialized tubes are still fully threaded, even in the EA3 size. Perfect for the front replacement.

I'm not an anti-China type (heck, the Michelins are Chinese, IIRC), but I'm sick of low-end EA3 tires from Wanda, Kendas, and Chen ****e Tire & Banana Peel. I haven't ridden these Michelins yet, but everything about their fit and feel remind me of the Schwalbe Delta Cruisers I have on the '51 - which I'm very pleased with. I suspect the Michelins will ride similarly.

I've held the Col de la Vie's in my hands before. Very thin and light, like a Pasela. This is a guess, but I'd put a bet to it that they're the zippiest of any 650A/EA3 tire out there. I'd also guess that they probably don't last too long - or at least are subject to similar wear as the Paselas.

These are definitely a skinwall tires designed for a light bike with hooked beads. They'll probably do fine on old Raleigh rims, but I really think they're a bit over the top a tire for the application.

As for the chain, you've convinced me. I'll do the half link.

-Kurt

cudak888 

Daytime pictures. Didn't have a chance to get some of the corners of the chaincase polished just the way I wanted, but I can always get to it by hand once the build is dialed in and ready for uber glitz.

















I think I have the wrong nut on this brake pad. Gotta fix that.





-Kurt

cudak888 

Not much to report, but a neighbor down the street who also tinkers with 3-speeds was able to hook me up with a replacement, braze-on pulley wheel:




After an oxalic acid bath:





-Kurt

clubman 

Quite the neighbourhood.

cudak888 

Not bad when the neighborhood beats both eBay and the forum for parts access

-Kurt

cudak888 

Brought two of the other Sports out for funsies:







-Kurt

cudak888 

Finally made a bit of progress with this one today.

Thanks to a care package from @nlerner for this and the '52 Superbe I'm building, I now have the correct fulcrum clip on the 3-speed cable. It only took three or four tries out of my parts bin and eBay before finding Neal's correct one.



I also started soldering the cable ends I'd bought off eBay. I tried doing them the nice way...but this way meant the cable isn't splayed at the end of the stop for safety's sake:



I gave it some thought and then decided I'd rather have ugly ends done right than risk a cable failure.



After solder, but before finishing to remove the burrs. I wound up re-doing the front cable three times before getting it right, so it wound up looking much better than this then done.



Sure enough, I didn't capture the final one until I installed it.



Either way, it's back together now. On that note, I completely failed to ask if anyone happened to have two things - a spare brake lever nut, which was one of the few bits of hardware too rusty to save off the original bike...



...and a replacement screw and nut for the headlamp mount. Like an idiot, I bagged everything and somehow still managed to misplace these.



-Kurt

noglider 

It's a very handsome bike, shaping up well.

cudak888 

Polished up the headlight (nope, still haven't found that missing nut, washer and bolt that holds down the assembly) and fitted it today, along with the wiring. Decided to take the opportunity to snap some beauty shots.











One of the hook terminals will need to be replaced with an original; the one still on the wire is a generic replacement. I do have the missing one though; just needs to be re-soldered to the wire.







Soldered cable end came out quite nice, even at the bottom.






-Kurt

CleanClassics

Wow that looks really clean. Nice work!

Reynolds 

This is a true restoration IMO!

pastorbobnlnh 

Kurt, what an amazing transformation of the old NH Sports. I had forgotten that even though the paint was long overdue for a cleaning and polish, that underneath the grime it was still in great shape. What a beauty!

I guess the SA hub can celebrate a 70th birthday come December.

BFisher

Kurt, the bike looks outstanding!

I'd been looking through this thread and wouldn't you know an early fifties Raleigh Sports (23"frame with full chain case!) popped up for sale not all that far from me. Made the trip and the deal, and now it's in my repair stand. I will be looking through this thread again as I proceed. Thanks for posting this restoration.

cudak888 

Fantastic find! Now you're obligated to post pictures of it

What year? Any indication if it was brought over, or if it's a US bike?

-Kurt

BFisher

No idea on import status. You'll know better than I. Looks like a '51. The saddle is in remarkably good shape for age. A small spot was test polished on the surface rusted rim and the result was really good.

noglider 

@BFisher, you're very lucky.

Someone here on BF said -- and therefore it must be true -- that the enclosed chainguard brought the bike's weight above a certain point such that it kicked in import tariffs. This was, according to the folklore, because it raised the value of the bike. So this is likely brought over by an owner.

Do folks know if this is true?

cudak888 

That's going to polish out as nice or better than this '52. You've caught a good one!

The rims should clean up well; you will have chrome wear on the braking surfaces, but it's just normal and something one has to live with. If you are up for completely de-lacing them for cleaning, an OA bath will make the cleanup much easier than going over the whole thing with bronze wool and fingers. I've considered making a burnishing device that could save the pain on the fingers - just spin the wheel in the truing stand until 65% clean, then work between the spokes. Only recently have I considered how much I could use such a setup right now

That lore has been around since the Oldroads.com days, and I highly doubt that we're getting the whole story with that explanation. Also, BITD only weight was cited; the monetary value being a factor is new to me.

I'd want to see the import tariff rules from each decade, then see if they cycle back to the bikes and add up to the average weight of built examples.

This said, I've seen too many all-original, full-chaincase Sports in the northeast - like BFisher's find, or the '52 here (original to NH), or my '51 (original to NY) for the weight theory to apply to Sports models. I've come across a few Superbes which are likely original to the US as well.

Personally, I think there might be truth to there being a weight tariff, but I I have my own theory (which is an educated guess, so take it with a grain of salt):

A: The weight tariff applied only to 28" rod brake models.
B. Because of A, Raleigh made the decision to sell a stripped-down version of the Raleigh Police model - which did NOT have a chaincase in the first place. It also usually came with an AG huband lighting system, but notice how that's rarely seen on post-TI era, US rod brake bikes. If I had to guess, that's my theory why the chaincases went bye-bye. The lighting just didn't get the same attention.

'56 catalog shows the Raleigh Police, by the way: https://threespeedhub.com/wp-content/...og-1956-UK.pdf

-Kurt

cudak888 

I don't have a Tourist chainguard for comparison, but here are the weights that my shop scale give for each. I'd be better off using a postal scale, but I wasn't aiming for scientific accuracy either.

26" Sports-style chainguard - 0.78lbs:



26" Sports-style chaincase - 2.20lbs:



28" roadster (rod brake, bolt-on stay) chaincase (without rear elbow) - 2.10lbs:



26" Sports-style case vs. 28" bolt-on-stay case:



-Kurt