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Was looking for one Raleigh Twenty, now I have two

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Was looking for one Raleigh Twenty, now I have two

Old 01-02-23, 12:56 PM
  #1  
PhilFo 
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Bikes: 1956 Rudge Sports; 1983 Univega Alpina Uno; 1981 Miyata 610; 1973 Raleigh Twenty; 1994 Breezer Lightning XTR; V4 Yuba Mundo aka "The Schlepper"; 1987 Raleigh "The Edge" Mountain Trials; 1952 R.O. Harrison "Madison"

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Was looking for one Raleigh Twenty, now I have two

A few months ago I had the idea to get a folding bike in order to get a ride in before and after work during the commute with my significant other. She was working at a hospital in the same healthcare network as myself, but about 2 miles away. I was going to throw a folding bike in the back of our tiny Ford Fiesta, park in the hospital structure, then ride up to my work.

So, I found a 1973 (Sturmey hub age) green Raleigh Twenty and set about to customizing it. Wheels were 406 and the bike wouldn't stop even with new Kool Stop pads. Of course, I began by wanting to replace the wheels with alloy rims, so I chose a set of Rhyno Lites and I wanted a dynamo hub, so I pulled the trigger on a Sturmey XL-FDD with the 90mm drum brake. Might be too much drum strength for this fork, but we'll cross that bridge when we get there. I figured that I'll go with drum brakes all around , so the rear hub is a RXL-RD3. The rear triangle is going to be respaced to 135mm soon. I found a really cheap Sturmey seatpost mount shifter, and decided to use that instead of the handlebar shifter in order to simplify the cable routing from the front to the rear of the bike. Got a long seatpost and stuck a Cambium C67 on it which is awesome for the upright position. I got a long riser threaded/threadless adapter and stuck on a Redshift Shockstop stem I had to take up the harsh bumps from the 20" wheels and Philly streets. Lighting is all Busch & Muller. I swapped out the crankset for a Williams Cottered 5-bolt in case I want to turn this into a double using Stronglight or VO rings.

Well, after I gathered up all the parts for this bike, stripped it and began the build, I thought it would be nice to have two of them in case we both want to take the car someplace and then ride around (we have family in NYC, so it would be handy). My old employer got me in touch with a former customer whose bikes I've worked on before and he happened to have a near-mint 1971 R20 (root beer) he wanted to sell for not too much. I bit on the offer which came with a few other British bits and bobs for our pair of Rudge 3 speeds.

Root Beer R20 will eventually get an alloy set of 451 wheels. I swapped in a set of NOS Weinmann/DiaCompe 750 centerpull calipers and some salmon pads for better stopping power on the chrome rims. I think this bike will be getting the Cambium C67 and I'm going to put a C19 on the Green Machine.

So then over the month of December, the significant other took a job offer which is very close to home, doesn't require carpooling and now we have two more nice bikes, both of which can fit in the back of the hatchback egg car if we want.

And so it goes; I was looking for one bike and wound up with two.
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Old 01-02-23, 09:09 PM
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kraftwerk 
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Bikes: 2011 BMC Race Machine / 2012 BMC Road Machine / Trek 2300 / '90's Merlin/ '70's Raleigh 20/ Ti-'swift' folder / Erickson w/S&S couplers

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Now you can switch the Green back with the Brown front ! ...and vice versa.
Always wanted to do that.
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BMC Race Machine / BMC Team Machine / Rossin Record / 80's Pinarello Traviso / Merlin MTB / Raleigh "Folding 20" / Ti-Swift (!)
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Old 01-02-23, 09:21 PM
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PhilFo 
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Bikes: 1956 Rudge Sports; 1983 Univega Alpina Uno; 1981 Miyata 610; 1973 Raleigh Twenty; 1994 Breezer Lightning XTR; V4 Yuba Mundo aka "The Schlepper"; 1987 Raleigh "The Edge" Mountain Trials; 1952 R.O. Harrison "Madison"

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Originally Posted by kraftwerk
Now you can switch the Green back with the Brown front ! ...and vice versa.
Always wanted to do that.
That's a cool idea. Green rear triangle, brown headtube, green fork. I happen to have an extra green fork as well...
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Old 01-02-23, 09:22 PM
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kraftwerk 
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Bikes: 2011 BMC Race Machine / 2012 BMC Road Machine / Trek 2300 / '90's Merlin/ '70's Raleigh 20/ Ti-'swift' folder / Erickson w/S&S couplers

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Lucky guy! Do it and post a photo.
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BMC Race Machine / BMC Team Machine / Rossin Record / 80's Pinarello Traviso / Merlin MTB / Raleigh "Folding 20" / Ti-Swift (!)
Erikson w/C&C couplers / Trek's: 2300, 1200, 990 / Jamis 'Sputnik'

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