Raleigh Sport Light Roadster

[hiero2]

At our transfer station (used to be the town dump, but now everything is recycling) I saw an old and fugly bike. Nasty dirty with grime. Plastic handgrips bubbled and melted into something so repulsive I did not want to touch them.

Then I noticed the hubs. They had oil-hole steel spring clips. The only hubs I knew of that used these were old Campies - but I was pretty sure these were not Campies. But I figured to take a closer look, as even a copycat hub from that era might have some quality and value. And I noticed something even more remarkable. The rear hub was a singlespeed / fixed gear flip-flop. And, get this, the front wheel was laced radially, stock. A stock radially spoked wheel. Man, amazed me!

So I looked to see if I could identify what brand the bike was, and there was a barish shape similar to a Raleigh heron headbadge. Ok, I know I'm going to take it home.

I do have a question, before I continue my little tale. I'm wondering if bustedknuckle or guisseppi M (or anyone else) have ever seen a singlespeed OEM Raleigh like this? I can only find mention of various SA hubs, although the 1951 Raleigh catalogue shows a Sport Light Roadster, and mentions the dead-stock most basic option is 14 pounds, 13 shillings and 5 pence and no mention of any gearing. The upgrades have SA hubs.
http://www.sheldonbrown.com/retroraleighs/catalogs/1951-england/pages/11-sports.html

Now, on with the tale. After much cleaning of ancient encrusted grime, I find the hubs are Raleigh branded. Further cleaning revealed the remains of a top tube decal - "Sport Light Roadster". The pedals are block style, Raleigh branded. The spoke heads have an R stamp. The singlepeed is Raleigh Industries. There is one remaining butterfly hub nut. The ends appear to form an R. There is a front light mount on the headset, with the Raleigh heron cutout. The cranks are steel cottered 3 piece, with the Raleigh heron cutout chainwheel.

It looks to me that it is a pretty good bet this was one of the Raleighs produced while Raleigh still made EVERYTHING on their bikes in-house. Which means it was built to last 100 years.

I am going to continue cleaning up. All the moving bits actually move - and I think atm, that the bearings may all still be good. Although it is coated with crusty dust, it was apparently not exposed to the elements. I'll have to check and see if I can still true the spokes - based on what I can find, these are supposedly stainless steel spokes. But this many years down the road, they have rust. If the nipples are locked up (which I would expect, truthfully), I would have to do some respoking to put this back on the road. A new saddle, some brake cables and pads, and a new chain, not to mention plenty of oil, and this thing could be roadworthy again.

 

[JackRabbitSlims]

can you take some pics of what you have and post them up??

 

[King Boonen]

PICTURES!!!! NOW!!!! Sounds awesome

 

[avanti]

In the UK most bikes had an oil hole in each hub and in the bottom bracket until the late 50s as I recall.

 

[hiero2]

Re:

PICTURES!!!! NOW!!!! Sounds awesome

Awesome? Oy, you don't believe me when I said fugly? Ok, ok, I will try to do some photos for the before. Although it is too late for a complete "before" - I swear - I put on latex gloves to get started on this puppy. The original Brooks saddle had been replaced with an American Mesinger plastic mattress pos. Ewww.

I mentioned it appeared to have been stored out of the elements. Here was one confirmation - the saddle tightening bolts were quite rusted - but not frozen. After who knows how many years in storage? I expect the spoke nipples will be frozen, but just maybe not - just maybe.

The BB does have an oil hole - on the left side. Which, according to Sheldon's retro-Raleigh guide, should put it early 50's at least. As for UK hubs of that era generally having oil holes, I would not be surprised, but that definitely surpasses my level of knowledge! The earliest models I knew were from the 60's, and oil holes were gone by then.

 

[hiero2]

The unglorious whole. Ladie's model, obviously. And the saddle and handgrips are gone - unfortunately. They GREATLY added to the overall "zombie" looks. Ewwww.


The hub and oil-hole cover that got my attention.


The heron light bracket.


The heron chainring.


Some spots are pretty rough. You can find some nice versions of this bike - or similar - and much nicer - on ebay. But I thought I might just see if this can be salvaged to be ridable.

 

[King Boonen]

Sweet!! It's going to need a lot of work but it certainly looks salvageable from the photos.

 

[hiero2]

That's what I'm thinking - looks rebuildable. Pedals are rebuildable type - and move freely enough. All the bearings feel ok - but I'll know more when I take them apart. The frame supposedly had some sort of rust-proofing coating. I see some spots of rust on the outer surfaces, but nothing too bad. I'm guessing that the crankset and headlight mount were originally chromed. Well - the chroming is gone. The headlight bracket may not be particularly salvageable. It looks pretty rusted. The gooseneck will be useable, as are the handlebars.

One worst case scenario would be having to replace the spokes. Not because of the work - because new spokes would be relatively expensive.

Well, we will see. If it gets into too much work, I'll clean up the hubs and crankset and put them on Ebay.

 

[avanti]

I believe you could remove the rust from most parts and get them replated (perhaps not with chrome). The cranks are at an odd angle to each other but it looks like at least one cotter pin is not correctly installed. [Installing cotter pins was the job I hated most with my first bikes.]

 

[hiero2]

I believe you could remove the rust from most parts and get them replated (perhaps not with chrome). The cranks are at an odd angle to each other but it looks like at least one cotter pin is not correctly installed. [Installing cotter pins was the job I hated most with my first bikes.]

Holy Cranksets, Batman! I did not even notice that, but right you are! Shoot, sure hope I don't have a set of bunged crankarms! That would change things.

My original idea was just to clean up the hubset anyway, and see what they would bring on Ebay. But that was when I was thinking I was dealing with a low-end bicycle, and before I realized that this was a Raleigh from a time when even the low-end models had great intrinsic quality. Heavy - but kind of like those old Schwinn Varsity frames - bulletproof for generations. I'll update this in a week or two when I've done some work on it.

 

[JackRabbitSlims]

search for oxalic acid, commonly known as wood bleach, it comes in crystalline form

a little pinch dissolved in a hot water solution works wonders if you let it sit overnight

i have had success in the past with small chrome bits etc

 

[avanti]

[quotehiero2]
Holy Cranksets, Batman! I did not even notice that, but right you are! Shoot, sure hope I don't have a set of bunged crankarms! That would change things.
.........................................................
[/quote]

My guess is that one of the cotter pins is reversed.

 

[hiero2]

Update.

Looks like I have to find a new online photo storage solution.

Took off the crankset yesterday. Avanti - you were right about the cotter pin. One nut was missing, and the cotter was no longer seated, allowing movement relative to the axle. I've found a much more current Hercules (a lesser Raleigh brand) that I maybe can use for parts like cotter pins.

The cotter does not appear to be damaged, though. But won't know for sure until everything has been cleaned and reassembled - as I am not going to put them back together before that just to test the fit. Like you said, not a fav job. Too hard to install and remove. But my old copy of Glenn's bicycle manual came in handy for the first time in many moons!

And oxalic acid is on my shopping list. I'll give the chromed parts a soak and see what happens.

 

[JackRabbitSlims]

Looks like I have to find a new online photo storage solution.

http://imgur.com

 

[hiero2]

A little more progress today: the spoke nipples are not frozen, and can still be trued. Although, I am not sure how much good the spokes are - some have a lot of rust deterioration. However, the rust is all in the middle, which sees the least spoke breakage, and spoke breakage is very rarely catastrophic, anyway, afaik.

And, the seat post is not frozen. Wow. Two wows, actually. For both the spokes and the seat post.

I looked up oxalic acid for how to use it, and I immediately discovered a controversy. Oxalic acid can be toxic. So it seems most of the "other side" either favor plain old vinegar, or acetic acid. So I said to myself, "Vinegar????? I've never heard of using vinegar to remove rust!" To me, removing rust, even with naval jelly, was known to be a laborious and onerous task, involving much wire brushing, abrasive scrubbing and scraping, etc. But all three methods have amazing before and after photos - absolutely amazing. I am going to check this out more, for sure.

So, I'm thinking, "Hey, I don't even have to go to the store for vinegar, I keep a gallon or two in the basement for various cleaning duties. " And, this morning my microwave starts messing up because its floor has some rust spots. It has a turntable, see? And the turntable stops turning when the little wheels get too dirty or the rust builds up too much. I bought some special enamel to paint the spots after I removed the rust, but I've been putting off the task of removing the rust for years. Literally - years. So I said to myself, "perfect opportunity to test!" And I pour vinegar on to the microwave bottom.

A couple of hours later, I am looking at cleaner metal. A-effing-mazing. I am impressed. Supposedly, at proper concentrations, all three of these methods take more like a day than 10 minutes - but I just saved a heck of a bunch of scrubbing, so I am properly impressed. The crankset is, at this very moment, soaking in vinegar. If the vinegar doesn't work, I will go to the oxalic acid. Based on internet info, it seems to present some hazards - but kinda at the level of the hazards of using bleach. Sure it can kill ya, but you take reasonable precautions, and it does a damn good job for ya.

I did notice one possible issue. The fork is, well, warped. Not dinged, but about a 1/2 inch or so out of true. Like the bike got whacked in an accident and the forks bent a bit. I see no other damage, so I'm thinking not much problem cold-setting the fork arms. It will need some care, but should not be technically difficult. It is only as difficult as cold-setting a steel frame always is.