A Raleigh Twenty Refurbishment.

[EltonFrog]

I started on the front wheel yesterday, as you can see from the photos it was quite rusty and dirty. I used much the same system cleaning and polishing as I did the rear wheel, starting at the valve hole working around the wheel with wire wool, wire brush and white spirit, finishing off with Autosol chrome polish and a clean cotton cloth.

Rusty Front Wheel Hub

Speckled Rust on the Wheel Rim

Rusty Spoke Nipples.

Caked On Dry Grease and Dirt

Rust Spots on the Inside of Rim

Axle and Bearings Out

Claggy Axle

Hub Polished

Rim Polished

Removed Rust Spots

Clean Spindle / Axle

New Grease and Bearings

Shiny Wheel


Before and after photos of front wheel.
The axle and bearing races were degreased with a cloth and white spirit, the ball bearings soaked overnight in a jar of white spirit. There are supposed to be 20 balls, I only had 19, fortunately for me my neighbour who just happened to chatting to while I was out the front of my house working on the wheel told me He had some ball bearings of the 3/16th variety in an old tobacco tin. That saved me buying a load I didn’t need.

After all the cleaning was completed I set about greasing the bearing races and fitting the balls and axle, everything is running nicely. The last photo in the gallery is just the wheel offered up to see how it runs. It’s perfect.

 

[Gunk]

That’s looking great Carl

 

[Brads]

Man I really want a 20.

 

[roadrash]

@EltonFrog I know you will like this, just found this for sale for £35, sadly not local enough to collect with the current restrictions

 

[Gunk]

Where is it @roadrash ?

 

[roadrash]

@Gunk its in stockport, as much as I would like it I don't see a 60 mile round trip for a bike as essential, if ...IF its still there when restrictions are lifted then I jump on that like a tramp on a bag of chips,..... sorry for thread derail

 

[EltonFrog]

That’s looking great Carl

Ta, start putting things back together tom

Man I really want a 20.

<hypnosis >Look into my eyes. You Do Not Want a Twenty < waves hand> You Want a Dawes Kingpin </waves hand> </ end hypnosis >.

@EltonFrog I know you will like this, just found this for sale for £35, sadly not local enough to collect with the current restrictions
View attachment 512415

Nice project, you’d get thirty five queens for the front rack alone

 

[rogerzilla]

nice work!

quick question about Oxalic Acid... does come in powder form to be mixed in a liquid?

Look for Barkeeper's Friend in most general stores or hardware shops. That's what it is...you make a paste rather than a liquid.

 

[roadrash]

Nice project, you’d get thirty five queens for the front rack alone

I know,....if it was closer to home , or any other time , then it would be mine now😢

 

[FrankCrank]

If looking for a project, use searches like shopper bike, ladies bike, girls bike, vintage bike.
Some are ridiculously optimistic asking prices, occasionally a bargain crops up, then its all down to location.
Happy hunting

 

[rogerzilla]

I got mine for £10 from the Gloucester bike project about 3 years ago. Fork bent backwards but otherwise almost as new - just some paint oxidation, which cleaned up with T-Cut. I reckon it went straight into a wall on its maiden ride in 1984.

A chrome BMX fork was £13 and also gave me front V-brake bosses. I fitted a real headset (Tange Passage - cheap) and swapped most of the heavy chromed steel bits for alloy. I had a spare set of BMX-sized wheels already. Rear braking was dire with the 100mm drop caliper I had to use, but eventually I found a Sachs Duomatic hub. This gets rid of all the cables to the rear, has two speeds and a good coaster brake - all activated by pedalling backwards to a greater or lesser extent.

My only minor annoyance is that the chainline isn't quite right. The Raleigh BB (you have no option without very expensive work) and crankset put the chainring a few mm too far out relative to the sprocket. You can move spacers to line up the sprocket, but then the chain fouls the seatstay. British engineering at its finest. It can only really be solved by cutting down and retapping the BB to take a square-taper unit but this is not really a home job. I actually have BB facing and tapping tools but the word is that using them for this kind of major transformation will ruin them, especially as there are some very hard MIG welds in the BB shell.

 

[FrankCrank]

I got mine for £10 from the Gloucester bike project about 3 years ago. Fork bent backwards but otherwise almost as new - just some paint oxidation, which cleaned up with T-Cut. I reckon it went straight into a wall on its maiden ride in 1984.

A chrome BMX fork was £13 and also gave me front V-brake bosses. I fitted a real headset (Tange Passage - cheap) and swapped most of the heavy chromed steel bits for alloy. I had a spare set of BMX-sized wheels already. Rear braking was dire with the 100mm drop caliper I had to use, but eventually I found a Sachs Duomatic hub. This gets rid of all the cables to the rear, has two speeds and a good coaster brake - all activated by pedalling backwards to a greater or lesser extent.

My only minor annoyance is that the chainline isn't quite right. The Raleigh BB (you have no option without very expensive work) and crankset put the chainring a few mm too far out relative to the sprocket. You can move spacers to line up the sprocket, but then the chain fouls the seatstay. British engineering at its finest. It can only really be solved by cutting down and retapping the BB to take a square-taper unit but this is not really a home job. I actually have BB facing and tapping tools but the word is that using them for this kind of major transformation will ruin them, especially as there are some very hard MIG welds in the BB shell.

I used some homemade taps for my conversion, made from bearing cups of the standard 24TPI type, from an old klunker bike. They re-tapped the BB no problem. Would think 'proper' taps would be up to the job really. Maybe I was lucky that no weld was in the way - worth checking on yours

 

[rogerzilla]

I used some homemade taps for my conversion, made from bearing cups of the standard 24TPI type, from an old klunker bike. They re-tapped the BB no problem. Would think 'proper' taps would be up to the job really. Maybe I was lucky that no weld was in the way - worth checking on yours

Interesting. Did you cut the shell down to 68mm (or 73mm)?

 

[SkipdiverJohn]

I’ve got a huge set of bolt cutters so sorely tempted, however there’s a CCV camera bang opposite!

All you need is a high vis and plenty of front, and no-one will bat an eyelid.

 

[FrankCrank]

Interesting. Did you cut the shell down to 68mm (or 73mm)?

A quick measure, and it's around 72mm. Took a slice off the drive side only. The non-drive collar 'floats' to a certain degree, so guessing they can accommodate shell widths in the 68-73mm range, maybe a little more. The plastic collar with the cartridge had too many threads to work properly, so used a steel one off another old cartridge, perfect. Some trial and error, and luck. Anyway, a link to that build:
https://atomiczombie.com/forum/threads/franks-raleigh-twenty-build.128/