A Raleigh Twenty Refurbishment.

[EltonFrog]

Rather than load individual loose ball bearings in with tweezers, which I find a bit of a faff, I use a different approach. What I do is fill the bearing cups with as much vehicle wheel bearing grease as I can physically cram in, then load the balls into the cups with my fingers and spread more grease on top of them before fitting to the bike. If the fixed cup won't come out of the frame I still fill the cup with grease the same way but load the balls through the axle hole from underneath. I have an old cloth or bit of blanket under my workmate, so if I drop a ball it will stick to the material and not bounce away and disappear. Searching for AWOL ball bearings during a rebuild is incredibly irritating, and I really don't have the temperament for it!

Good advice.

I’ve come to a pause on this project, I’m waiting for parts.

 

[Gunk]

Rather than load individual loose ball bearings in with tweezers, which I find a bit of a faff, I use a different approach. What I do is fill the bearing cups with as much vehicle wheel bearing grease as I can physically cram in, then load the balls into the cups with my fingers and spread more grease on top of them before fitting to the bike. If the fixed cup won't come out of the frame I still fill the cup with grease the same way but load the balls through the axle hole from underneath. I have an old cloth or bit of blanket under my workmate, so if I drop a ball it will stick to the material and not bounce away and disappear. Searching for AWOL ball bearings during a rebuild is incredibly irritating, and I really don't have the temperament for it!

I use the same method especially if I can’t remove the fixed cup.

 

[Chris S]

If I haven't removed the fixed side's cup I just stick them on the spindle with grease.

 

[12boy]

All spoken like gents who have been around the ball bearing block a time or two. I find a magnet on a rod great for removing loose ball bearings as well. I like loose, not caged, when possible, and like to buy new ones since they are inexpensive.

 

[EltonFrog]

Well, I’m getting near the end of this little project.

Started doing some more re-building of the bike today. I’m still waiting on caged bearings for the rear wheel so I thought I’d get on with some thing else, at least I could start on putting the tyre on the front wheel.

The tyres look a bit grubby and could really do with replacing but I don’t want to spend the money yet, so using some Swarfega like product, a brass wire brush and a damp cloth I cleaned up one of the tyres, I’m very pleased the way the whitewall have brightened up.

You can see in the photo the difference in the two tyres.

The next job I undertook was adding the cable outers and cables, the front brake cables were easy If coubut the rear and gear cables went through internal routing in the frame, one was quite easy to the but the gear cable took blumen ages. I was well pleased when it finally went through the holes. The last couple of jobs were connecting the brakes, putting the rim tape, tube and tyre back on the front wheel, then putting that on the bike, connecting the front mudguard stays to the wheel axle ( what the feck were Raleigh thinking with that cheap and nasty design?), then the last job was to clean up and fit the handlebar grips.

When the bearings come for the rear wheel, I’ll be able to finish it.

 

[Gunk]

That’s starting to look like a proper bike!

 

[SkipdiverJohn]

connecting the front mudguard stays to the wheel axle
( what the feck were Raleigh thinking with that cheap and nasty design?) View attachment 514042

Employing that method of fitting the mudguards allowed Raleigh to use one-piece swaged fork blades rather than have to braze a dropout into the end of every one. When you consider how many Twenty family bikes were built, that would have added up to a lot of money. The whole Twenty design was built to a price; look at the pressed steel brake bridge and the method of joining the frame tubes. Swaged forks and stays are a quite common form of manufacture on lower budget bikes, especially 3-speeds. plenty of vintage 28" roadsters were made with swaged frame tubes. My old Puch roadster fork is exactly the same, and it doesn't cause any problem with the wheels coming loose.

 

[12boy]

Lookin goood dude! Meticulous work.

 

[EltonFrog]

Lookin goood dude! Meticulous work.

Thanks, not quite meticulous, looking back there’s a couple bits I need to redo or check once the rear wheel is on but it’s coming together.

 

[FrankCrank]

The beloved (to some) Brompton also has a swaged fork, so it's in good company.

When I did my R20 modernisation a while back, I was constantly saying to myself 'why the f**k did they do that'

They brought new meaning to the word 'thrift' - unbelievable levels of penny pinching. When you look at the volumes being sold, even saving a ha-penny a bike soon adds up I guess

 

[SkipdiverJohn]

The beloved (to some) Brompton also has swagged forks, so it's in good company.

When I did my R20 modernisation a while back, I was constantly saying to myself 'why the f**k did they do that'

They brought new meaning to the word 'thrift' - unbelievable levels of penny pinching. When you look at the volumes being sold, even saving a ha-penny a bike soon adds up I guess

Good point about the Brompton - a bike which has a pretty cheaply constructed frame, especially when you consider the price of a complete one!
The thing is with the likes of small wheel folders and shoppers, the mass market is a highly price-sensitive one, and there were other competing products out there for Raleigh's customers to choose from. Second-division makers such as Elswick also built passable 20" shoppers, plus there were the real cheapo catalogue bikes. Raleigh had to build a shopper bike at a cost that enabled them to entice their mass-market customer base to purchase, and at the same time make a profit, rather than a loss on each sale. Dawes had the better-engineered Kingpin to offer the quality end of the market, so there was no point in Raleigh trying to outdo Dawes, as then neither manufacturer would have sold enough to be profitable.

 

[EltonFrog]

A little update

The caged bearings finally arrived so I was able to put the drive side bearings in place and re-assemble the various nuts, springs, washers and locking nuts .

The greased caged bearing with pressed cap back in place.

Re-assembling the drive side first the L17 clutch spring.

Then the L16 Driver with caged bearings greased, with the K506z axle cone with dust cap then the K47 cone lock nut.

Then I turned the wheel over to clean and service the non drive side removing nut, washer, lock ring, outer dust cup (careful not ping it off with screwdriver) caged bearing out and cleaned all the old grease off the main body, inserted new greased caged bearings and re-assembled it all.

Old non drive side caged bearing was as fecked as the drive side one.

New bearings with dust cap on

Back together, and using Sturmey Archer cone spanners I adjusted the nuts so that the wheel spins smoothly and freely.

Then it was back to the drive side and put on the dust cover the two spacers, the drive sprocket and the circlip spring, which was a real paint to get back on. I screwed in the gear toggle on just to make sure the gears worked and put a few drops of 3-in-1 oil in the port to give it a bit of lubrication.

Just got to re-align the wheel, and put the tube and tyre back on then it can go on the bike

 

[FrankCrank]

Been watching some utube vids on servicing these hubs, interesting stuff. RJ The Bike Guy and MonkeyShred in particular, their other vids are also good on restoring old bikes. That springclip always makes me nervous too, imagining it flying off into oblivion. MonkeyShred prises it back on just with his hands, like you were pressing the last bit of tire back on a rim - will try that next time.

My other R20 is languishing in the shed over there. Shame, as it would be a nice project to crack on with here, not much else to do right now. Toying with the idea of a scratch build small wheeled bike, but the heat is oppressive here - watching others doing the graft is more appealing right now

 

[SkipdiverJohn]

Toying with the idea of a scratch build small wheeled bike, but the heat is oppressive here - watching others doing the graft is more appealing right now

In that sort of heat, sitting in the shade with a cold beer in my hand is the only activity that appeals much to me!

 

[EltonFrog]

@FrankCrank , the MonkyShred video was the one I was using as a guide, that guy made putting that circlip on look easy, mine was really difficult, it took about ten minutes of faffing.