EltonFrog
Legendary Member
Not everyone’s cup of tea, but as there’s the square root of feck all else to do at the moment I thought I’d take this old shitter apart and rebuild it. It cost a tenner.
Today I’m going to start the refurbishment of a Raleigh Twenty I bought locally for £10.00. Its a basic version of the Twenty the ‘Alpha’ that was supplied without a stand, a rear rack, dynamo lights or front shopping basket. The rack on my example was either added later or a dealer added item.
This bike has aluminium unpainted mudguards, Sturmey Archer three speed gear and partial internal cable routing and that is about it for interesting features, it was also a very nice colour originally until Old Father Time and the weather got it’s scrawny hands on it.
Heron Logo
One feature I like on Raleigh of this period is the Heron logo stamped on the chain ring.
My aim is to clean, service it, remove as much rust as possible and not spend any money on it, however I have ‘previous’ on that statement and costs sometimes runaway with me. Time will tell.
So far then, I have managed to dismantle every nut and bolt on the bike, starting with the front brake caliper, because there is a wire device on the stem in the head-tube that is attached to the bolt on the front brake that stops the handlebar stem from being pulled out too far, so to remove the handle bars and stem the brake caliper has to come out first.
There’s quite a bit of rust to deal with.
The wire that stops the handlebar stem from being pulled out too far, a safety feature.
Getting the pedals off can be a pain.
Part of the top tube, don’t forget the ball bearing might drop out. Don’t ask me how I know that!
One of the things that is often very difficult to do on these old bikes is to remove the cotter pins and bottom bracket bearing cups, however on this occasion I had no such issues, everything came off the bike quite easily for a change.
Almost there, just the seat post left.
The saddle was totally shot, top cover split, plastic underneath cracked and missing. In the bin
A box of bits ready for the real work.
And now the work begins, cleaning and polishing. Maybe tomorrow, if it’s nice out.
Today I’m going to start the refurbishment of a Raleigh Twenty I bought locally for £10.00. Its a basic version of the Twenty the ‘Alpha’ that was supplied without a stand, a rear rack, dynamo lights or front shopping basket. The rack on my example was either added later or a dealer added item.
This bike has aluminium unpainted mudguards, Sturmey Archer three speed gear and partial internal cable routing and that is about it for interesting features, it was also a very nice colour originally until Old Father Time and the weather got it’s scrawny hands on it.
One feature I like on Raleigh of this period is the Heron logo stamped on the chain ring.
My aim is to clean, service it, remove as much rust as possible and not spend any money on it, however I have ‘previous’ on that statement and costs sometimes runaway with me. Time will tell.
So far then, I have managed to dismantle every nut and bolt on the bike, starting with the front brake caliper, because there is a wire device on the stem in the head-tube that is attached to the bolt on the front brake that stops the handlebar stem from being pulled out too far, so to remove the handle bars and stem the brake caliper has to come out first.
There’s quite a bit of rust to deal with.
Part of the top tube, don’t forget the ball bearing might drop out. Don’t ask me how I know that!
One of the things that is often very difficult to do on these old bikes is to remove the cotter pins and bottom bracket bearing cups, however on this occasion I had no such issues, everything came off the bike quite easily for a change.
The saddle was totally shot, top cover split, plastic underneath cracked and missing. In the bin
And now the work begins, cleaning and polishing. Maybe tomorrow, if it’s nice out.
