Elswick badged, Raleigh built?

[brokenbetty]

I've got a basic 5-speed touring bike badged as an Elswick Whirlwind, but I'm sure it's a low end late 70s Raleigh. Raleigh frame number, Raleigh-sized bottom bracket and Raleigh stamped on the gear lever bracket.

Weird thing is, there's a lot of info about Elswick as an older UK manufacturer, but I can't find any reference to Raleigh buying up Elswick.

Does anyone know for certain that they did?

Thanks
Liz

 

[kettle]

hi
do not know a great deal other than I had an Elswick many years ago and the LBS conformed it was a Raleigh product.
Enjoy your bit of history.

 

[Hilldodger]

I think is was 1960. Raleigh bought up a lot of makes around that time but continued with the brand names for many years.

 

[brokenbetty]

Thanks guys - now I know what sort of parts to look for.

It's made out of gaspipe, tinfoil and rust and worth about 27p, but I am fond of it.

 

[bonk man]

I used an Elswick touring bike as my winter club ride bike, it was ridiculously heavy but was incredibly comfortable, it became known as Steves Sofa

you might like this pic

 

[brokenbetty]

I used an Elswick touring bike as my winter club ride bike, it was ridiculously heavy but was incredibly comfortable, it became known as Steves Sofa

you might like this pic

Top pic

 

[juliuscaesar]

I don't think Raleigh bought up Elswick

Hello
I recently aquired an Elswick Whirlwind from a friend who was having a clear out. Anyone who wants to know what it looks like can search on Google as there's an identical bike pictured in a different discussion. Again typical Raleigh markers present such as the eyelet position on the rear drop outs and raleigh components; stem, bars, brakes, cranks etc.

From my very preliminary searches it seems that Elswick escaped the ti-bcc-raleigh take overs and mergers which resulted in the Raleigh we have today. According to Falcon Cycles history they are the same company as Elswick-Hopper merged with Falcon to become Elswick-Falcon.

I can only assume that Elswick-Hopper ordered a numer of bikes from a Raleigh manufacturer; this was not uncommon with other marques.

It's a rather attractive bike but the setup is, well, rubbish; I've never come across a heavier wheelset and everything on it is entry level. I'm in the process of stripping it down, I'll only keep the headset and bb cups to avoid having to deal with any 26tpi woes.

Liz, what are you planning to do with yours?

 

[brokenbetty]

Liz, what are you planning to do with yours?

Right now I'm commuting on it. I did the minimum to feel safe on it, which was brake pads, new cables, tubes and tyres, plus a new saddle as the original one was solid plastic (ow!)

Mine is a 19" frame with 26 X1 1/2 wheels - I'm getting a quote to have some 26" mtb-size wheels built round a dynamo hub as the bike is a little big for me - I think the smaller wheel size will make it perfect. Which means shorter cranks as well...but I have hopefully found a cottered crankset from another CC'er so I won't have to swap the BB.

Basically I'm just faffing about with it and learning a lot as I go My commute is only 6 miles so I can get away with a pretty basic bike as long as the brakes work. It's a more fun ride than my hybrid and looks very cool, in a not-at-all cool way Did I mention it's got two big flowery panniers on it?

The wheels are a bit extravagant but I reckon the wheels are a decent investment, they can go on other bikes in the future.

 

[juliuscaesar]

Cool; in the way cool kinda way. I like old steel framesets but not a big fan of gears that don't shift well (like the huret svelto that was on mine),brakes that don't work when wet and cottered cranksets; taking a nice looking old frame and putting modernising it is great for lots of reasons.

I'm building up a little project of my own as I had a fully original 60s Carlton Cobra which a nasty man in a british gas van ran over (with me still stapped in). The frame is fully chromed and had blended paint over the chrome at the lugs but following the van incident a number of components were written off, the rear stays got skewed and a fair bit of paint chipped off. I'll be stripping off the rest of the paint and cold setting the frame back and widening the rear dropouts while I'm at it. It will be a bit of a cyclocross like bike when done but will be fitting an 8 speed hub gear with a coaster brake on the rear wheel and a suspension fork for a little trail fun; I'm not aiming for a particularly lightweight end result

Have you checked that with the smaller wheels you won't have a problem with the drop from the brakes falling short? That's why I'm fitting a coaster brake on my carlton for the rear and a new fork for the front.

You should really think about replacing the cottered bottom bracket. The only reason I'd keep them would be for a restoration project. I don't know if you've fitted cotter pins before; if done well you won't need to touch them for years but if the pins don't fit well. You'll have play in the cranks pretty soon and will need to replace the pins. The easiest way to upgrade would be to change the spindle and bearings; I'm having a clearout and have one or two to spare if you are interested.

I think I'm going to upgrade the bottom bracket on my elswick and get it on ebay as I just don't have the storage space to keep it.

 

[brokenbetty]

Oh yes, after the rain yesterday I completely agree about the brakes. The other reason I'm replacing the wheels is to get rid of the steel rims.

I measured the brakes and I think there's enough drop, but the back is very tight so I'll just have to see how it goes. The nice thing about old bikes is being able to try things out without investing a lot of money.

 

[chris667]

Have you considered hub brakes? They look nice, performance is much better than steel rims and they can go for thousands of miles with no attention at all. Perfect for a commuter bike.

I had a pair for sale but they're spoken for now, but they turn up on the classifieds here and Ebay.

 

[chris667]

Oh, and one other thing, if your bike is really a Raleigh in disguise. Your wheels may have narrower axles than you find with modern hubs.

 

[brokenbetty]

I put the 26" alloy wheels on today - wow what a difference in weight!

I don't have the dynamo wheel yet so I picked up a front wheel from ebay for £2 as a stand in. The back wheel was fine as it was made to fit. The front was a little too wide and the axle was too thick to pass through the slot in the dropouts, but I filed the slot wider and with a bit of brute force sprung the fork apart enough to get the wheel in. Not looking forward to changing a p*ncture though

The front brake drops were fine but I had to file down the rear ones. Now the pads just clear the tyres but I'm still not 100% happy so I may look for longer drop brakes or more adjustable pads.

Sadly the crankset Chris sent didn't arrive so it's still got the original crankset on. The toe clips foul on the ground so it definitely needs shorter cranks. I'll probably go down the spindle replacement route.

And after all that, is it any better to ride? Hard to say until I'm confident with the brakes and have the right size cranks, but the signs are good so far. Apart from the weight reduction and hopefully improved braking, it's lowered the frame by about an inch which makes it much easier to mount. It's still got the original mudguards but once I replace those it should improve the toe overhang as well.

Pics tomorrow maybe - though it looks like a frankenbike with the big mudguards!

 

[brokenbetty]

Bike Joy! I took it to work for the first time today and it's really fun to ride with the smaller wheels and slightly lower top tube Feels so much nippier. I kept the original cranks in the end but got rid of the toe clips and I don't have any problem clipping the ground.

It's still got a slightly surprised look because of the too big mudguards but I'm having trouble finding anything better. I'm surprised how little choice of mudguards there is out there.

 

[EYE-TYE-MAD]

I've got a basic 5-speed touring bike badged as an Elswick Whirlwind, but I'm sure it's a low end late 70s Raleigh. Raleigh frame number, Raleigh-sized bottom bracket and Raleigh stamped on the gear lever bracket.

Weird thing is, there's a lot of info about Elswick as an older UK manufacturer, but I can't find any reference to Raleigh buying up Elswick.

Does anyone know for certain that they did?

Thanks
Liz

To my knowledge, Elswick were one of the very few major manufacturers that Raleigh didn't soak up. I'm not 100% sure, but I think it was Falcon that bought them out.