Secondhand Raleigh Junior Rigid MTB: lemon or worth a punt?

[SkipdiverJohn]

Ah, but you keep forgetting that you have more than a foot in height on me, are close to double my weight and have far longer legs! You have the ability to put our far more "oooomph" than me, hence your choice in gearing.

No doubt I am a lot bigger and stronger than you, but that in itself means little in isolation, because my extra strength is used propelling my extra weight and aerodynamic drag around that you don't have to deal with. In terms of power to weight ratio, I wouldn't like to claim a big ugly bloke is necessarily guaranteed to be proportionally more powerful than a petite woman, if you were to go on watts power divided by bodyweight. Where I do think you probably have a disadvantage, is that if you need shorter cranks for either biomechanical or ground clearance reasons, the shorter levers mean your torque input at the pedal will be higher for a given output power, than someone like me who mainly has the standard default 170mm cranks - assuming the same mathematical gear ratios.

 

[Reynard]

No doubt I am a lot bigger and stronger than you, but that in itself means little in isolation, because my extra strength is used propelling my extra weight and aerodynamic drag around that you don't have to deal with. In terms of power to weight ratio, I wouldn't like to claim a big ugly bloke is necessarily guaranteed to be proportionally more powerful than a petite woman, if you were to go on watts power divided by bodyweight. Where I do think you probably have a disadvantage, is that if you need shorter cranks for either biomechanical or ground clearance reasons, the shorter levers mean your torque input at the pedal will be higher for a given output power, than someone like me who mainly has the standard default 170mm cranks - assuming the same mathematical gear ratios.

This is the thing - there are just so many variables to take into account. Not just height and weight, but the ratio of arm, torso and leg length, fitness, whether you're built for endurance or not, whether you prefer to spin or grind, and indeed, crank length. I usually ride with 160 mm cranks btw.

Each cyclist is individual, but we've all heard of "give me a lever long enough and I'll move the world"

 

[Reynard]

Feeling a tad less grotty today, so had a bit of a potter.

Am resorting to using the original bars for the moment, as the ones I want are out of stock. Anyway, they're the same width as the ones on the Chartres hybrid which is a big help for setting up the cockpit.

I've decided that I will probably swing for Ergon GP2 grips, so I measured how they "sit" on the bars of the Chartres and transferred those measurements across. Then I fitted the shifters - thanks @DCBassman they look really good.

And like on the Chartres, once taking grips and shifters into account, there's not much bar real estate left for lights. I'll get a blinky on there, but not much else, as the cabling will be in the way. So will need to get a handlebar extender to mount the lights I usually use.

Was hoping to make a start on the cabling, but the cutters I have are as useful as the proverbial chocolate teapot. They're good for thinner wire, but not up to the task for this. I've had a look, and all the outer cable end / ferrule things are salvageable - they're metal and simply slide off. Had hoped that the gear cable outers could also be re-used, but they're full of dark brown muck, so into the bin they will go.

So am hoping to get to the LBS tomorrow, now that I have a definitive shopping list of the following:

Cable cutters
4ft of gear outer
4 anti-fray cable end doodads

 

[Gunk]

Did you manage to source shifters/levers? I have a spare set

 

[Reynard]

Did you manage to source shifters/levers? I have a spare set

Yes I did, thanks. All sorted on that front.

 

[Salar]

Missed this thread, thought it was about childrens bikes.

Looks good @Reynard

 

[Reynard]

Missed this thread, thought it was about childrens bikes.

Looks good @Reynard

Technically speaking, you are entirely correct.

Although by the time I've finished building this, it'll be a properly-specced rigid MTB that's just a little bit smaller than the ones you usually see.

 

[SkipdiverJohn]

Missed this thread, thought it was about childrens bikes.

It's certainly what you would call a junior size, and seems to entail more hassle than I would be really happy with sorting out various combinations of compatible parts. With big sized frames, you just assume anything you want to use on a project will fit, and it nearly always does. Your options are more limited the smaller you go, especially if you're like me and want to do things on the cheap.

 

[Reynard]

It's certainly what you would call a junior size, and seems to entail more hassle than I would be really happy with sorting out various combinations of compatible parts. With big sized frames, you just assume anything you want to use on a project will fit, and it nearly always does. Your options are more limited the smaller you go, especially if you're like me and want to do things on the cheap.

I'll agree with you about the hassle. It has been a right royal pain at times, because I really need to think about fit, clearances etc, but having trained as an engineer, I enjoy solving these kind of conundrums.

With things like wheels, tyres, mudguards and cranks, there *is* a lot less choice for smaller frames. I have the exact same problem with my road bike, which is a 38cm frame and runs on 650c wheels. Because of that, it has pushed the budget up, but it can't be helped. That's the downside of being undertall, unfortunately.

Having said that, I'll still end up with a far better bike, and one that's much nicer to ride, than anything that's available new at that price point.

 

[Salar]

And when you've finished this one you can move onto rebuilding a Raleigh Twenty and an RSW16
(They are quite straightforward to do, but prices these days are ridiculous, wish I'd kept mine)

 

[Reynard]

And when you've finished this one you can move onto rebuilding a Raleigh Twenty and an RSW16
(They are quite straightforward to do, but prices these days are ridiculous, wish I'd kept mine)

I think i'll get shot if I acquire yet another bike. Well, for the moment, anyway. Actually, I learnt to ride on shoppers and took my cycling proficiency on one in about 1985-ish.

Wish I'd hung onto mine now too, but at the time, I needed the space more than I needed the bikes. But when I've done this, there's a late 50s / early 60s Hercules junior bike up on the loft that needs some TLC. Well, actually, to be honest, it needs a complete strip and rebuild. It's a little too small for me now, but I rode it for a couple of years in my early teens, and I kind of hung onto it for sentimental reasons.

That's going to be fun - it's a rod-braked roadster in miniature.

 

[DCBassman]

4 anti-fray cable end doodads

Crimps! Because...you crimp 'em on!

 

[Reynard]

Crimps! Because...you crimp 'em on!

Hmmm, crimping is what you do to pastry when making pasties and pies. And those wee things aren't exactly edible...

 

[Reynard]

Did manage to pop over to my LBS for the bits on the aforementioned shopping list. All except for the cable cutters - he had none in stock of any flavour. Actually, he's out of stock on a lot of basic tools - sign of the times, I suppose.

So I winkled out the cutters I keep to do curtain wires. They live in my cat show bag, because invariably either I, or more usually someone else, needs a bit of fettling done to their pen drapes, and I'm well known at shows for carrying a basic toolkit and things like zip ties, pins, needle & thread... They did an OK job on the inners and just about coped with the brake outers. Well, they coped under protest - that is, if cutters can protest. Gear outers though, forget it...

Hence today's task, by default, was sorting out the brake cables.

Never having done a complete set of cables before, there was a certain amount of one step forward, two steps sideways. It's not the task itself. That was incredibly straightforward, even the internally-routed rear brake cable. It's the actual *order* in which you have to do things. And that knowledge only comes with experience.

Anyways, both front and rear brakes have been cabled, although I haven't cut the inner brake cables to the exact length just yet as I still need to do a bit of tweaking. One brake is a bit "grumbly" (something is rubbing somewhere or not seated correctly) and the other is a bit too slack. The new alloy hangers I got from SJS do look good however, although I had to turn the bolt around in the front one as the domed nut was fouling the frame.

One thing I'm quite impressed with is how well my brake pad alignment - which I did by eye the other week - has panned out. I don't really need to do any major changes there.

I'll post some photos tomorrow, as I've done a fair bit since I put some up last.

As an aside though, can anyone recommend some decent cable cutters that won't break the bank?

 

[Gunk]

These are great for the price

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/174266984007