Smackhead Express - Raleigh Routier

[wafter]

I happened upon this recently on my travels.

In keeping with what has become a depressingly regular sight, this appears to be another nicked bike mercilessly ridden into the ground by the city's burgeoning homeless population before being discarded when it finally became unable to carry on

I've checked the frame number and make / model against Bike Register and have got no hits, as well as putting a couple of "found" notices up on local FB pages and Gumtree. If you think it might be yours by all means drop me a PM with the frame no. and obviously if it matches you're welcome to come and collect it.

This poor example is in surprisingly good nick considering the abuse it's been subjected to; suggesting someone at some point cared about it. The only real damage to the frame is a couple of gashes on the RHS of the down tube and the paint seems otherwise very good (and resilient - I suspect due to pre-dating various bits of environmental legislation). Unfortunately the bars are bent, while the back tyre is completely shredded; totally disintegrating in places and having evidently caught on the mudguard at some point bending it severely. The bike has apparently still been ridden like this, which has pretty much shafted the rear wheel too

I've done a bit of homework and it appears this was a low-mid range offering from the '80s, touted as a general tourer or utility bike. The 57cm/ 22.5" frame appears to be gas pipe (none of your fancy Reynolds tube here) and the whole bike weighs in at a portly 14.35kg as received. It has a 2x5 drivetrain with 50/40 chainring, 14-28 cassette and sachs friction-shifter-based components. Oddly (?) the square-taper cranks appear to be a diminutive 165mm long. Wheels are 700x21c and chromed steel with 36 spokes. The bike's fitted with chrome mudguards, panier rack and kickstand, apparently as standard.

On paper this would make an excellent utility bike (for when I want to cover longer journeys / tackle greater gradients than on the ofo without having to worry about using one of my "nice" bikes) however looking at the cost of appropriate bits on ebay doing it up looks like it'll cost more than I can currently justify. Irritatingly I recently flogged a similar (but tattier) Notts-build non-Raleigh for very little money, whose wheels and bars would probably have gone straight on

Equally I love the idea of building up the old frame with newer 9/10/11 speed components with STIs and again recently sold my old Giant which would have yielded a wealth of 8sp parts because I thought I couldn't justify the cost and hassle of sourcing an approriate frame as well as storing another bike. What are people's thoughts on this route? I understand some will consider it sacriledge and I generally like to keep things original, but since it's not a particularly high end / desirable model (and needs some bits replacing anyway) I guess this is less of a concern.

So there we go. I'm not going to rush into anything currently; for now it can sit under a tarp in the back garden until I have a better idea of how to proceed.. so please don't expect an interesting project any time soon! I'm also not sure if I can manage with the frame as it's a little bigger than I'd like; I measured the reach and stack earlier and it comes in at a little larger and more aggressive than what I'm currently riding so it might yet get punted on, although I'd prefer it to be in working order even then.

In the meantime I'd welcome any more info anyone might have on this model and thoughts on the pitfalls on fitting newer components (specifically STI shifters) - I'm aware that the axle spacing at the rear should be 120mm while the current spec for 8sp+ rim-braked road bikes is 130mm... but I suspect I could spread the dropouts a bit since it appears to be boggo non-heat-treated steel. Can anyone tell me about bottom bracket specs on this sort of bike please?

Equally if you might have a suitable rear wheel / set, rear mudguard and / or bars that you want to get rid of by all means drop me a PM

 

[All uphill]

Nice bike @wafter

Do you like it, does it fit and do you have a use for it?

If so don't add up the likely costs, doing that will just make you miserable.

Replace the rear wheel and tyre with used parts then go from there, one part at a time.

 

[FrankCrank]

Possibly had a front end shunt?

 

[wafter]

Nice bike @wafter

Do you like it, does it fit and do you have a use for it?

If so don't add up the likely costs, doing that will just make you miserable.

Replace the rear wheel and tyre with used parts then go from there, one part at a time.

Thanks

In answer to your questions - yes, maybe and perhaps...

If I do fix it up it'll have to be on a strict budget as I can't justify spending much. I think you're right about the bits though; will aim to get it working in its current form and tbh as much as I like the idea of fitting current-spec components I think it'd be folly on a frame of this quality.

I got sucked into spending more than I'd planned on the ofo and don't want to go down that route again.

Possibly had a front end shunt?

Thanks - didn't think of that although did clock the orientation of the forks. A good point but comparing it to images of the same bike from other sources it's hard to tell tbh. I guess if it has it's pretty much game over - any ideas as to how I could check whether this is the case?

 

[FrankCrank]

In the first pic the fork looks slightly pushed back, although pictures can be deceptive. Not sure how to really be decisive, or whether it matters. Sorry to muddy the waters.

 

[wafter]

In the first pic the fork looks slightly pushed back, although pictures can be deceptive. Not sure how to really be decisive, or whether it matters. Sorry to muddy the waters.

Indeed; I could see how it might look a little bent but others I've seen look similar, while I guess there's an argument for adding an amount of compliance by sweeping the forks back at the headtube and curving them forwards at the wheel. If I had original specs for trail etc I could have a stab at measuring it, but I don't. I guess I could lash up a plumb line and try to compare it to my other bikes but this wouldn't necessarily tell me a whole lot.

Thanks for the observation anyway

 

[wafter]

Because I can never leave anything alone I had a bit of a fiddle tonght; resulting an a satisfying evening's casual tinkering in the garden with a nice jungle soundtrack

After concerns over the straightness of the fork I gave it a good coat of looking over and when straight-ahead it doesn't look particularly bent, so I think this has been exaggerated in the image in my original post due to the steering angle. Off came the now redundant speedo mount, cable and magnet, along with the front reflector to gain access to all the spoke nipples.

I found the front wheel to be somewhat buckled, offset to one side by about 5mm and with pretty loose spokes. I'd applied a little penetrating oil to all the nipples a couple of days ago and was relieved to find all but one free to turn; this one eventually giving in after a bit of heat courtesy of the Clipper lighter I also found on the same night I found the bike

I managed to get the wheel centred in the fork to within maybe 0.5mm (judging by my also-found steel rule checked against the side of the rim and apex of the fork leg) and axial runout on the rim down to around 0.5mm as well - not perfect but absolutely serviceable and so much better than before.

I also trued up the front mudguard relative to the wheel; it's tatty and still has a kink in it but at least now gives the best chance of not fouling anything.

I tried to centre the brakes but the bike was upside down and I couldn't really see what I was doing so didn't go too far.. I think I'm missing a trick as the operation of the caliper seems dependent on the tightness of the nuts on the front (presumably why there are two) so I suspect something else needs to be slackened to allow me to centre the caliper relative to the wheel. I did move the brake blocks to give better engagement with the rim; it all looks positively dangerous so I don't hold out a lot of hope for the efficacy of the brakes if I ever manage to ride it..

Also gave the forks a bit of a clean with some WD40 and was impressed by how resileant the bike's finish is; as well as the thorough internal rust-proofing that appears to have been applied.

I've not fully investigated yet but the fasteners appear to be a mixture of metric and imperial; the seat clamp nut is definitely imperial while the stem clamp allen bolt seems to be metric, as do many of the nuts on the front end although these might just be imperial sizes that happen to be close to a metric equivalents. The nuts on the brake caliper appear to be 10mm, but this would figure as I think they're possibly German (Weinmann rings a bell...?).

After some doubts about the rim size having read how close the old 27" (630mm BSD) standard is compared to 700c (622mm BSD) I was relieved to find the following stamped on the front wheel:

So it's apparently 622x28mm, although measuring the internal width of the battered rear rim suggested 21mm so I suspect the 28mm refers to its external width. Mudguard clearance is generous so hopefully if I ever get it going it'll accommodate some fairly wide rubber.

Finally just for a laugh I put some air in the front tyre; while in better nick than the shredded rear the tread is de-laminating and all the sidewall material has become brittle / is flaking away from the cord beneath. Might be the original tyres for all I know!

As I've worked on the bike I've become more resolute to keep it as original as I can and aim to get it up and running for as little money as possible; so progress is likely to be slow - especially as I'm wary of putting too much work in incase I can't find a suitable replacement rear wheel. I guess I'll also need to swap over the freewheel, which doubtless will require the purchase of another tool...

 

[wafter]

A bit more "progress" since this thread is proving so popular

The state of the rear wheel was irritating me earlier, so I removed what was left of the tyre and tube by snipping the remaining intact steel beads with a pair of side cutters and just pulling the whole lot off without removing the wheel.

The rim was buckled, spokes loose and has a lot of damage on its outside edges from contact with the road. It's of reasonably uniform width but showing a few outward "bulged" areas and some damage to the braking surfaces.

I thought I'd have a go at trueing the wheel as I had nowt to lose and I find it quite relaxing. During this process I noticed the hub bearings were loose so removed the wheel to take a closer look. The ball bearings themselves looked OK but the cap that forms the outer race is somewhat scored eccentrically, perhaps in keeping with the hub sitting low relative to the axle due to the sloppy fit. There was also very little grease in there..

I couldn't do much with it tonight (and was hampered by a proper downpour) so cleaned up the cap, filled it full of spray grease and put it back together at a more suitable preload. Some roughness can be felt when rotating the axle by hand but the wheel spins freely enough. Depending on what transpires with the wheel I might open it up again, dress down any high spots on the damage and fill it with moly grease when I have some to hand..


After the downpour and much rainbow-photographing I refitted the wheel (shamefully with the driver's side washers in the wrong place more than once as I wasn't paying much attention when they were removed). I didn't like the lack of washer between the locknut on the axle and the frame on the NDS (is this normal?) and remembered back to some washers that had recently appeared on my side of the fence in the garden.. Retrieved, one of these fitted perfectly and I think from the witness marks must have been cast-offs from my neighbour's tinkering with his mrs' bike - certainly preferable to the fag butts and hot BBQ fat he's more fond of chucking over the fence

Again the paint proved itself to be extremely resileant; handling well the impacts from my ham-fisted attempts to get the wheel back in, which weren't helped by the fading light.

I did a little more spoke adjustment before the light went completely and got the deflection reasonable considering; although there are obviously other areas of damage to attend to and I think the dish is a bit off - I'll probably have another crack tomorrow when I can see.

The plan is to get the rim as true as possible, belt out the deformed high spots as much as possible, dress down any sharp / significant damage and try fitting the front tyre onto the back as a test, since this is on the cusp of falling apart so expendable. If it physically fits I might put a spare 25c tyre on the front and actually see how the bike rides, and if things are promising might entertain the idea of chucking some cheap, wider rubber on both wheels.


In other news I found the crank reasonably interesting as the chain guard and big ring are made from one pressing, with an interruption in the teeth for the bridges between the two

That's all for now; I'm interested to hear any thoughts on how I might best deal with the state of the rear rim.. ideally I'll replace it but am yet to find anything suitable at a justifiable price, and since this is intended to be a budget runaround I'll be content with getting it working, as long as it's safe, reliable and not to horrible to ride.

 

[Gunk]

I’d strip the rear wheel completely, carefully knock out the bulge and rebuild it, I’ve done this a few times and they end up pretty rideable for zero expenditure.

 

[wafter]

I’d strip the rear wheel completely, carefully knock out the bulge and rebuild it, I’ve done this a few times and they end up pretty rideable for zero expenditure.

Thanks - why do you suggest stripping it completely? Tbh I find the prospect of re-lacing it somewhat daunting if I don't have to!

There are at least two gentle bulges as well as the more acute deformation picture, which I think will have to be got at with a hammer and hard punch or just filed flat. I've had a crack at one of the bulges with a copper mallet with limited success; think I need to acquire a bit of flat hardwood to rest the other side against. I was wondering if a hammer and some brass punches might afford a bit more precision than the mallet..

Would be good if I could get it useable without having to spend any money on it (tyres notwithstanding)..

 

[wafter]

Another large amount of my life questionably assigned to this bike today...

I finished my stab at trueing the rear wheel, which is a bit all over the place but within acceptable limits, with probably around 1mm runout axially and radially.

I then took it off the bike and knocked seven shades out of it with a hide mallet in an effort to minimise some of the bulges. In total there were probably 4-5 on each side and the process was far from precise. I also ran a fine file over the inner edges of the beads to remove any obviously sharp bits, as well as dressing down any significant local deformation on the brake track in an effort to avoid it shredding the brake blocks. The beads aren't straight but shouldn't cause any issues with tyre mounting. I expect braking at the rear to be "interesting"..

I swapped the dilapidated but intact remaining tyre and tube from the front rim to the rear in anticipation of fitting a 25c Zaffiro I have spare; however halfway through mounting I noticed "only to be mounted on hooked rims" or similar on the sidewall, so since these aren't everything got put back in its box

Looks like I need to do some learning about different tyre mounting formats..

I also had a go at straightening the mudguard(s) and rear stay, which had taken a hammering thanks to the tyre failure. They're certainly functional now but won't win any beauty contests..

I cleaned the frame up a little in places and removed, cleaned, copper-greased and refitted the stem and seatpost; in the process levelling the seat, setting its height to something more appropriate as well as raising the stem as high as it'll (safely) go to make the ride a bit more relaxed.

Finally I also noticed another frame number on the back of the seatpost tube; relieved to find this not listed on BikeRegister either and have now worked out the bike's DOM at apparently June 1987.

Throughout I keep coming back to how well put together this bike is. Despite being a slightly tatty, heavy, entry-ish level utilitarian model the quality of design, materials, fit and finish seems really good throughout; the fact that it's lasted 33yrs saying something in itself.


I guess the next step is to try and source a tyre or two; which sadly will probably break the seal and mean I have to put my hand in my pocket

 

[wafter]

More progress!

Thanks to the clarity afforded by the advice I received in this thread I spent the usual ridiculous amount of time researching tyres. I'd initially hoped to get some fat 40mm-ish efforts on there but a few masurements confirmed this was wishful thinking so I limited myself, somewhat arbirtrairly to 32mm.

After dancing around several options, thoroughly perplexed by the need to weigh up cost, durability, rolling resistance, availability, fit etc I finally settled on a pair of 32mm B'Twin gravel efforts from Decathlon. Funnily enough these didn't come up on their site when searching (the link is from a googling) and I only found them by chance when I popped into the shop to browse in person to make myself feel like I was doing something.

The tyres cost the princely sum of £8ea, plus £3ea for a pair of suitable tubes.. so the bike now owes me £22.

While fitting the front tyre I noticed some bulges in the rims so had to crack out the soft-faced mallet again, but after this there were no issues getting the tyres on the rims. Sadly things went south when attempting to refit the rear wheel as the fatter tyre fouled the mudguard at the chainstays; threatening to prevent it going in all together, and once finally in fouling the knobbly treads to prevent it turning properly

After a lot of buggering about carefully dressing the guard (opening out its profile from more of a flat-bottomed vee to a more generous semi-circle, as well as fully flattening its folded edges) the wheel would go in an out without issue and spin freely with no fouling; although there's probably less than 1mm of clearance on either side.

The bike finally back together I did a few more little jobs; cleaning a few areas with some WD40 and a cloth, setting the seat to its (not very convincing) rearmost position, tightening the headset nut (by hand) to reduce some play in the bearing and trying (largely unsuccessfully) to centre the rear brake caliper.

On its maiden (for me) voyage up and down the street the bike felt very odd; the bars extremely narrow, the gears clumsy, the brakes crap. Today I went out properly for the first time and probably covered 10-15 mile just rolling around the city; accompanied by a largely period-correct new wave soundtrack kicked off by Echo and the Bunnymen's epic Killing Moon

In contrast to my initial observations the bike felt a lot nicer this time. The brakes are pretty crap; not a lot of outright power (I don't think I could lock the back wheel) or feel, but not life-threateningly terrible and better than the drums on the ofo. When on the brakes the suicide levers rattle (need to tighten their fixing screws) and while initially skeptical I actually quite like them for breaking from sides of the bars with the tips of the fingers pushing up from below. The state of both rims makes itself known, but thankfully now the really high spots have been dressed down braking feels rough rather than lumpy, which is tolerable.

Unfortunately the mudguard mount at the brake bridge has broken and for some reason the guard sits excessively high / outboard at the rear; repeatedly clattering against the reflector. Irritating indeed, providing you can hear it over the the tunes of course!

I've not ridden a bike with friction shifters for the best part of 20yrs and found them as you might expect; imprecise, inconvenient and requiring a lot more forethought when stopping (or just acceptance that you're going to have to grind your way up to speed again when starting off again). Since shifting was a lot more involved I found myself tolerating a wider range of cadences than I usually do.

The gears feel clunky and their range is limited with the 50/40t chainring and 14-28t cassette giving IIRC around 60% the range I'm used to on my CdF's 50/34t and 11-34t setup. In addition the short crank arms diminish the low-end gearing further so getting up hills isn't particularly fun; out-of-saddle grinding being the order of the day. Ironically in its lowest gear the Raleigh takes about the same amount of crank revs to get up our hill as the Ofo does; although at least the geometry is more predisposed to putting your back into it.

All that said once the novelty that the bike otherwise felt pretty decent to ride had hit home, I quite enjoyed the feeling of involvement and tactility of cranking the levers every time a shift was required.

Intrinisically the frame rides nicely and the geometry is generally good, although the seat really needs to be significantly further back. After riding for a few miles I forgot about the initially-alien-feeling narrow bars (and the fact they're bent) and largely very much enjoyed the ride. The tyres seem decent enough and display no obviously elevated rolling resistance.

So there we go.. potentially a worthy utility bike that's quicker and a bit more versatile than the ofo (this one has mudguards!) although it loses points for its lack of built-in lighting and ease of gear shifting.

On the whole I'm really pleased with it so far. This ride was going to be make-or-break as to whether I punted the bike on, but I certainly don't feel the need to currently.

A few pics in reward for making it to the end:

Im not sure why the panier rack is angled downward at the rear; there appears no way of adjusting this. Likewise I don't know why the mudguards sit so outboard at the rear (especially on the back). I'm tempted to bend the stays outwards to pull the guards in a bit, but am aware that they should probably be straight so am reluctant. Anyone got any ideas please?

I think I did a reasonable job of re-forming the bent rear guard, considering what I was dealing with. It's not perfect but works fine. I suspect it could be made to look a lot better by a skilled tin-worker with appropriate tools. Note the nick in the lower-RH corner where the battered, bare rim had evidently cut into it - illustrating the amount of time the poor thing was ridden effectively without a tyre

The stem as high as it'll go and is just about level with the saddle as set at an appropriate height, so is comfortable enough.

I love the colour of the frame and for some reason find myself drawn to the bottom bracket for really showing it off after a bit of a scrub. I was skeptical about the pedals but they do a mostly fine job of gripping my shoes

The new rubber (yes I'll address than wonky valve stem when I can bring myself to have the tyre off again!). Note the once-high spot in the rim near the base of the valve where the finish has worn through the chrome and copper to the steel beneath. I also discovered today that the ding in the frame near the shifters has been caused by the nut on the brake caliper when the bars and wheel have been allowed to swing around to the right unchecked.


So that's that for now. Possible future jobs include straightening / replacing the bent bars, replacing the bar tape, properly tightening the headset nut if I can get a spanner, and giving the bike a good clean. In addition it needs a new chain as the checker fell through with room to spare, and I probably don't begrudge spending another £9 on a replacement since it's acquitted itself pretty well so far (although I hope this doesn't also demand a replacement cassette at the same time!).

I also recently acquired a dead "Professional" hybrid from which I've robbed the wheels; interestingly despite being a modern bike a lot of the tech is decidedly old with an identical (geometrically at least) 5-speed freewheel and very similar 36 spoke 700x21 rims - although in ally. I'm tempted to swap them over but the hubs are pretty tatty so not sure which route to go yet..

 

[Gunk]

Nice job, Warlands stock a spare mudguard bridge, you just rivet it on, mine was about a fiver.

I'd change those brakes, they'll never be any good. Shimano RX100's are a good upgrade, they're twin pivot.

The pannier rack bracket usually slides to adjust the angle of the rack, it's strange that there is not any adjustment.

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/VINTAGE-...470069?hash=item289968bd35:g:8p0AAOSwSx1fI~5P

 

[wafter]

Nice job, Warlands stock a spare mudguard bridge, you just rivet it on, mine was about a fiver.

I'd change those brakes, they'll never be any good. Shimano RX100's are a good upgrade, they're twin pivot.

The pannier rack bracket usually slides to adjust the angle of the rack, it's strange that there is not any adjustment.

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/VINTAGE-...470069?hash=item289968bd35:g:8p0AAOSwSx1fI~5P

Thanks - I'll maybe poke my head around Warlands' door if I can bare to throw another fiver at it

Tbh the brakes are live-able with and adequate for the scope of what I'll be using it for; although I'll keep an eye on those calipers in case they go for a silly-low amount. Ta for the link!

EDIT: The rack is an odd one; I assumed it would have some sort of adjusment too but everything appears fixed with the bracket at the brake bridge having a single hole and is welded to the round-section mount that screws to the rack itself; so as far as I can see it can only fit in one position..

 

[Gunk]

Last pair I bought were £12