Is it worthwhile repairing old components?

One of the fundamental problems in restoring old bikes is trying to source the period correct components to go on your frame. As the years slip by with ever increasing speed, the availability of the components you seek, seems to diminish. Occasionally, you may find the part you are looking for may turn up, but damaged. I have a frame belonging to a clubmate, that I know from over forty years ago. It lay rusting in the clubroom, having been used as a complete bike for riding rollers. Sweat had taken it’s toll on the paintwork, the frame had been stripped of all of it’s original components, but I had the frame refinished in original colour with original pattern transfers/decals reinstated. The restoration became moribund, because of the difficulty in trying to source period correct parts. It is my intention to build the bike up with parts sold by the late Ron Kitchin. The original owner was a big user of parts from ‘Everything Cycling’.

I had a large flange Normandy front hub from the 1950s/1960s, with the round holes in flanges, but I only had a damaged suitable rear hub. The flange was bent inwards from having the chain derail off the largest sprocket and wedging between the freewheel block and the flange. The flange was also heavily pitted from the incident. I have searched in vain for more than five years to find a better example without success. The one thing in favour of the damaged example, was the bearing cups in the hub are perfect. I asked a friend back in 2019 if he could repair the hub. The reply came back in the affirmative.

Now in fairness, it has taken a while, but my friend had just moved house and has been fully occupied renovating the property, back into a home for him and his family, in addition to all the other work, he has had on his plate. A recent visit, resulted in him showing me the tooling he had made to repair the hub. My friend explained that he had mulled over the problem of repair, analysing how best to tackle the repair, resulting in the best chance of success. Any way, I called with him a few weeks later and was presented with the repaired hub. The damaged right hand flange has been straightened, and the damage aluminium has been welded and ground back. Although some evidence of the repair is visible, it will not be visible, once the hub has been built into a wheel and a freewheel block fitted. Importantly the repair will not be visible from the usual viewing position at the back of the flange. One caveat. I don’t know how durable this repair would be for everyday, frequent use. However, for use on a vintage bike, probably doing no more than thirty miles on a vintage run, it should be more than adequate. The satisfaction is that this had made a damaged part useable once more, as well as a problem overcome in the journey to putting an old frame back on the road.

Tall Ships, Belfast

I took advantage of the improving weather today and rode into Belfast to check out the new pedestrian/cycle bridge at the Lagan Weir.  The media were just dispersing and the bridge was open, so I used it for the first time to go to the Dock Cafe for a cup of coffee.  As I cycled down past the Odyssey Arena I was confronted by the first of the tall ships with two oil rigs in the distance at Harland and Wolff for repair.  It is unusual to see three oil rigs in the shipyard at one time as there is another over by the twin cranes Samson and Goliath.  

I took a few photos of the 'Morgenster' before the crowds arrive for the 'Tall Ships' event in Belfast from Thursday 2nd July until Saturday 5th July.  I then went to the Dock Cafe for my cup of coffee.  It is a popular spot with cyclists and the food is good.  

After enjoying my cup of coffee, I cycled down Queens Road to the entrance of the Harland & Wolff Repair Yard.  I took a few photographs of the two oil rigs before retracing my steps.  I could see the masts and rigging of another tall ship on the opposite side of the harbour.  I cycled back over the River Lagan and followed the NCN cycle route out through Clarendon Dock up to Duncrue Street where I turned into the Belfast Harbour Estate and right onto Northern Road. I followed the road round to the road junction at the Harbour exit where I turned left onto Dufferin Road.  I could see the tall ship berthed in Pollock Dock. 

I enjoyed the run today despite the breeze.  I had a tailwind home so it was a comfortable spin back.  There was another tall ship in Belfast Lough off the County Down coast about Bangor obviously en-route to the harbour.  It was nice to see the first of the ships which have arrived.  The event looks set to draw the crowds.

1925 Raleigh Roadster

It is one of the dilemmas that any collector or restorer of old bicycles faces at some stage, to restore or not? I received a 1925 Raleigh bike for some repairs last year. The bicycle had great sentimental value to the owner. It had belonged to his uncle from new and had been his uncle's main form of transport for most of his working life. The bicycle had been ridden at least 44 miles return journey, daily to work, carrying his tools and his 'piece'. The wheels had been renewed in the 1950s judging from the date code on the Sturmey Archer hubs. This would equate to a major overhaul of the bike and probable conversion to a three speed gear, from single speed, after roughly 25 years of use.  The rear wheel was a quality Raleigh product, 40 hole stainless steel Westwood rim, laced with stainless steel spokes into a Sturmey Archer AW hub. The front wheel was a very rusty chrome Westwood rim, laced with equally rusty spokes into a Sturmey Archer GH6 dynohub. 

My concern was to try and keep as much of the bike original as possible, but it was obvious that the hubs were in need of some attention. The bike was covered in a black oily filth which had protected the chrome plating on the hubs. Once the rear AW hub was opened, it was one of the dirtiest I have ever had to strip.

The component parts all had to be thoroughly cleaned to be able to assess the extent of the wear. What was obvious, following cleaning, that the cones were badly worn, along with the driver and ball ring. The springs all needed replacing as well. The axle threads were also very worn, but as the bike was only to be used occasionally, I decided to keep the axle as the sun pinion teeth were good. New parts were fitted and the hub internals re-assembled and lubricated. Once the completed internals were refitted into the hub shell, it was obvious the new parts had not removed all the play from the bearings. The left hand K517 ball cup was obviously very worn and tired from the heavy mileage it had endured. To top it all, the threads stripped on the axle when putting the wheel back into the frame. I wanted to keep the back wheel, so the AW was stripped down again. The left hand ball cup was removed after some reluctance.

A suitable spanner was used with an 'enforcer bar' to increase the leverage, so as to overcome the reluctance of the ball cup to screw out. A new old stock K517 ball cup was fitted after the hub shell threads had been thoroughly cleaned then greased. The hub gear internals were then stripped down again and a new axle fitted and the unit rebuilt. This was then inserted into the hub and quickly and easily adjusted. The indicator rod was then refitted, before the wheel was put back in the frame. The gear cable was then refitted to the indicator rod and adjusted so all the gears worked. I next started on the front wheel. The rim and spokes were both badly corroded. In addition the rim had a number of flats. I stripped the dynohub down to check the hub shell ball cups but these were worn out too. 

It was a case of find a replacement hubshell, fit new cones and refit the dynohub internals into the replacement hub shell. Once this was done, I built the hub into a new 32 hole 28 inch Westwood rim.

It was also necessary to fit a new front tyre. The new wheel was then refitted to the frame. I also fitted a new front mudguard at the request of the owner.

The bike was taken for a run to see that the gears worked properly. The headset and bottom bracket were both worn, with some play in the bearings, but this didn't have any adverse effect of the handling of the bike. Although very heavy by modern standards, the bike was actually very nice to ride unlike a modern heavy steel mountain bike. The bicycle felt lively and responsive to the pedalling input once the initial momentum had been gained. I can see how people toured on these roadster bikes 80 to 90 years ago. Although, not considered by some veteran bicycle aesthetics as being worth bothering with, who disparagingly refer to these machines as 'nondescript', due to the fact they were mass produced in a factory. These machines may have a low monetary value and lack the perceived cachet, or one upmanship of a rare brand or hand crafted bespoke frame, which some of these self appointed guardians, of taste and historical worth, espouse.  However, these humble machines do relate, very much, to social history. As the ordinary working man's transport before mass car ownership, they represented a considerable investment by the owner and were usually bought through the cycle manufacturer's hire purchase scheme, via their cycle agent. Their survival after decades of storage is an indication of the value in which they were held by their original owners. Where the history of a particular machine and it's owner is known, this can often open a historical window into the working and recreational life of the former owner.  As this machine predates the opening of the Raleigh factory in Dublin in the late 1930s, after which Raleigh increasingly had the lion's share of the Irish bicycle market,  the owner obviously made a conscious decision to purchase his Raleigh in a more varied and competitive bicycle market. It is now getting more unusual to find pre WW2 machines, as many older machines were scrapped as part of the wartime metal salvage campaign.  It was good to return an old veteran back into a rideable machine again.

The end of the road

A person I know brought his old bicycle to me rather than throw it in the skip. The bike was in 1970s trim and had been repainted black at some stage. 27” x 1 1/4” wheels, short mudguards, dynamo and a mechanical odometer driven off the front wheel which also gave an indication of the speed of the rider. 

The chrome steel rims had reached the end of their useful life, but a cursory glance at the frame seemed to indicate it didn't look too bad, but there was a question about the fork...

The bike was stripped down with patience to the bare frame with all the parts put to one side in a parts bin. It was my intention to have the frame powder coated once it had been checked for track. However, during the stripping down, it became obvious the bike had been hit at the front end. Close examinaton revealed the down tube was bent a not far from the head lug. 

It was also obvious once the headset was removed that the front fork steerer tube was bent above the fork crown and the fork blades had also bent as the wheel twisted in the fork (see above). As the frame is steel, it didn't break and in theory, the frame is repairable. However, the frame tubing is Hi-ten and the residual value of the bike makes it uneconomic to repair. I had to break the news to the owner this afternoon. It should be possible to source a replacement of similar vintage, in good condition for him and at less cost if he wants. It is a straightforward job to clean and refit the dynamo, mudguards and speedometer. So what to do with the damaged frame? It has been moved to the 'donor' pile. It can now have a further life as a source of parts to repair other frames.

Musings on multi-speed freewheels

One of the mechanical features of running older derailleur equipped lightweight bicycles (in the British sense, hand crafted from a lightweight tubeset such as Accles & Pollock or Reynolds) is multi-speed freewheels. Late 1940s or early 1950s machines were often equipped with a four speed block, which quickly changed to a 5 speed block during the 1950s. Derailleur gearing was favoured more by proponents of mass start road racing and some members of the Cyclist's Touring Club up until the late 1950s, as many UK clubmen still rode fixed gear. These older derailleur systems usually ran with 'half step' gearing if a double chainring was fitted. 'Half step' usually meant between 4 to 8 teeth difference between the outer and inner chainrings. The small difference was caused by two factors, first, the limited capacity of the front mech, which was often rod operated, e.g Simplex or Cyclo-Benelux and secondly, the limited capacity of the rear mech in handling the larger tooth difference. There have been various freewheel manufacturers over the years from the 1930s. The days of buying the appropriate sizes of sprockets from your local bike shop, to build up a custom multi-speed freewheel for the gearing you required, has long since passed. The modern offerings by Shimano, Sunrace or Falcon are sold with set sprocket sizes, i.e. 14~24T, or 14~28T and are available as either 5, 6, 7, or 8 multi-speed freewheel blocks. What is very noticeable is that the durability of the freewheel bodies has declined markedly from former years. (It is possible to recondition some freewheels which are over well over 40 years old for further use on a restoration project). Having examined the 5, 6, and 7 speed Chinese made Shimano offerings, the sprocket sizes were as per the table:-

Size	Range	Sprockets
5 speed	14~24T	14, 17, 19, 21, 24
5 speed	14~28T	14, 17, 20, 24, 28
6 speed	14~24T	14, 16, 18, 20, 22, 24
6 speed	14~28T	14, 16, 18, 21, 24, 28
7 speed	14~28T	14, 16, 18, 20, 22, 24, 28

One of the problems (or joys?) with older derailleur mechs alluded to above, is the capacity of the mechs, ie the difference in teeth it can handle between the rear sprockets, in combination with the difference in chainring size. Some older rear mechs would not have the capacity to handle the teeth difference on a 14~28T block. I had been pondering this for a while and after studying the Shimano offerings, wondered if the sprockets were all the same fitting? If this proved to be the case, it would, in theory, be possible to cannabalize several freewheels of different sizes to produce freewheel blocks of a smaller tooth range, ie 14~22T in both 5 and 6 speeds. This idea appealed to me, as these freewheels were readily available for free from local skips or from dumped bikes. 

The first job was to source some sample blocks for stripping down. Six speed blocks seemed to be the most common found locally. All the multi-speed freewheels I selected were clearly marked Shimano – China, however, I quickly noticed there was a difference in the style of sprockets between the 5 speed blocks and the 6 speed versions. The difference would only really become clear once the blocks were dis-assembled. 

The dis-assembly sequence requires that the freewheel is firmly held, so the outer threaded sprocket can be removed. 

Once the threaded sprocket has been taken off, the splined sprockets and plastic spacers have to be removed.

This should then leave the bare freewheel body, which is stepped for two sizes of splined sprockets.

This particular 6 speed donor freewheel was seized, so the next stage was to dismantle the freewheel body.  The first step was to unscrew the outer faceplate.

The 1/8 inch ball bearings can be seen in the top bearing cup along with dirt and corrosion.  The next stage is to separate the assembly for cleaning over a suitable container to stop the ball bearings cascading onto the floor.  Note there are shim washers under the faceplate.

This is useful as removal of one or a combination of these may allow the faceplate to be tightened to remove some or most of the excess play in worn bearings.  Now the dirty job to start cleaning.  I usually polish the bearing cups in the freewheel body before re-assembly.

The cleaned main freewheel body components are now ready for new grease and ball bearings.

To return to the subject of the sprockets.  I quickly discovered that the sprockets are not the same on Shimano 5 and 6 speed freewheels.  The 5 speed sprockets are splined but do not have a dedicated key unlike the 6 speed sprockets.  The key is marked like the sprockets used on Shimano cassettes.

In all cases the sprockets will only fit on the freewheel body the correct way, so there is no chance of getting it wrong.  I think this probably has more to do with using unskilled labour in the assembly plant, rather than a deliberate contrivance aimed at preventing the less experienced cycle mechanic from getting it wrong.

The upshot of all this tinkering, is that the idea, although good, is in this case, sadly impractical.  It does prove however that the working life of these cheap and at the moment, readily available freewheels can be extended by a suitable service or rebuild if the owner wishes.