Richard T. Booth [email protected]

Date: Tue, 02 Oct 2001 11:10:47 -0500
Subject: My Intro

Hi EnglishBike List,

In my middle age, I'm carrying an addiction for collecting bicycles and another addiction for doing these damn lists. It's quite possible that both these disorders ("tick, tick, tick") are rooted in three trauma concerning English bicycles, particularly the Raleigh Sports. I'm depraved because I was deprived to paraphrase West Side Story.

First trauma: I didn't get a bike when I was five. I was supposed to get a bike when I was a five. In Stoughton Wisconsin in the early fifties a boy got a bike on his fifth birthday and a Daisy bb-gun on his tenth. I was the only one of my pals not to have a bike during the years when I was 5 and 6. I'm not exaggerating here. My memory may be fallible on some points but I do remember this. My birthdays fell in March, as they still do. The present for my seventh birthday was a 24 x 1 3/8 JC Higgins coaster brake. It was made by Steyr Daimler Puch in Austria. It was red with tan grips, saddle, and tool bag. It was so much cooler than any of the 20" ballooners that my friends had, that it almost made up for being two years late. It would, in fact, have been quite adequate, except that the very next weekend, Tommy Kaplan received a 26" Raleigh Sports with an AW and a B72 and touring bag that would hold a jacket and a sandwich. By the start of school in the fall, every one of my pards had a Raleigh Sports. I never did catch up. I never got a bb-gun either.

Second trauma: When I was eleven we were in Fairmont Minnesota. At 5'6", I was still riding the Higgins/Puch. With permission, I took a Raleigh Sports from a neighbor's trash heap. It was abused and the black paint had faded considerably, but it had a Cyclo 9-speed conversion. I was in the process of pulling it apart and cleaning it up. The chain was in a dishpan of something (I hope it wasn't gasoline) and I had everything else off and piled in a corner in the basement. I hadn't figured out how to remove the crank cotters, when it came time to go to Boy Scout camp for a couple weeks. When I came home the bike was gone. My mother had thrown it out with the trash. She didn't apologize.

Third trauma: When I was sixteen and living with the folks in Excelsior Minnesota, Glenn Klein and Jon Engebretson dreamed up a bicycle camping/fishing trip. It would involve a 70-mile ride each way. The only bike I had was middleweight from Western Auto that I used to deliver papers. My friends both had Raleigh Sports. I still didn't have the right stuff, so I rented a Robin Hood. I did just fine going out on a Friday. We had a great time. We didn't catch any fish, but we ate lots of junk food and it didn't rain. Coming back on Sunday, my butt was killing me. I kept stopping every couple of miles. Glenn offered to trade bikes with me. The broken-in B72 on the Raleigh was heaven. It followed every move of my legs and butt. I made it home but I never quite got the Raleigh Sports.

When I was twenty-six and working for a bike store, a customer arrived with a '51 Raleigh Lenton Sports ("Reg Parnell Model") that he wanted to trade. It was green, pretty badly faded. It had 26 x 1 1/4 steel Dunlop high pressure rims. It had a bent handlebar with a vaguely pista kind of shape. It had the roadster-style brake levers attached down on the hooks and the calipers used the kind of cable that was leaded at both ends. The bars had green plastic tape below the levers only and the trigger was attached to the quill of the stem. The fenders were the best part. They were plastic and pretty flat and the front one was pointed in an arrow shape.

Given the start that Life had handed me, I sold the customer a new Peugeot 5-speed set up as town bike and took the Lenton Sports and some amount of cash. I bought the Raleigh from the store. I'm sure that now I'd see this transaction as a conflict of interest, but I think at the time it seemed innocent.

The Lenton Sports rides great. It's the most hands-off bike I own. The threading and facing of the frame, and the alignment of the frame is as fine as any bike I own. I actually rode it a lot through the seventies. Right away, I traded the bars and the levers for 70's vintage GB and Weinmann issue.

I pulled a Cannondale Bugger trailer with one or two boys. I did find a Cyclo set up and did a 9-speed with it. We've done a couple of metric centuries with it and it handles rough roads and unpaved roads really well.

I'm going to do a CyclArt restoration of it soon. The biggest problem I have is figuring out what to do and when to stop. I anguish over the decisions. I know that the Lenton Sports isn't a real collectors' item, so I'd really like to restore it as a hot-rod to ride but where should I stop? I can fit 700c (ISO 622) rims with 27 mm tires. It sure would be easier to find tires. In my collection, I have an aluminium hub shell and S-5 guts and bell crank. I also have a NOS TA Professional crank. It's alloy but has the same bolt-circle diameter as the original steel crank. I have one with 44t ring and single ring connecting bolts. It sure would be a lot easier to use than messing with cotters. I wonder if I want bottle bosses brazed on. I'm pretty sure that I don't want to remove the pump pegs even though I'll carry an extra pump hidden in the Brooks transverse saddle bag.

At one time I considered doing a double crank with a fancier multi-cog hybrid gearing system. I have some old Bicycling and Bike World magazines with articles about how to do these multi-cog conversions. I think I'll give that up. At the time I thought those thoughts, I thought the Lenton Sports would become a loaded tourer for me. I think I was feeling older, too. Now I ride a fixed gear frequently and am certainly not intimidated by a 3-speed. I also have a Rivendell A/R should I ever do that unsupported tour. The A/R has gears that can pull stumps. It has frame tubes that were chosen for me when I was 40# heavier. I'll let the Lenton Sports be more itself. I guess that means that I won't have to have brazeons or a hole punched in the bottom bracket to accomodate derailer shift cable fittings. OTOH, I already have a real nice Cyclo conversion kit. Aach. Such hard decisions. I have a friend who shows a 1951 MG YT. I'd really like to take the Lenton Sports along. I just can't decide.

I bought a beautiful '71 International a few months ago. At some point I'll probably restore it, but it's pretty nice now. It's not as nice as a '74 owned by Steve Kurt in Peoria, but it'll do. My International will always be period correct, except that I'm building a second set of wheels as Mavic MA-2 clinchers.

I admire other Raleigh lightweights too. I've alwasy wanted a Mercian.

From: Christof Irran [email protected]
Subject: English Bikes

Date: Tue, 2 Oct 2001

While I love bicycles, especially the vintage lightweights, I have never paid much attention to English bicycles. My attitude towards English engineering could be summed up thus: "The reason why the Brits don't build computers is because they can't figure out how to make it leak oil." (The Italian can't figure out how to make it rust :-)

But then I came across a 1983 Jack Taylor, a touring bike in mint condition, Reynolds 531 tubing, stays and fork; fenders, racks and light fore and aft; Campagnolo, Phil Wood, Cinelli componentry - a gorgeous machine, and I fell in love with it and she is now mine. It was the esthetics of the frame geometry, suddle as it is, that now made me revisit my opinion about English bicycles. Then I read Sheldon Brown's comments about Jack Taylor frames where he writes "... I've met people who swear that Taylor frames ride like no others. Not sure about that, but it's nice that these frames do have a strong cult-like following..." My other bikes are two Bianchi, an Austro Daimler and a Peugeot PX-10, and the Jack Taylor does indeed ride so much more differently than these bikes, much more than these differ from each other. And that's saying a lot, especially when considering the comparison includes the rake of a French fork!

Anyway, I am a newby to English bikes, and I shall certainly include some more in my bicycle portfolio.

Christof F. Irran
http://www.bpmlaw.com

David Simmons [email protected]

Subject: another intro
Date: Tue, 2 Oct 101 14:55:42 -0500 (CDT)

Yo englishbike list ... I can blame my bike affliction on my older son, now 14, who got into bikes in a big way 3-4 years ago. I tolerated his dragging home bikes out of the trash, started to go to police auctions with him and poke around thrift stores (where I used to look for books, now bikes). His interest in bikes is fading but mine only growing and for the last year or two it's been gravitating toward English stuff. The proportions, lines and styling of these bikes really appeals to me. I was talking recently with a father of a friend of my son's who is English but teaches at the university here in Madison (a good bike town BTW) and he was telling me that when he went off to university (I think Oxford) in the seventies, everybody showed up with the bike that THEIR father had used when they went off to school ... these things do last.

My everyday rider (wish I rode every day!) is a Raleigh Sports with a Brooks B72 and an S3c hub and the cool butterfly kickstand. It came without fenders so I put some Zefals on it to keep it somewhat lighter. The frame is a little small for me (I'm just over 6'2"), esp the top tube length. Raleigh did not seem to lengthen the top tube for different size seattubes -- is this correct? Anyone know the largest standard frame they used in the Sports models?

My project at the moment is restoring a made in India Hercules Roadster. It came with a Hercules A-9 hub and Hercumatic shifter. I am in need of some block pedals that have Hercules molded into them (I have the right only). I also have bits and pieces of Raleigh DL-1s I hope to put together this winter. Oh, and I'm looking for a Hercules lamp bracket.

Latest auction find (this past Saturday) was a BRIGHT orange Phillips womens. Also just sent off for an NOS 4 speed hub/shifter and will have to decide whether to put it on a 26' or 28' rim.

Now for the shameless advertisement ... I have a beautiful near mint, green, mens Raleigh Sprite 5 speed SA, Brooks B72, built in Raleigh rack, Huret Speedometer/Odometer ... too small for me (I think it's a 21" seattube but will check) I would like to sell. Would ask ~$160 ... don't reall want to ship it. Email me off line if interested.

Finally, re: Sheldon's remarks on the metal vs plastic oil cap -- part of the fun of finding these bikes is having to wiping away the film of oil on the hub to see what it is/how old ... and yes it did keep the rust away.

I look forward to hearing from others on the list.

-- 

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^  
 Dave Simmons, IS Manager                 Dept. of Family Medicine    
 [email protected]                 Univ. of Wisconsin  Madison   
 Voice 608-265-3406                       777 S. Mills
 Fax 608-263-5813 		          Madison, WI 53715 

    "Our task is not to read the weathervane, but to raise the winds"
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

Subject: Re: another intro
From: Sheldon Brown CaptBikeat-symbol sheldonbrown.com

Date: Wed, 3 Oct 2001 02:33:32 -0400

David Simmons wrote:

My everyday rider (wish I rode every day!) is a Raleigh Sports with a Brooks B72 and an S3c hub and the cool butterfly kickstand. It came without fenders so I put some Zefals on it to keep it somewhat lighter. The frame is a little small for me (I'm just over 6'2"), esp the top tube length. Raleigh did not seem to lengthen the top tube for different size seattubes -- is this correct?

Yes, they're all 22 inches, the PERFECT size (for me at least!) Proportional-sized top tubes were introduced to the world of production bikes by the Japanese about 20 years ago.

Anyone know the largest standard frame they used in the Sports models?

The largest normal size was 23 inch, but once in a blue moon you might run into a 25 inch.

Sheldon "Twenty-Two" Brown
Las Vegas, Nevada

Peter Storey [email protected]
Subject: Yet Another Intro (Ve-e-e-ry long-winded)

Date: Thu, 4 Oct 2001

How did I get to this list? Well, it's a long story.

I have three bikes: a vintage lightweight, a tourer and a 3-speed. All are English. The various additions I find myself daydreaming about (a modern Audax bike, a touring tandem, a Moulton) are also all English.

I grew up in Chicago in the '60s where "bicycle" pretty much meant "Schwinn". My first bike was handed down from my brother: a black and cream number with twin curving spaghetti tubes running just below the top tube. Heavy as sin, but never a flat tire. And oh! that paint job!

A couple of years and several inches later I got the first bike ever bought for me. A black 26" Schwinn "Racer", single-speed and coaster brakes, with what were thought to be "lightweight racing" tires (easily 2"). My mother had the ladies version of the same model. In our world, this was the standard "grown-up" bike, to the extent that grown-ups had bikes.

At the same time, we were shipped east each summer to stay with our grandparents for a few weeks. Things were a little more cosmopolitan there. The local hardware store's "stock" bikes were Phillips single speeds, but they also had -- gasp -- bikes with gears. I fell in love with the deep dark red paint, the bullshit heraldic headbadges and the gold "Made in England" scripted on every top tube. My brother was given a 3-speed Robin Hood for his twelfth birthday. I've never forgiven him.

Of course, riding a bike meant you weren't old enough to drive. Apart from a few eccentrics like old Mr. Welles on his Raleigh (with tweed jacket and pipe), everyone knew that bikes were for kids.

And then the bike boom came. I was sixteen. For $135 I bought a bright orange Gitane with sew-ups and was hooked. Which meant, of course, I immediately set to thinking about the next bike. That brought me to the Turin Bicycle Coop in Chicago. They dealt in Colnagos, Pogliaghis, even the odd Cinelli. But they did a thriving business in Bob Jacksons, and they always had several frames hanging from the ceiling. Nervex lugs, lined. Panels-and-bands. More heraldic bullshit (I still lap it up). Of the Italians, only the grey old-logo Cinellis could compare. That summer, I also saw my first Hetchins (scarlet with Hellenic stays) and Jack Taylor (brick red, box-striped to the hilt). I also found a wonderful piece on cycling in England -- it was the last chapter in one of the popular books of the time: maybe "Anybody's Bike Book"? I was hooked.

I gathered up whatever I hadn't spent on upgrades to the Gitane and put down a deposit on a 24" cream-with-blue-panels Bob Jackson "Olympus" frame. It would be ready in nine months.

Fall turned to Spring, and it was decided that our rowing squad would go to England at the end of the school year to compete at Henley. I got Turin to tell Bob Jackson not to ship the frame - I'd pick it up in Leeds. We all got on the plane with our dufflebags full of rowing sweats and, in my case, various bags and bundles of bike parts and camping equipment.

At Henley, we trained hard for two weeks and were eliminated on the first day. And so I left for Leeds.

Bob Jackson was expecting an American pick-up, but he wasn't expecting a teenager. And he certainly wasn't expecting a brand new "Olympus" frame to be fitted out with borrowed steel rim clincher wheels, a Suntour steel derailleur, Pletscher rack and the cheapest saddle in the Brooks line. To his credit, he did his best not to show it.

I rode the bike to York, hopped a train to Edinburgh and spent two weeks touring in Scotland sleeping under bridges, occasionally in youth hostels and once under a truck. Then I came home to start college.

Six months later the bike was stolen. The insurance covered most of the cost of replacing it, although the new Bob Jackson frame was a lesser model than the "Olympus". Twenty-seven years later, I still have that bike. I rode it yesterday.

From 1974 to 1997, I owned only that bike. Then I saw a Bianchi San Remo in my size with the price reduced by 25%. Gun metal grey, lugged, full Campy Mirage. I bought it, but I never really came to love it. It was kind of heavy, geared too high and it seemed, well, cold.

My eye began to wander again. I decided that, at 45, I could allow myself to buy the last, best and perfect touring bike I would ever want. And I knew it would be English. From my own observations over there, from the chapter in "Anybody's Bike Book" (if that's where it was), from some pieces that apeared in the early Rivendell Readers and from the fact that the Brits have the CTC and we don't, I was convinced that the English have an instinct for touring bikes that no one else can match. I still believe that. Yes, there are individual exceptions, but I think the overall principle still holds true. I looked at Mercian, Longstaff, Dave Yates and Thorn, as well as a host of other names from the small ads in the back of the CTC Mag. I also looked at Waterford, Bruce Gordon, Bilenkey and Rivendell/Heron. Thorn won. I love that bike.

About two years ago, I saw a green Raleigh Sports locked to a lamp post and found myself admiring just how, well, "classic" it looked. (The sheer ugliness of most modern bikes is a peeve of mine.) I started prowling around on Sheldon's site to learn more. One thing led to another, including buying a B-66 saddle from Sheldon during the Brooks crisis, even though I didn't have a bike to put it on. This past Christmas, my wife gave me a 1951 full chaincase and rear dynohub Raleigh Superbe. Wow, what a classy ride. The Thorn does more miles, but the Raleigh goes over the threshold more often. It's a challenge to invent enough unnecessary errands to justify having to take the Raleigh out for a spin.

There you have it. But I've got to stop visiting the Moulton sites -- it's too damn dangerous.

Right, then.

Peter Storey [email protected]