2 Free road bikes

[us56456712]

The oval head badge on that Raleigh is the 1960s style. By 1970 they were using the heron cut out shape. It was Raleighs best seller for many years. The Gran(d) Prixs were made in many countries: Ireland, England, Canada and in the Raleigh owned Gazelle plant in the Netherlands. I assembled many hundreds of them, sold them and change out the crappy plastic simplex ders and just horrible ribbed tires. The tires were so squirmy, getting around a corner wasn't a sure thing. And yeah, the bb could have 28tpi threading or standard 24 depending on which factory it was made in.

I also assembled and sold Peugeots. Yours is not the bottom of the line, those had all steel parts with cottered cranksets. Like some companies, they did not put anything on the frame to tell which model it was. Just the brand ma'am. I bought 3 Peugeot uo8s mixtes for my sisters. French bikes were really popular with the ladies. I bought a Raleigh Gran Prix mixte for my mom. Mom is still riding it at age 85. Her Raleigh is now 40. Those 3 Peugeots all wound up in the scrapper over 25 years ago.

Rick

Thanks, Im having a lot of fun getting the Peugeot back in working order. I see why it was tossed out, stripped drive side dust cap so I had to use wedges to remove it and the gooseneck allen fitting was rounded off. I welded an old allen driver to the gooseneck bolt to remove it. I should be able to reassemble it in the next few weeks depending on the weather. It will be 100% French (except the tires). It will be a blast riding it on road rides with all the new stuff. I want to do a century ride with it in June. Later in the summer I want to do a century ride with my old single speed with wood grips and Philips center pull brakes (I have to finish building this for this August ride).

 

[us56456712]

The Serial number may be on the seat tube.

If you have a thread gauge, (cheap an useful to have) check the bb threading. 24tpi or 28tpi. The diameter is the same for both and Raleigh used both. 28tpi mostly on the lower end and and older bikes.

There were a few fully chrome Raleighs. I don't think they were normally imported. Could have been brought over by someone on their own.

Rick

OK, OK, good idea on the thread gauges. I just ordered SAE, Metric and Wentworthless thread gauges. I had a machinist friend who had these gauges and an old school (1900s) lathe and milling machine that he got from a diamond drill factory that went out of business in 1956. He died so I have no access to this stuff anymore. He and I (mostly him) would make parts for my 60's Triumph motorcycles. He would fiddle around with his thread gauges until he found the right one and turn a part. If an original part broke, he would make a part out of better material and his parts never broke. He always wondered how they could sell Triumph motorcycles so cheap as they had to make the parts the same way he did on the same type equipment. He figured each part he made for me was worth art least 100 or more bucks, but I got them for free. I really miss this great guy and he would be a great help to me as I am presently restoring a 1957 Triumph 650. He had all the tools, blasters, compressors, steam cleaners and paint guns. All old heavy duty and cool, or else homemade. When he was a kid he bought plans out of Popular Mechanics for a home built internal combustion engine and built one. He was a fix anything genius. He worked as a machinist in a factory keeping the lines going and assembling and repairing used assembly equipment. The used factory machine would come in and it looked like a pile of scrap to me. I thought that he would never get these projects together but in a day it would be mostly assembled.

 

[horsefarmer]

I worked as a machinist for years - mostly old school before computer control. Those old machines were mostly just heavy chunks of iron - massively overbuilt - that's why they lasted so long and could be rebuilt.
I have known a couple of guys like your friend - they could fix almost anything.

 

[Bicycle808]

T...24tpi or 28tpi. The diameter is the same for both and Raleigh used both. 28tpi mostly on the lower end and and older bikes.

Actually, it's 26tpi or 24tpi; the difference has less to do with the quality of the bike, and more to do with the frame's origins. Pretty much all of the frames made in Nottingham, up until the factory closed, had 26TPI BB shells and headsets; this included the entry-level stuff and nicer stuff, as well. They also made Raleighs at Nottingham up until the 90s, although Huffy took over the Raleigh name/distributionin the USA at some point in the early 80s. According to wikipedia, by 1984, only the Raleigh Prestige and the Raleigh Professional were made in the UK--- at least, in the US market.

Easiest way to tell how the BB is threaded, if you don't have a thread gauge, is to measure the width of the frame's BB shell from left to right. A regular ISO/BSC shell will almost always be exactly 68mm, whereas a Raleigh shell with 26tpi threads will typically be between 71 and 76mm wide. Both the shells are the same 1 & 3/8" in diameter, so it wouldn't surprise me if you could thread a standard cup in a few mm before it got hung up....

HTH
-Rob
PS- ya got me on the Raleigh serial numbers.... being that there were so many different factories producing bikes for Raleigh, and that Raleigh itself was owned by several different companies over the years, i imagine the serial numbers will be pretty jumbled. My interest with Raleighs is mostly with the Nottingham-built 3 speeds; you can tell right away if it's a Nottingham bike if it has the right style of dropouts, and you can tell the vintage within a year or two based on the date code on the Sturmey-Archer hub.... if the bike still has the original. If the hub has been replaced, you can usually tell by the overall quality of the frame; the earlier frames were much better finished than the newer ones, IMO. Yur bike may be Nottingham built (which is quite likely if it has a Raleigh-threaded BB shell), but it definitely ain't a 3 speed....

 

[Bicycle808]

I worked as a machinist for years - mostly old school before computer control. Those old machines were mostly just heavy chunks of iron - massively overbuilt - that's why they lasted so long and could be rebuilt.
I have known a couple of guys like your friend - they could fix almost anything.

Best type of friend to have. It's a shame that the machinist is a dying trade today, and that modern-day machinists haven't, by and large, retained the skillset of machinists past.

 

[us56456712]

I worked as a machinist for years - mostly old school before computer control. Those old machines were mostly just heavy chunks of iron - massively overbuilt - that's why they lasted so long and could be rebuilt.
I have known a couple of guys like your friend - they could fix almost anything.

I never though of it that way. I don't know what modern machine tools even look like. The chuck on the lathe had to be 18 inches in diameter. I think the lathe was about 12 feet or more long. Maybe my memory is shot, but that seems about rightI. t was a massive chunk of cast iron and steel but you could make things precise if you had the skill. I don't know what could ever wear out on that thing, other than the motor. Even the paint was good. It was an antique in the 60s when he was making parts for me.

 

[horsefarmer]

I never though of it that way. I don't know what modern machine tools even look like. The chuck on the lathe had to be 18 inches in diameter. I think the lathe was about 12 feet or more long. Maybe my memory is shot, but that seems about rightI. t was a massive chunk of cast iron and steel but you could make things precise if you had the skill. I don't know what could ever wear out on that thing, other than the motor. Even the paint was good. It was an antique in the 60s when he was making parts for me.

That's the thing, for machine tools to do the job and cut metal they have to be heavy to stand the forces involved. Plus, BITD they made things to last. Thirty years ago, I was making parts at P&H in Escanaba using large machine tools such as this Bullard vertical turret lathe that were built pre WWII. As you can see, many of these old beasts have been retro fitted with computer controls now.

Basic machine patented 1894 !
Skill was a big part of it, correct speeds and feeds, light finish passes, sometimes even a little emery cloth at the end to make a fine surface for an oil seal.
Video of a Bullard in operation ( ours were much larger for bigger parts )

 

[us56456712]

The serial number for the Raleigh is on the left dropout. According to my research the number indicated it is a 1970 Gran Course or a Grand Prix. It must be a Grand Prix frame set. The problem with it and why it was tossed out is that it has the Raleigh proprietary bottom bracket. I just tried to screw in the cups further and no go. I am thinking about transferring the parts over from a woman's Western Flyer English 3 speed I have. The bottom bracket from this would most likely fit. The WF bike has a 1962 sticker from when my Mother registered it and she bought it used. I'm not sure if it was Raleigh built but it could be.

 

[Bicycle808]

Show me the dropouts, and i'll tell you if it's Raleigh-built or not. (Probably isn't, but....) Drop-outs on a Nottingham bike will look like this:

Basically, the fender eyes are on the lower side of the drop out....

HTH