New Arrival - 1951 Raleigh Clubman (Blue)

Over the long weekend, I was fortunate enough to meet up with a fellow Raleigh enthusiast and to buy this very nice, 1951 Raleigh Clubman, along with some extra wheel sets and parts.

 

This Raleigh is in fine shape. It has most of its blue paint and frame graphics. The Bluemels fenders are in good shape and the chrome is clean. 

 

I've owned several Raleigh Clubman bikes before. The best of them were a re-painted (professionally, it seems) 1951 Clubman and an original paint 1949 Clubman. Those bikes have since moved on to other Raleigh collectors, but I've always wanted a nice, blue Clubman. 

 

This one was relatively close by, so I decided it would be a good one to own.

 

A nice feature of the 1951 Clubman is the use of 27 x 1-1/4 rather than 26 x 1-1/4 rims, which makes finding good quality tires easier today. This particular bike came with two spare wheel sets. All three wheel sets use the very nice, Dunlop Special Lightweight steel rims of that time period. One seat of wheels features a 1951 Sturmey Archer AW hub and the other a classic flip-flop single-speed fixed-gear and freewheel hub. The bike currently has a Sturmey Archer FM four-speed, moderate-ratio hub.

 

This 1951 Clubman has a 22-inch frame on 27-inch wheels, which is a of a moderate size and should fit me pretty well.

Even with steel rims, this bike was very light weight for its time period. I had it parked alongside an old-school Phillips rod brake roadster I was cleaning. It's quite a contrast.

I have been finishing up a very basic refurbishment of my re-purchased Phillips roadster lately. The Phillips was a bike I owned for a few years, sold to another enthusiast, then bought back when he no longer wanted it. That bike is nearly ready, so I have to decide whether to proceed next to the early Raleigh Dawn or to the Raleigh Clubman. We have maybe 45 to 60 days left in the riding season here, before the cold weather really starts to bite. We will see...

 The Clubman also came with a number of nice parts, in addition to the extra wheels. These Shockstop grips are in nice shape and very pliable.

The bike also comes with a lightweight pump with a Robin Hood logo on it.

I don't know if I will get to this bike this season or not. I'd really like to, but it depends on whether I start work on the early Raleigh Dawn roadster I picked up last winter. They're both nice bikes. "Good problems to have", as the saying goes...

Late August Rides - Raleigh, Schwinn

This week's rides are the 1947 Raleigh Model 35, 1958 Raleigh Sports, and 1949 Schwinn New World.  

August is usually a hot, dry month, but this August has been fairly damp. Even the lawns here are still green and needs to be mowed at least once per week: June weather more than the usual August. A damp August has also produced a strong population of mosquitos. They find you quickly and bite in numbers if you stop to take photos... I got plenty of bites trying to get these...

1947 Raleigh

1947 Raleigh

1958 Raleigh

1958 Raleigh

1949 Schwinn New World

New World

1949 Schwinn New World

 

Raleighs - Comparing Sports Lugs from the 1940s and 50s

Raleigh made a number of subtle changes to their famed Sports bikes in the 1940s and 50s. This included improved front fork ends, frame-brazed pulley bosses, more modern frame graphics, improved dynohub systems, rubber rather than cloth-covered brake cables, improved shifters, and more ornate frame lugs. 

I've talked earlier about the subtle evolution of front forks, so let us take a closer look at frame lugs. In this case, I'm comparing a 1947 Sports frame and a 1958 Sports frame.

 

Plain lug (1947)

The 1947 Sports lugs are the old lugs, which are quite plain and are described variously as "fish tail" or "fish mouth" (depending on which side you are looking at) lugs. This are traditional lugs that are very functional and understated. They go perfectly with the old-style graphics and paint schemes of these bikes.

Plain lug (1947)

The seat cluster lug of the old style is particularly plain, and has a very substantial appearance. It is straight-cut and extends fairly deeply into the top tube. It certainly is built for durability before style. A separate, clamp-on Sturmey Archer pulley is used for the shifter cable.

Old-Style (1947) Seat Cluster Lug

 

In the early 1950s, the old-style seat cluster lug gained a directly-mount boss so the pulley wheel could be mounted to the frame without a clamp. It is a hybrid of the pulley boss shown below on the later 1950s bike, but with the old-style lug of the late 1940s bike. These are transitional lugs because they combine the direct-mount pulley with the old style seat lug.

 

 

During the 1950s, Raleigh changed the lugs to be somewhat more ornate. The lugs are not as ornate as those found on the Clubman, but the Sports bikes did get a bit of embellishment. These lugs go nicely with the more ornate frame graphics of the later 1950s. 

Later 50s Lug (1958 Raleigh Sports)

 

The later 1950s seat lug is very different from the old-type. It has a deep cutaway with an ornate hook pattern. It also has a pulley boss mounted to the underside of the lug. A special pulley axle/stud is used to mount directly to the lug boss. 

Later 1950s Ornate Lug with Pulley Boss (1958 Sports Bike)

 

 

Bottom brackets also change a bit. In this case, the oiler port moved and settled on a more user-friendly, flip-cap type top. The spring-ball oiler does seal a bit better, but it is notoriously more difficult to use with a common oil bottle today. At the time, there was a thin-tip, needle oiler meant to go with this spring-ball oiler, though I don't have one in my tool bin. I prefer the flip-cap type for adding oil. The bottom bracket lug shape was largely the same, plain type. 

 

Late 1940s bottom bracket (1947)

 

Later 1950s Bottom Bracket (1958)

 

These kinds of changes show the subtle evolution of the Sports-style Raleigh frame. It's not that one is better than the other. Rather, they form a nice variety in the bikes from a collector and historical standpoint. Both of the bikes used in these examples, a 1947 Model 35 Sports and a 1958 Sports, ride beautifully and are representative of their particular eras of Raleigh history. I enjoy both.