Raleigh Dawn Tourist - White Wall Tires, Wheels, Rod Brake Progress

Today was a mixed bag: part sun and part rain. I got a ride on the Schwinn New World in, but also got some time to work on the Raleigh Dawn Tourist.

As you may remember, the wheels and tires had been cleaned up and ready to go. I reinstalled the fenders and wheels today. They are finger tight right now- just mocking the bike up so that I can finish the project off.

The chipped paint on the rear white stripe will need to be patched up next.

 The white wall tires are Duro brand- basically oriental tires made for a reasonable price. They're made in Thailand, and the quality is not bad from what I can tell. They have a traditional road tread. The original tires would have been Dunlop "White Sprite" type tires, which were also white walls.

The chrome of the handlebars looks pretty good, and the wheels cleaned up moderately well. There are some imperfections, but then again I'm not doing a full "restoration". I'm doing my usual "clean up and preservation".

Earlier I had mentioned needing to put together some sort of set up for the front rod brake connection. The previous owner had acquired a generic, threaded rod from a hardware store. The piece fit properly but needed to be milled down.

I milled it down by putting the rod in the chuck of my power drill, then turning the piece against a stone, then sandpaper of gradually finer grits. The effect was  makeshift lathe. Once I had turned the rod down to the profile of the other rods on the bike, I put it into the existing hardware and gave it a little snake to fit it right in between the fork blade and the reaction arm of the drum brake.

It's coming together. Yes, those white walls really add a nice, period effect too. I'm glad Duro is making these.