Warm Summer Evening

 A nice, evening ride on the 1967 Raleigh Sprite 5-speed.

 

Late Summer Evenings...

Tonight was a warm, humid summer evening. The days are starting to get a bit shorter... I took this nice, old 1950 Schwinn Superior for a ride down the road to a grassy park and lake in the next town.

 

Wartime Schwinn New World Frame - No Frills

 My current project is a WWII era Schwinn New World. This frame shows that at Schwinn, as with so many other factories in the United States at the start of 1942, war production was commencing. This New World frame is a mixture of electroforge welded and fillet brazed. 

Above: the seat tube joint is welded but the chain stays and downtube are fillet brazed.

 The welded joints are fairly clean, though there is some bumpiness around the welds in a few areas. The electroforge process was highly automated, but also relied on a degree of hand cutting and finishing the excess metal around the weld. The hand finishing, even in peacetime, was less than that of a premium fillet brazed joint. But some of these wartime joints are a little bumpy.

 

Above: a headset cup painted black rather than plated.

 

The fillet brazed joints are one area where you really see that Schwinn was trying to churn out the last few bikes, and move into war production. The fillet brazed joints are adequate, but show very little or no hand finishing. The integrated seat clamp is roughly finishing and bumpy.

Above: the seat stay joint is brazed but not smoothly finished, seat clamp is somewhat rough.

 

A disproportionate number of these wartime frames are badged for sale at B.F. Goodrich stores. This is one of several 1941-42 bikes that had Goodrich badges and were made by Schwinn. It is possible that Schwinn was rounding out a contract to produce bikes for Goodrich before wartime production commenced in full. Schwinn was not one of the bicycle manufacturers permitted to produce bikes throughout the war (as for example, Westfield/Columbia was permitted).

Above: braze joints are solid, but a bit roughly finished.

 

The reduced level of final finishing does not weaken this frame any, and it remains a good, sturdy frame. However, the sort of attention to detail and hand finishing one would expect of a Schwinn produced in, say 1940 or 1946-47 is not there. It's an interesting artifact of a unique and stressful era of U.S. history.

Why You Don't Re-Use British-Style Cloth Rim Strips...

British-made three speed bikes often come with old, cloth rim strips. These are identifiable by their white/cotton color, and metal buckle holding them together. 

I love old Dunlop tubes and old Dunlop tires - they were really well made parts. Most of the time the old tires are all dried... but sometimes you get lucky and find good, old tires.

One thing you want to dump though are the old, cloth rim strips that are found under these tubes and tires. If they take water or moisture, they will hold it against the rim, and leave a big, ugly rust spot.

The Raleigh Sprite project I recently completed had very, very clean rims. In fact, the only rust spots were inside the rims, where the cloth strips had taken water and held it against the rim. They cleaned up well enough, but don't re-use these rim strips if you value your rims.

 Below you can see the spots where there was moisture, and rust formed - indicated by the brown stains on the strip.

The rim strip above is a "moderate" case, and certainly nothing that will harm the structure of the rim. But it makes a mess and leaves a point where future moisture could cause the rust to restart. In the worst cases, the rust will actually eat through the inside of the rim, leaving you wondering how the rim could look passable outside, but be so badly rusted inside. 

Don't re-use these strips. Velox rim tape and even the basic, rubber strips, are a better choice.

 

1967 Raleigh Sprite 5-Speed

 

 I have more or less finished with the Raleigh Sprite 5-speed refurbishment. This bike came to me in pretty good condition on basically a local sale (I drove about 25 minutes each way, but sort of local still). 

 

The bike was basically all original - even the tubes, cloth rim strips, and shock-stop grips were there. 

I made relatively few changes. I put on a new set of Michelin World Tour tires (white wall, going off the period Raleigh catalogs); put in new rim strips; and and lubricated all the moving parts. 

 

The fixed-end cables were lubricated by removing them, hanging them up vertically, and then spraying white lithium grease down the cable cores and into the housings. Gravity then carried the semi-liquid grease downward and throughout the housings/cables.

 

I put on new brake pads - Kool Stop John Bull replacements. I used the standard Kool Stop black pads.

New additions are the retro LED lights - a Kiley bullet front to capture the look of the old Sturmey Archer, Miller, or Lucas units; and the rear is an Aluma-Lite rechargeable USB type. These lights capture the retro 1960s look, but with modern LED brightness for safety on busy roads. I added a classic 3-inch Miller bell to the handle bars for bike trail use.

Above: Aluma-Lite retro style LED mated to Miller bracket

 

The original Brooks B72 saddle was not in bad shape. It was a little dry, but still pretty good. I did a couple of test rides and decided to go with a Brooks B66 saddle instead. The B66 soaks up our bumpy New England roads a little better than the 72. But that's a personal taste sort of thing.

 

So far I have preserved the old, plastic shifters and the somewhat anemic sheet metal bell crank for the rear hub push-rod. These sheet metal bell cranks are not terribly robust, but let's see what it can do before replacing it entirely.

 

The old, grey shock-stop grips were too far gone to save. They actually had split some time ago, and someone tried to superglue them back together. That sort of thing usually doesn't work, but at least someone was trying to keep them going. I substituted in a set of black Dare grips, which are similar to the originals but black, and a whole lot more robust. 

I previously wrote about making your own bronze green paint from Testors model paints. It's not overly difficult, and I did a little bit of touch up on this bike. There wasn't a great deal of that to do, but while it's apart, why not make it look better?

I love the winged 5-speed graphics on these Sprites

 

The final product looks nice. I'm nearing the end of what I consider to be "test" rides. I'm getting fairly reliable shifting from the old shifter and bell crank, smooth running from the hubs, and decent enough braking from the pads. I am using a 24 tooth rear cog (48 tooth sprocket up front), which gives a very low gearing for hills, though the top gear still isn't bad when you have a tail wind or downhill. 

I love it when the pinstripes are still there...

 

Overall, I'm fairly pleased with how it came out. I'm keeping an eye on the bell crank and shifter set up. They're known for giving problems, though these are very low mileage and in good shape. If need be, I'll upgrade the bell crank, but will see how the original holds up to some more riding first.

I'm still enjoying summer riding, and this Sprite adds to the different vintage bikes I can pick for a nice, evening ride.

Not a bad result...

 

 

The "Spares" Market - What We Have Lost

The decline of industry in the U.S. and Britain brought many consequences with it, but one of the biggest losses for vintage bicycle people was the loss of the wide-ranging production of spare parts. When we think of vintage bicycles today, we tend to think of a company like Raleigh or Schwinn churning out bicycles; that is, starting with basic materials and working up to a whole bike.

What we often forget is that the factories also produced a wonderful and broad range of spare parts. Even catalogs from the 1960s and 70s show how a buyer could get full quality parts from the original manufacturer of their bicycle. This ranged from small parts up to whole frames. This market was strongest in the period from the 1930s through the 1960s. 

(Above: a selection of parts available in a 1940s-era Raleigh catalog. Everything from a frame, down to a master link for a chain could be bought.)

The beauty of the spare parts market of that time was that original manufacturers stocked many different parts that would fit your bicycle, look as if they were always there, and keep a well-used bike on the road. 

(Above: another 1940s-era Raleigh catalog page, including brand-specific parts for sale).

The bicycles of that era tended to be durable goods, and investment in good spare parts made sense to people. This is in marked contrast to many bicycles today being "disposable" when parts begin to wear out (though certainly not all new bikes are disposable). 

(Above: a page from an old Schwinn catalog from just before WWII showing high-quality parts available for your Schwinn road bike/3 speed bike.)

Even in the United States, where bicycles was less prevalent prior to the energy crisis and bike boom of the early 1970s, parts from original manufacturers could be had for quality bicycles. Although the market for adult bikes and utility bikes was smaller in the U.S. prior to 1970, many manufacturers still tried to keep bikes on the road with quality spare parts.

(Above forks available for Schwinn road and utility bikes before WWII).

The other striking thing about this spare parts market is that even "core" parts of bicycles could be bought. If your Raleigh or Schwinn needed a new fork, you could get one in a matching color and of correct type. Normally a damaged core component on a bike today means the end of the bike, but in those days, there was a great deal of support for keeping the bike on the road in form of spare parts.

(Above a Schwinn catalog page from before WWII, showed a variety if quality parts for your road bike or three speed bike).

Customization was also an option with the broad spare parts markets from 1930 through the 1970s. If you wanted a lighter set of rims, more ergonomic handlebars, or even just a swankier chain guard, you could find quality parts from the original manufacturer of your bicycle. 

Budget options also existed from companies like McCauley metal products. Although the thickness of the metal and quality of the plating on these pieces might be been a bit lower than from a high-end bike company, they still offered style and functionality at an affordable price. Some of these pieces even incorporated art deco and streamline designs in the 1930s, 40s, and 50s. 

(Above: an art deco wing chain guard made by McCauley. Special brackets and multiple mounting holes allowed McCauley chain guards to be fitted to a variety of bikes).

Finally, we often think of the 1960s and 70s as an era of cost-cutting and eventual off-shoring of manufacturing. While that certainly held true in many instances, 1960s era catalogs show a continued interest in furnishing quality parts for utility and road bikes. 

(Above a 1963 catalog shows a variety of quality spare parts from Raleigh. Even in the midst of cost-cutting in the 1960s, good and specific parts remained available.)

But it would be an error to say that all the cost-cutting of the 1960s and 70s did not take a toll. By the early 1980s, more and more parts were being contracted out or replaced by generic substitutes. Today the quality spare parts market is dominated by a few companies, and we have more a "components" market where multiple brands of bike use the same parts rather than a true "spare parts" market where you buy brand-specific spares from the original maker of your bike. 

Today's interchangeable components made by contractors and dedicated component makers may be higher tech and lighter, but there were still many benefits to a market where you could buy a perfect substitute for your damaged or worn out original manufacturer part. In that sense, we have lost an important area of support for our vintage Raleighs, Schwinns, Columbias, and other brands.