Late Season Rides

 We're down to the last few weeks of riding season here. It's starting to turn cooler and the days are getting much shorter. It's dark by about 6:45 p.m., so that means leaving for my rides a little earlier each day. Once the clocks change of back to eastern standard time, it will be dark very early indeed. I might as well make the most of it while it lasts...

I've been spending more time on the 1940 Raleigh Model 35, a simple and enjoyable light roadster with not much in the way of "extras" on it. The only real "extra" was the fact that it came with a three speed hub rather than a single speed. Other than that, it came as a very basic bike: no chain guard, no rack, no lights. I added some retro LED lights and a nice saddle bag. 

I recently also made some changes to the 1959 Schwinn Traveler three speed. 

 

I reverted the grips from the white reproductions to a set of vintage Schwinn teardrop grips, and added heavy duty saddle clamp with a safety notch on it. I have found the modern, black reproduction Schwinn grips to be supple and comfortable. The white reproductions I used on the bike previously turned out to be harder and less comfortable than expected. I ended up converting to a set of aged Schwinn grips from the 1950s, which suit the bike nicely.

The saddle clamp is a basic, Sunlite brand clamp that is made in Taiwan. However, I have come to like these clamps because they have a couple features I look for: a safety notch on the inner clamp, and a full square carriage bolt rather than a thin (cheap) bolt with just a couple flats on it. The safety notch is nice when you use a 7/8 top seat post  for a 13/16 Schwinn frame. The heavy duty bolt is nice because it bites better and is stronger than the really cheap, thin bolts you see that have just the two flats mashed into them. A full, square saddle carriage bolt is the way to go, I think. You see the beefy, full square carriage bolts on the older English clamps, though I've seen even some of the newer England clamps with the cheapo thin/flat bolts.

Get out there and enjoy it while you can...