Beginner's Guide: Buying Your First British 3-Speed Bike

 

Here are my notes from dealing with English bikes and coming across people getting into the hobby or into English bikes. This isn't aimed at anyone in particular, but I figured here is as good a place as any to leave some notes in case someone new to English bikes is thinking about what to get, or coming across stuff in thrift stores, etc.

The best ones to start with if you want to work on them are the post-war Raleigh Sports with AW hubs. A Sports or sports-family bike (Robin Hood, Rudge, Humber - all fine) from the 1950s or 60s or 70s (or early 80s even) will work fine here. There are plenty of parts around still. Thousands and thousands of the basic post-war Sports type bikes came to the US. If you're taller than 5ft 8in, the 23 inch frame usually is the better fit than the 21, but some people like the 21. Fasteners are usually proprietary on the Raleigh family bikes, but the exact spares are plentiful still, and usually not all that expensive. I'm not fooling about the 23 inch frame size. It's a godsend to have the 23 inch frame on 26 inch wheels for most adult male riders. Thrift stores sometimes are OK sources, but be very careful that it hasn't been in a bad wreck, everything is straight, all vital parts are there, etc. The leather saddle should not be overlooked - should not have tears, should be in proper shape and not all flat or distorted, etc. Budget $100+ for a new, good leather saddle if you don't have one already.

 

If you have to have a pre-war English bike, and you're not ready to dive in fully and import parts, then it's best to get one that has been gone over already, and preferably not heavily modified. I say this because I've encountered a pretty fair number of people who absolutely "must have" a 1930s rod brake roadster as their first English bike, but in the US, that's a more advanced project. Almost all projects of that age today need at least some new parts, and it may very well involve importing parts from England. These aren't going to be the sort of thing where you can go to the hardware store or just jump on eBay and find what you need in one-sitting. It often means canvassing English parts suppliers and getting it shipped over the Atlantic. If you're really, really lucky, someone like Rogers Motors/Albion Wheels, or Funthingsfound will have it. 

 

But for a lot of this 1930s-40s rod brake roadster stuff, you're looking at international shipping if something is broken. If you're new to old bikes or just old British bikes, don't punish yourself by getting a wrecked 1932 Hercules with a Model K hub, and then try to fix it, unless you really want to jump in with both feet, import parts, and deal with 90 year old, obsolete stuff. This is for the person who is more advanced and ready to really deal with the inherent issues. If you're mechanically inclined, patient, and accepting of what the project will require, by all means go for it.

The other thing is that the first English bike project for someone should use a regular Sturmey AW hub. They're not especially hard to work on, parts are usually available, and they're reasonably reliable. Bearing tolerances are generous and need not be perfect for it to run well. Another mistake I see new people make is they hear about some old, esoteric Sturmey hub and they "must have" a bike with one. Some of these more obscure hubs were unpopular for a reason - they have design flaws. Some hubs tear up inside the shell, some crack at the shell flanges, some the pawl/dogs won't seat properly, some stop working well in cold weather, some have brakes that treat stopping as a mere suggestion, etc. And with some, the parts are very expensive.

 I come across so many people who have to have a "WWII bike" or a pre-war roadster, or an obscure 1920s small-label brand bike as their first, and it's just begging for frustration unless you're totally accepting of how challenging these older bikes can be.