Raleigh Sprite 5 Speed Beat Down...

Along with the 1938 Cadillac, I have a late 1960s Raleigh Sprite 5 speed project in the Shed. I received this project last week and was hoping to clean it up and run it as a "high performance" version of the Raleigh Sports, which really is what the 5 speed version of the Sprite was.

Unfortunately, Fed Ex roughly handled the two boxes making up this project. This included punching the axles of the wheels through their box, to the point the non-drive side bell crank was hanging out of a box and was ground against the shipping equipment down to almost nothing. The damage is visible in the pictures. The bell crank should be a long domed nut, the same on each side. Fed Ex managed to grind half of it off.  They also bent the S5 hub's push rod that matches up to the bell crank.

In short, they really made a mess of this.

Other pictures show extensive damage to the boxes. They also managed to bend the chainring and bash-up one of the front axle "R" nuts. The "core" of the bike seems to have done OK though.








The result of this is a Fed Ex claim for damages, which will reportedly soon be processed. I'm not optimistic. They'll probably try to dodge out of this and blame the shipper, which is something I think unfair.








So I guess I need a Sturmey Archer S5 bell crank and possibly a push rod. I may also need a chain ring, though that might ultimately be fixable.

Autumn Weather and a Raleigh Sports Bicycle

The official arrival of fall is just about a week away, though the "traditional" fall season began last week. In either event, the weather will be improving somewhat here in Virginia and beginning to transition away from oppressive heat and humidity. There are certainly a few hot and humid days left, but today was certainly more of a fall day.


Better weather means good chances to ride. I ride after work, and as long as Daylight Savings Time is in effect, I have enough daylight to ride in the evenings. On the weekend, this also means more time to ride. I took a right ride before dinner tonight, on this 1974 Raleigh Sports.






This Sports was my primary transportation in college and for the first semester at law school. I eventually got a car when I rented an apartment in the suburbs and started commuting to school rather than living on or next to campus. The bike made a good campus bike when I used it in that role.





I later used it more on the local bicycle trail as a fun rider. I've put many miles on this one.

Vintage Airplanes, Cars, Motorcycles, and Even Some Bicycles

A bit off topic: but an album of my visit to Old Rhinebeck Aerodrome in New York on August 30, 2015. There were a couple of old bicycles present, but this is mainly about the aircraft, automobiles, and motorcycles:

http://smg.photobucket.com/user/SirMike1983/library/Old%20Rhinebeck%202015?sort=3&page=1


About Old Rhinebeck:

http://www.oldrhinebeck.org/