1953 Raleigh Lenton - And the "Sporting Roadster" Concept

 A focus for me this season was to put together a couple premium, sporty bikes with upright bars and a utility bike type configuration. The goal was to take the basic concept behind the famous Raleigh Sports light roadster, and to increase the performance a bit. My thinking was to do something similar in increasing performance, but also keep the core comforts of a utility bike like a Raleigh Sports would have. This seemed like a good idea for dealing with the hilly terrain around here.

I found three bikes to serve as a basis for this "sporting roadster" type of bike, two of them being Raleighs. One was the 1949 Raleigh Clubman, which I took for a ride last night. The Clubman was a significant increase in performance over the basic Sports model, given the wide variety of alloy parts, in addition to the Reynolds 531 frame. The alloy seat post, bars/stem, and rims make a huge difference. The frame helps some too, but those alloy components really reduce the weight.

The other Raleigh in this concept of a sporty roadster was a 1953 Raleigh Lenton. Like the Clubman, the Lenton would have started life as a road bike. 

 

 The Lenton was a step down from the Clubman but up from the Sports in terms of components. The Lenton has steel components, though some are lighter than typical Sports components. The Lenton especially has a nice set of lighter, Dunlop steel endrick rims. They're not as light as alloy, but they definitely are lighter than Westrick Sports rims as well. The frame is a bit lighter than a Sports, having Reynolds 531 main tubes, and the frame dimensions are a little tighter than a Sports. It falls right in between the Clubman and the basic Sports along a spectrum of sporty roadsters.

 

Overall, I like what this produced. The lighter weights are helpful when handling hills, though the comfort and usability of a light roadster are still present. All these bikes are equipped with saddle bags, light sets, bells, and sprung Brooks saddles. But the Lenton, and especially the Clubman, feel livelier and faster than a basic Sports. That's not to say the Sports is a bad bike - I still have several variations of the Sports in my collection. But these "sporting roadsters" hit a sweet spot that blends comfort, utility, and performance when you want something with a little more life than the usual.

Heading Toward the End of the Season

Over the years, I've developed a late-season routine of sorts for dealing with old bikes. 

Priority, as usual goes to riding bikes as frequently as weather and my time allow. But late in the season, that priority placed on riding is even more emphasized than other times of year. Given the now-limited number of days to ride, I try to get out as much as I can.

Below is a shot of my 1949 Raleigh Clubman, which is in a very comfortable, touring configuration. Those Nicelite/Reflectalite LED bulbs are great.

 

 

Second to riding come the minor projects and maintenance that keep a bike on the road. These are your one-evening type projects, such as fixing burned out light bulbs, repairing flat tires, and truing wheels. This keeps bikes on the road through the end of the season and keeps them safe to ride.

The lowest priority are large projects such as rebuilds. My assumption here is that even if I prioritized these projects, the bikes in question probably would not be on the road in time to make the end of riding season here. These projects can wait until winter in that case, and there's no real loss to me. The other nice thing about keeping these projects near the bottom of the ladder is that it takes all the pressure off to rebuild bikes. Trying to rush through a project is a recipe for stress and mistakes. 

Late season is also a good time to start thinking about what you might need by way of parts over the winter. Vintage parts that come in need to be cleaned and prepared for use. New parts usually are OK, but some parts, like MKS pedals, benefit from some additional grease and fine-tuning. Below is a set of MKS 3000-S 1/2 inch pedals straight from Japan for use on a vintage Schwinn 3-speed bike. The box is from a general "Japan goods" type retailer, who apparently also sells items related to Japanese cartoons. I'm not sure he has any idea how nice those MKS 3000S 1/2 pedals are on an old Schwinn... but it's great to have good pedals either way.

 

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 1940s 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...