Raleigh Sprite 5 Speed Continues

With rainy weather, I have some time away from riding to do work on the Raleigh Sprite in the shed. Tonight I trued the wheels and mounted rim strips, tubes, and tires. These tires are the basic, Duro white walls from Thailand. The production quality likely is less than that of the old Dunlop tires that came with the bike, but they are fresh and in much better condition.

A new facet of this project is rubber restoration. I normally just clean up the rubber parts. In this case, I am soaking the Dare/Raleigh grips in a mixture of alcohol and Oil of Wintergreen. The bath should have a softening and restorative effect on the grips. They were not in bad shape as they arrived, but were a little hard. This will hopefully soften them nicely before I put them back on the handlebars.

The next step is to start reassembling the bike.

Sturmey Archer S5 Bell Crank

Progress continues on the Raleigh Sprite. Yesterday I received a replacement bell crank and a push rod. If I have trouble with the push rod I repaired, I will use this one. It took quite a bit of searching, but it's looking like I have the specialty parts I need to complete this once I get a little more time to work on it.

1970 Raleigh Sprite

I previously received a damaged Raleigh Sprite from about 1970.  The Sprite 5 speed of the late 1960s and early 1970s was the high performance version of the 26 inch Raleigh Sports. The Sprite later changed to 27 inch wheels and a 10 speed derailleur set up. I like this five speed variation better.

http://bikeshedva.blogspot.com/2015/09/raleigh-sprite-5-speed-beat-down.html

The bulk of the damage took place to the chain ring and rear hub shifting components. The Sturmey Archer S5 push rod was badly bent, the non-drive bell crank was ground off, and the chain ring was bent.

At this point, I'll wager Fed Ex will refuse to pay for the damages. The seller/shipper was accommodating and fair, but I'll bet Fed Ex walks away from this. Anyway, a weekend's work set most of this straight.

I straightened, smoothed, and blued the push rod.

I straightened the chain ring in a small vice. I also cleaned and smoothed the teeth on the chain ring.

Once the damage was repaired, I started working working on the rest of the bike. I cleaned up the painted parts and polished them. For this task, I like NuFinish Scratch Doctor or Meguiar's car polish.







 This Sprite's bronze green finish glows nicely.

 

I matched and patched up the paint finish where needed. I also cleaned and polished the Westrick pattern wheels. 

This bike came with a classic Brooks B72 saddle. Cleaning and treatment with Books Proofhide really brought out a nice brown, aged color.