A Unique Find - 1938 Raleigh USA Catalog

Here's a great, recent find - a Raleigh US market catalog from 1938. This catalog gives us a nice picture of Raleigh's presence in the US market in the early days.

 

This catalog places the arrival of Raleigh in the US to around 1933. Raleigh USA began in Boston, Massachusetts and expanded from there. By 1938, Raleigh had a presence, through dealerships, in 32 states. 

 

The catalog offerings from 1938 were still somewhat limited in the US. The catalog shows:

• cable brake light roadster model, 
• rod brake light roadster, 
• full rod brake roadster
• child's model
• carrier/cargo bike
• and three sporting/road models 

The catalog is certainly more limited and less colorful than its British counterpart.

 

Where the offerings do not fall short are in the parts and accessories area, which includes numerous items to help make cycling easier. The emphasis was on a combination of practical cycling (even a cycling poncho and rain hat are offered), and on sporting (numerous touring bags, pedal toe clips, etc.). I love this little time capsule from the early days of practical cycling and three speed bikes in the US.

 

I have submitted a full scan of the catalog to the Veteran Cycle Club library. If you enjoy British bicycles and are not yet a member of the VCC, I highly recommend joining.

I plan to study this catalog further, and to do a more general entry on early utility bikes in the US prior to WWII in the future.

 

Late Season Rides - 1959 Schwinn Traveler Three Speed

 We've had excellent weather here this week, with temperatures above 70 deg. F (21 deg. C.). So I took a couple of different bikes out for rides this week: 1940 Raleigh Model 35, 1953 Raleigh Lenton, and 1959 Schwinn Traveler. All of these are fun, solid bicycles to ride on a warm autumn day.

 

The 1959 Traveler needed some minor maintenance. I've found there's a break-in period for every rebuilt, vintage bicycle. This usually means minor adjustments to the brakes, touch-ups to paint, and truing to wheels. Sometimes the rear hub needs a little oil, or handle bars or a saddle need adjustment. In this case, I needed to adjust the front brake and true the front wheel. Thankfully, nothing more than that so far.

 

I try to ride every day that I can this time of year because the season is so close to ending. I probably have 10 days or so left to ride in the evening after work. Once the clocks go back to Eastern Standard Time, it's too dark. Sometimes I'll slip a day in on the weekend, if it's suitably warm.

Progress- 1957 Schwinn Traveler Tall Frame

 I've been working gradually on a 1957 Schwinn Traveler tall frame. This one is in pretty good shape, and I really like the color. 

 

The work included 

• general cleaning, 
• straight and polish stainless fenders
  
• clean-up and tighten the fender braces, 
• check all bearings and races, add grease where needed,
  
• verify frame and fork straightness, 
• straighten and re-build brake calipers,
• clean and polish brake levers,
  
• clean and polish all chrome, 
• clean-up and true wheels, 
• new front axle, 
• new tires, 
• cr-mo seat post,
• new SRAM nickel plated chain, 
• remove old electrical tape and tape residue,
• patch-up paint here and there,
  
• and new Brooks leather saddle.

My light set will be a Kiley retro LED front and a Soma torpedo retro LED rear. Brake housing will be grey, similar to the original housings. I'll have all new brake cables. I'll custom fit a fixed-length Sturmey Archer shifter cable in grey housing. Pedals will either be new-old-stock waffle block Unions or new MKS 3000S rubber block pedals. I have a couple sets of original Union bow pedals, but I've always preferred square, beefier rubber blocks over the rounded bows.

This bike came with a 1957 dated Sturmey SW hub. This particule SW actually seems to work with its stock, 18-tooth cog. The issue with the SW is that it stays in gear... until suddenly it does not stay in gear. I've never had much luck with SW hubs staying in gear once the cog is changed up to a 22-tooth. Some of them work OK with the stock cog and in perfect conditions. The minute the floating pawls in the SW want to stick at all, they seem to cam out of gear. It's not a big deal if you're just puttering around the neighborhood, but if you're climbing and putting effort into pedaling, it can mean a trip over the handlebars. We have some pretty challenging hills around here too...

So I decided in the end to replace the SW hub with a 1957 AW alloy hub. It's from the same year, also 36 holes, and a lot more reliable with the 22-tooth rear cog. I also have all the parts I need to keep it tuned-up.

It will make a nice match for the 1959 Traveler tall frame I rebuilt a couple months ago.