Tim McCormackCool, I finally found the frame number on this Raleigh Sports bike that I scavenged from the side of the Community Path: 2754906. Which means I also finally know the year of manufacture (1971) thanks to this great resource: https://www.kurtkaminer.com/TH_raleigh_serials.html
Today I got the Raleigh fully rideable. Needs some "finishing touches" (such as handlebar grips, lol) and then I can see if anyone, like.. wants it, I guess.
Finally got to take my scavenged 54 year old bike out for a test ride after fixing it up. It's actually pretty nice!
Things it needed:
- New tires & tubes and some rim tape
- Lube in the cables, calipers, and shifter
- Shifter adjustment
- Bodged together fulcrum sleeve and brake cable clamp
Altogether about $50 in parts and a couple hours of fiddling around, and now it's a bike again.
(Lots of cosmetic issues but that can be someone else's problem.)
Ivan Ralchev@timmc I love those rear hubs with internal gears. Very fun to maintain too! Enjoy many rides with this beauty!
@ralchev It's so weird to not be able to tell when it's shifting! But very smooth.
Honestly it makes me a little nervous because I can't tell if the shifting is misadjusted and I'm abusing the hub somehow. đŸ˜“
@timmc Why? Just do not switch the gears while pedalling. You should be able to feel it if its jumping between gears. To clean the hub, use diesel. Does wonders :)
@ralchev Heh, I hadn't even considered that I shouldn't switch while pedaling—I've been pedaling gently during gear shifts like you would with a derailleur!
I don't know if the hub needs cleaning or not (the drivetrain overall was in *great* shape), but I've been wondering about oil. There's a little oil port and I need to look up what kind of oil it wants.