'81 Raleigh Bomber restoration

[darrenh]

stripped the rear wheel down and cleaned up the bits i need to reuse. i will take the sturmey hub apart like glen said. need to get a drill mounted metal polishing mop too, i can pop that in the pillar drill and i think it will bring the chain guard and mud guards up a treat.

[markgenesis]

Great stuff , had one of these when i was 15/16, (86-87) few years previous to that there was a local kid with one and he was the neighbourhood hero as everything the BMX kids could do he could do on his Bomber, ;D

Passed my test at 17 and sold the Bomber to a workmate for £20.

Bought a 77 Raleigh Chopper last Christmas as redemption though

[darrenh]

nice story mark

spokes arrived today which is pretty good service considering I ordered them about 7pm friday. on the right is original 14g sturmey rear spoke next to the new stainless 13g version.



also did a wet flat on the frame with 1500 paper which gets rid of all the orange peel, overspray, basically takes the high spots off. I also found a thick run in the paint which I blocked down, but it went thin and showed the primer through. so I sprayed it again, then it fell off the tree and landed bang on painted area sticking grass all over it, so got the paint off with thinners and did it again. par for the course when I do stuff

[darrenh]

I stripped down the sturmey 3 speed hub following a guide on youtube still not sure how it actually alters output speed as there's only one set of planet gears, and one sun gear ? in any case inside was all ok, bit of slack in one of the pawl springs which I stretched, and the tips of the clutch rotor are peened a little but not unserviceable.

one major problem is that the drive side had no lock nut on the bearing, and the offside had no lock washer, so it was basically the outter hub/spindle nuts stopping the bearings undoing themselves. i've scraped around in the drawer of random and found a lock washer (red arrow below) but need to source the missing lock nut to sort it properly



reassembled with the lock nut from the offside put onto the drive side

[darrenh]

today i re-laced the rear sturmey hub to the new USA rim using this guide on youtube

first i had to take all 36 spokes off and remove the hub from the donor wheel





then started to lace the sturmey hub to the new rim, with the 155mm sapim spokes





this picture is all finished but the nipples are only nipped up to take the slack out, as you can see the spokes are all squiffy from the lacing these will pull straight when its trued



new foam grips turned up so now i can lay the grifter grips down to rest!! they have black end caps, i could paint them red for authenticity, but i'm not making a replica and it doesnt bother me being black.

[darrenh]

had a little pop with the polishing wheels on the chain guard, just to remind folk how it started off after degreasing



i bought 3 polishing wheels, one course sisal, one cotton (pictured) and a fine felt, plus two compound bars, brown medium and blue fine.



this is how it ended up, not that great because of the pitting which would only be removed by sanding first, but the guard is thin as paper to start with.

[ems1]

Where did you get the foam grips from, as I need these for my bike

[darrenh]

they are from ebay, if you google 120mm foam bicycle grip

[darrenh]

i've been cutting the paint back on the frame, masked the seat tube just to show a before and after



nice and reflective



all 3 bits done, looking good but the paint went thin on the lower frame yawn! seems to be the high spots where the original paint had wrinkled due to rust. som rather than say "balls that'll do" which is my usual answer, i'm gonna persevere and paint that tube again

[darrenh]

[fast show jesse] today i aff be mostly polishing chrome [/fast show jesse]

out on the decking, nice weather, bit of 10w40 and a bag of fine wire wool, doesnt sound like work does it !





all the bright work done. only downside is that the cow horns are absolutely shafted, it has large swathes of missing chrome at the bends (looks ok from a distance admitedly) not sure i have much choice than to spray them. will try the chrome finish enamel paint (supposed to be 80% reflective as actual chrome)

[Kev]

What a great little project

[mattmk1]

Great work, I've just picked up an Elswick city for an overhaul looking forward to seeing the finished bike

[darrenh]

thanks guys, appreciate the comments getting quite close to building it all back up

[darrenh]

got brakes !! found some OEM fibrax versions, still got the same part number as back in the 1970s ha !



did a bit of work on the cow horns, as you can see in this close up the chrome is dead meat.



so I took a grinder+flap disk to it, sanding down to the copper plate. then after this pic was taken finished it with 600 and 300 paper.



in the week I recieved my tins of VHT plate spray click me I know its not original, and will never be as shiny as chrome but plenty of bikes have painted handle bars and its better than rust !

so anyway, coat of etch primer and then 5 or 6 of the chrome spray. you can see compared to the stem on the halfords cheapo bike beside, the finish is sort of polished aluminium lustre



also finished cutting the paint on the frame, degreased and applied the new decals

[darrenh]

small addendum to show the reflectiveness, using the international standard of ant powder.

thats gotta be the shiniest silver covering you'll ever get out the tip of a rattle can ? pretty impressed

[darrenh]

i bet you are all thinking just finish it already !

i got the frame up in the vice with soft jaws, using the rear forks to true the new wheel. this stage i was just going round all the nipples putting half turns on to tension them up slowly



heres the asda value method i used to true the wheel, worked out that including the rim thickness it was bang on 20mm either side to the frame, so i clamped a straight edge across the gap and watch the wheel wander off of the 10mm mark, then tweak the nipples (fnar fnar) to pull the rim whichever way required



with that done i fitted the chain guard and sprocket back on. i noticed the sprocket is dome shaped, can anyone confirm the concave side points outward as in my picture? can anyone also confirm whether the thicker shim goes behind the sprocket or thinner ? anyway i tried the sprocket with the concave side pointing to the hub and the chain would be running on the guard.



then checked the bearings on the untouched new front wheel, all nice and greased so set the bearings back up. then was able to dress the wheels up



last picture here ive carefully reassembled the crank set (or bottom bracket i think you guys call it) and the head set, also fitted the crank arms and new cotter pins

[TS]

Amazing. I used to build/true wheels for a living. Your method is fascinating but looks to be highly effective.

Did you oil the nipples first? Some use Linseed oil some use locktite. I found normal wet lube did just fine.

Have you de-stressed the wheel? (just true it after a few rides if not - repeat until it stays true).

[darrenh]

awesome, thanks for the tips i wouldnt say its a good "method" but it worked ok, i was going to use a stylus on one side of the frame but its a 1980s bike from nottingham so i'm not sure how accurate is can be

the wheel rim was oiled yeah, i'll keep an eye on the rim after a few goes

[darrenh]

snagged a rear reflector off of ebay, not sure its "spec" but its vintage BSA fairylite and looks better than the shonky plastic backed stuff available now.



did a bit of work on the mud guards, ended up grinding the heads off the bolts holding the stays. then attacked whatever was rusty with wire cup in angle grinder, this will be followed up by rust converted acid, then chrome spray on the inside. the outside with polish up ok i think





also put the wheels on, tensioned the chain, fitted the rear fork triangulation, saddle and handlebar stem. quick teaser shot

[darrenh]

no word from the "re-trimmers" about the saddle.

i got busy with the wire wool and oil, followed by the polishing mops. quite surprising how you can resurrect some stuff