What have I started? - Triumph action

[jonw]

May I first say I blame RR entirely for this, without your ever persuavive posts showing cool old cycles this would never have happend.....


....that's you told.


On to the story...

I went out on th Triumph on friday evening as the british summer was defying the odds and actually being warm and sunny... post this I decided to hang about and do some spraying of project Matchless. This was intruppeed by the owner of the garage clearing out the opposite unit.... que the question.... "Is there anything you would like in here.... there's a few old bikes.... we are going to throw it all away" At this point I SHOULD have said no thanks but it came out as Ok, I'll take them....

So now I have the below:

Two Raleigh's




A Sun


A triumph (in not bad nick)




A Rudge




As you cn see I'm conscentrating on the Rudge as it's the oddest and probably the oldest. Plans are for a repaint into black and modern single speed wheels. The biggest Issue I can see is fitting a brake....

What have I started??

[wagoneer]

Oh yes! Top scavenging that man. Never turn anything down is my motto. Can you fit rim brakes on the Rudge or is it devoid of any mounting points?

[awoo]

ah man that rudge is awesome don't rape that puppy! clean it up and put some cream tyres on it, keep it original. would be a real shame spray it and put new parts on there

[jonw]

No raping here I assure you!

The frame looks a lot rougher in reality! A re-paint is essential to preserve it and make it look good. It'll be black as per the original colour.

Small update, I'll take piccies when I get time....

Frame is being cleaned ready for paint, the cranks and front sprocket are cleaned up and the wheels are here!!!!

Remaining list:
Fit wheels - will need to mod spacers to get chain line
Fit Brake - How?
Clean up frame
Paint frame
Fit together

RIDE!!!

Shopping list:
Tyres (Cream???)
Brake lever
Grips
Saddle (Brookes??? what do you think??)
Chain
Pedals

If anyone sees a Rudge front sprocket let me know.... I have a raleigh on at the moment and would like to be the correct one on there. Rudge has a hang patter in the sprocket similar to the badge on the frame.

[awoo]

i would clean the dirt off that rudge and oil it to preserve.


the brakes are probably rod brakes, hence the lack of fittings. use the brake parts from one of the other frames ftw

[TopJobHobNob]

if you were brave, you could fixie it? looks cool man. love retro bikes.

[kingsmith]

got a rudge sat at home in its original condition.

[jonw]

Nice rudge! Great to see an original one!

New wheels....



I need to od the spindles on the rear in order to allow then to fit into a 9mm slot. Chainline is pretty good as standard

Soon the frame will be ready for some needed repairs and paint!!!

[dallow]

could you not preserve the it with matt laquer ? and keep the patina ?

[jonw]

The patina was mostly grease, rust and brush purple paint! Trust me it had to go!

[charles97]

Love those Raleigh chain guards look so cool!
But the Triumph one is probably more usable...

[jonw]

Update time!!!

The rudge has undergone a bit of a fransformation

Started with the grease and several layers of bad resprays coming off....



And replaced with a fresh coat of black!





Needs a bit of touch up to finish.

Now time to assemble!

[jonw]

And the result is....







Managed to source a pair of tyres from ebay, a saddle for £20 from work and the chain is recycled (and probably 50 years old....)

It needs brakes badly.... along with a new chain and cotter pins.

[messenjah]

i Cant see a way of fitting a road bike calliper brake but with the addition of some bolt on v brake bosses



you could fit some mountain bike v brakes or cyclo cross style brakes maybe an avid shorty or something similar.

[jonw]

Brakes can be fitted in the old mudguard mounts so no worries there.... just need to figure out the neatest way.

On to more important matters than safety.... shiney things!!!

Found this on line....







A Carbide lamp!!!! Unfortunatly this will never be able to see carbide again as the water chamber and filter housing is pretty rotten inside. But plans involve a cheepy led torch and wire extensions.

[wagoneer]

That's looking splendid! The new parts fit it so well it could have been built 50+ years ago.

[alecw35]

My dad had a load of rusty old bikes in the loft. So I built up a Rudge frame with fixed gear. A caliper brake on the very rusty front rim. This was about 20 years ago. One day I decided to go to the bank, then to pay my council tax. Trouble was the bank and the pole tax office were like 20 miles apart, and I had hardly riden a fixie before that. I got to the bank and office ok. But going home my leg wasn't liking it. the crank or pedals was a bit bent. So I walked a bit to rest a while. Did get some off roading on the gravel paths through the woods. I kinda wore out a set of brake pads that day. As rubber bike pads wont clear rust off a rim, just get filed down. I got sick fed up of that bike and rode it to the dump. The local kids took it out of the skip and rode around on it for a few weeks.

I have seen a lot of old bikes with modern parts. Some are ungainly. I don't like forks that have a big curve at the bottom, to have modern deep rims. But this bike looks ok.

[jonw]

Took it out for a ride in the Two Tunnels cycle path at the weekend..... brilliant. Almost killed/run over myself, several small chldren and old ladies....

... so with the general health of pedestrians and yours on mind safety features have now (finally) been added. But as ever with this bike it is far from simple...

So, using a very beefy 1/4BSF mudguard hole as a bracket we get:





Now this involved much head scratching and re-forming of the brakes but the results are pleasing.

Now for a lever...

Take a standard reverse lever and retro-ise by removing the ball end and forming a spade end...



Another bit of bling added...


Next bike in the list is the Triumph....

Plans are to clean up the frame, find wheels that will be able to take the rod brakes and have this as a more everyday bike with an easier gearing for commuting.

[princesstigermouse]

 Oh, it's so beautiful! *swoon*

I do love cream wheels... still toying with the idea of shelling out the extra for some cream tyres when I revamp my Pashley trike. If I ever get round to actually doing that... was meant to be this summer's project

[jonw]

Let there be retro light!!!









Not Gas I'm afraid.... LED. A modified Halfords cheepo Led torch sits in the Carbide chamber. Just need to find a rear one now!