On the Virtues of Old Three-Speeds

The following comes from a reader and group administrator for the 3-Speed Bicycle Lovers Group on Flickr. He wrote me a few weeks ago after I posted a photo of my bike to his group, and I've been meaning to post part of his email here ever since. "Hank" does an excellent job of expressing the utility and simplicity of these bikes:

"Old 3-speed bikes are built like tanks, and the Sturmey
Archer hub is a nearly infallible gearing mechanism. In
Boston where I live you see a lot of these bikes still
running. Dealers in town can easily sell one of these bikes
in good shape for as much as $200 to $300. I'd rather find
one for cheap - it's not too hard!

In my opinion an old 3-speed is the perfect everyday bike
for riding through the city. When I have a passenger side
mirror to my left and a row of parked cars to the right,
the narrowness of the North Road handlebars have enabled me
to squeeze between them, which is something you could never
do with a mountain bike or a cruiser. Also if need be, I
can switch gears when I'm at a complete stop. If I get
caught in the rain the fender keeps my back dry. They are
comfortable too as I am in an upright position when I'm
riding. Maintenance is fairly simple as well. Enough of my
ranting and raving...

Good luck with your bike. I hope to see more photos when
you're done fixing it up. May it bring you years of good
use! Thanks again."

Hank, thank you! More thoughts and postings on old bikes to come, and of course, more updates on my progress.

Post-Raleigh Hercules: Can Anyone Help?

I received an email from Yanek of Bicyclog (which documents some of Tel Aviv's more interesting bicycles) asking if I knew anything about the Hercules brand. Apparently, Yanek has stumbled upon that dream of all old bicycle lovers: mint-condition old bikes in the back of someone's defunct shop.

I found an old bike shop here in Tel Aviv, (its not operating). I made an appointment with the owner of the shop, and at the back I've discovered these 4 black and one blue HERCULES 3 Speed bicycles the blacks are in mint condition directly from the factory, only the tires been eaten by the rats. and the blue is been slightly used. I wanted to ask you if you know how much this bike worth, and if you know something about this model or this brand.

I gave Yanek a partial answer, based on what little I know about Hercules, which is that they were bought by Raleigh in 1960, and that they manufactured their own 3-speed hubs before the buyout. These, however, have Sturmey-Archer hubs, so I'm guessing that they are 1960s or 1970s bikes. If you know anything more about these bikes, and can help Yanek determine dates and values, please leave a note in the comments.

Reader Project Update: Margaret's Mystery Bike

I'm totally floored by what our friend Margaret is doing with her still-unidentified mystery bike in London. I posted a "before" photo from her blog last week, and she's done a lot since. I'll post a few pics here, along with some of Margaret's description of her work, but I want folks to check out her blog for more photos and a lovely running narrative of her work. I'm starting to think maybe I should hand over the Old Bike Blog to Margaret! I'm irrationally excited to watch this project unfold from afar, and I hope everyone finds it as interesting as I do.

Margaret writes: I'd really like to identify it, but unfortunately the back hub is so rusty that I can't find any serial numbers. Attached are the most distinctive parts of it - the front decal which is painted on and says "H" - which i'm fairly certain is Hercules, an old English bike company set up in the late 1800s.




The next is the saddle, it says Lycett Model L21.








Finally is the gear changer which says oswaldtwistle and field co. I sent a mail to the English Cycle Museum and they say that it's pre WWI! It's coming apart very nicely. I'm trying to tackle the dynamo at the moment, it's really stuck on pretty well!





This is the front fender before clean up...

...and this is the front fender after.









Front hub before...









...and front hub after.









Margaret has tons more photos and description of what she's doing with her bike, which she's named "Audrey Hepburn", at her blog. Really, go check it out.

Beautiful Poster Art by Nick Dewar

OBB reader and budding old bicycle addict Nick Dewar sent me this link to an awesomely awesome poster he created for ReadyMade. The idea was to re-imagine the iconic "populist poster art" of the 1930s in our current, er, troubled times. I love everything about this poster. If such a thing is possible, it makes my brain salivate. There are four other beautiful posters, too, all available for free download, but this one is really top o' the pile.

Here's Nick's website, too.

A Very Wonderful Note

I want to share this wonderful note, which was recently left in the comments of an old post. I didn't want folks to miss this fellow's story, and didn't figure too many people would see it languishing in a post from a few months back, so I've decided to give it the attention it deserves. This, everyone, is why I started this blog, and why I love it so much.

Here's the note, in its entirety:

In the tradition of the old bike blog, I'm responding to an old post. I used to mountain bike exclusively, this was mainly because CHP (http://www.climbonline.org/cgi-bin/yabb2/YaBB.pl?board=cunningham) in NYC was two minutes from my apartment. Now I live in Tacoma, WA and the nearest mtn. biking requires a car ride. Due to this I've sort of re-discovered my love of bicycling and bicycles in general.

Concurrently I saw a 1936 Rollfast at a garage sale this summer for $25. It was beautiful and I had to have it, so I coughed up the cash and brought it home. Searching on the Internet I began to learn about vintage bicycles, antique bicycles, balloon-tire pre-war bicycles, etc. etc. My search led me to blogs such as this and exploded a new interest/hobby/obsession within me.

I also discovered that to totally restore it to it's original state (won't even discuss the paint job - it appears new) will cost me several hundred if not thousands of of dollars for parts on e-bay. I bought this bike because it looked beautiful, and would love to see it restored to its original condition, but not at that price! I have lovingly taken the whole thing apart, cleaned rust, grime, and dirt off of metal parts, re-lubed many parts, purchased ball bearings, bearing grease, cleaning agents, rust removal agents, copper wool, wire brushes. Halfway through this process I discovered a new hobby/obsession, but also new that I don't have the cash to restore the bike all the way. Nor do I want to. I want to learn from it and ride it (actually make it a b-day present for my wife to ride.) I don't have the cash to re-chrome fender braces, trusses, chain-rings , and the handlebars which somebody painted black; I can't justify the $75 for a tank that's currently on e-bay, or the cost of a NOS light and generator. And on and on... So I'm compromising.

I'm going to clean and fix the best I can. New white walls, tubes, rim tape. Going to purchase (gasp) white spokes (one extra expense) because they will look cool with the red/white paint scheme, gonna teach myself how to true a wheel and then re-build the wheel with the newly cleaned New Departure Hub and white spokes. I got a cheap rack off of e-bay, which I will put on even though it's not an original 8-hole style rack. I got a set of non-painted black handlebars really cheap too, going to add those.

So in the end the Rollfast will be a present to my wife. It will have given me hours of enjoyment learning how older bikes were built, it will have the feel and look of a fat-tire vintage bicycle, some new parts, some non-accurate parts, some old cleaned parts, and some rusty, not shiny, not beautiful parts. For an original investment of $25 I'd say that's a bargain.

Wow, that's a lot. The point is I don't believe historically accurate restoration is for me. I don't have the patience or the money for it. I want to ride, ride, ride. Not collect, restore, and display. I'll leave that to others better equipped for it.

I'll send you some pics of the Rollfast, along with the 1975 Schwinn Suburban (rootbeer color, $15 at a garage sale), 1968 Women's Columbia Rambler ($35, still has sparkly purple-pink paint), Centrix Cruiser ($20 have no idea what this is or where it's from) and all the other bikes I pick up along the way.

Thanks Thom for an excellent and informative blog!!!

Aw, shucks. That really made my day, I must say.

Mobile Museum of Material Culture

Artist Kara Ginther has been on the Interwebs a lot lately. You might have seen her hand-carving on leather saddles at To Be, Inspired, or BoingBoing, or Chic Cyclists. While her leatherwork has been getting most of the attention (and rightfully so), I'd also like to mention that Kara has a very neat side project going called the Mobile Museum of Material Culture, which as you can see from the photo above, is powered by an old tandem.

Kara and the MMMC are touring about the Madison, Wisconsin area this fall, so if you're in the area, check out their schedule, and if you're not, see her Flickr set.

Shocking! Rust Removal Technique

UPDATE: Here's a couple of photos of part of the rig, before and after:

An OBB reader sent me a couple of before and after photos of a rusty kickstand he cleaned up with the rust removal technique linked below. FYI, he used an old 12v laptop power supply, which he says worked just fine. I've not used this technique before, but it sure looks effective. Anyone else have any stories/photos/recommendations to share on this method?

Electrolytic Rust Removal at Instructables.com

Oh, Canada! Part I

A reader recently sent some photos and info about Canadian-built Raleighs after realizing that his 1975 Raleigh Superbe was actually built in Canada. Since the provenance of overseas Raleigh makes has been of interest to readers in the past, I thought this might be useful to post.

"I was surprised to discover, after buying the bike with the Nottingham England badge, that in fact, it had been manufactured here in Canada. The serial number bears this out, as does a small decal I had overlooked. Many of the parts were made in England. My understanding is that the Raleigh factory was opened in Quebec in about 1972 (this bike is a 1975). Ironically, the factory in Quebec is still building Raleighs, with a work force of about 300, and is supposed to be the largest bike factory left in North America.

The serial number of this bike starts with RG5. This excellent site gives the info for Raleigh serial numbers:

http://www.jaysmarine.com/TH_raleigh_serials.html

The 'R' being Canada . 'G' being May , and '5' being 1975."

Oh, Canada! Part II: CCM Bicycles

The same reader who sent in the info on Canadian-built Raleighs also has this lovely 1973 CCM Elite (Canada Cycle & Motor Company). I particularly like the chainring. What is it about artful chainrings that's just so appealing?

Also, I wanted to share this awesome 1918 CCM catalog.

Pennyfarthing Help

I received this email from Nicky last week, and since I don't know anything about pennyfarthings, original or reproduction, I'm posting it here to see if anyone can offer any help. Just leave a note in the comments if you can help, or if you can suggest a resource that might help Nicky.

I couldn’t resist a reproduction pennyfarthing about 17 years ago and bought it. Since then I have been told it is likely to be a limited edition reproduction constructed during the 1960s by Raleigh. Unfortunately, Raleigh had no archive records at that point and I’m wondering if you are aware of anything that might prove or disprove this. I can send you some more pics if that helps. It isn’t in pristine condition as it has been stored in a garage before I got it and since, but is sturdy and rideable!