Before
Just over a year ago I rescued this bike from my great aunt’s garage. It is an old steel frame single speed Raleigh road bike. Its around 40/50 years old (I think!) It was in terrible condition as you can see from the picture.
I thought it would be a great project to bring it back to life but at the time I found it I was saving up to go traveling so I couldn’t afford to do anything with it. So it was left to sit for another year :/ until a few weekends ago when I stripped it down with the help of my boyfriend and we painstakingly put it back together. It was actually lots of fun.
Here are some pics of the work we did:
I didn't realise there were so many parts!
We started off by dismantling the bike completely and cleaning each part. Lots of tea breaks were required 
Our aim was to re-use and salvage as many of the original parts as possible.
the rim tape had seen better days!
We took the wheels down to the local bicycle shop and bought some new tires, rim tape and tubes for them. We used a metal polish and wire wool to clean all the crome parts of the bike – the wheels were particularly bad!
before and after
the frame ready for a good clean
We were going to re-spray the frame but the paintwork wasn’t actually as bad as we thought so we just gave it a good clean instead.
the bottom bracket all cleaned and ready to go
all the hard work is done - now to put it back together!
all finished!
All finished and ready to go. I managed to find an old saddle in good condition on ebay which was great as the original saddle was gone beyond repair. I found an old basket in the garage which fits perfectly on the front of the bike and everything else is original! Success!
The only think I am having trouble with is the rod brakes. The front one is working fine but the spring is gone on the back brake and I haven’t been able to find a replacement yet. I’ll have to google it more!
3 responses so far ↓
1 Matthew // Jul 23, 2010 at 12:57 pm
Great work! I’m really glad you kept the original paint and components — looks fantastic.
Judging by the chainwheel and pedal reflectors, I’m pretty sure the bike dates from the early to mid 70′s. You can definitely check out the serial number online.
2 Nova // Jul 24, 2010 at 9:38 am
beautiful, greatjob!
3 Val // Jul 25, 2010 at 9:06 am
It’s not easy to tell from the pictures, but from what I remember from working on rod brakes (many of them), the “U” shaped piece that connects the pads to the central rod below the BB is actually the spring. The little rods that project back past the pads are angled out from the center of the bike, and push and slide against the guides on the chainstays in order to pull the pads back and away from the rim. As far as I can tell from these pictures, that is. Good luck; it looks great!
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