RVL's Ugly Ducklings

The bearings in the jockey are quite bizarre, a combination of roller and ball bearings to give smooth rotary, linear and angular motion... very clever

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sorted

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Made a bit of progress during the week - it's starting to take shape

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I was a bit concerned about the wheels, they were in a pretty rough state. The spokes are completely seized the axles didn't turn in the hub and the rims were pretty rusty.

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I couldn't do anything to tighten the spokes but I've ridden on worse.
The wheels are the original Bayliss Wiley and once they'd been stripped down and degreased run surprisingly well - very smooth indeed.
I also found the @clubman approved Schwalbe HS130 at the LBS near my office (Cycleman, Ashford) - they run at up to 85psi which is pretty good for a 32-597. A right pain to fit though!

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@falconvitesse kindly donated a Bayliss Wiley no14 bb axle which gives reasonably good chainline with a 3-pin chainset

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It's a pretty horrid chainset (Solida 3pin from a crap 70's 10-speed) but it looks the part.
I'm not sure how I'll get on with 1x3 on a 52T either - no doubt I'll be looking for something smaller fairly soon!

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The back wheel has a fantastic hub, it's the Bayliss Wiley Unit, a 1930's forerunner of the cassette hub

source: https://utahrandonneur.wordpress.com/2018/07/05/bayliss-wiley-free-wheel-unit-hub/

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The back tyre looked to be in reasonable condition so I gave it a test inflation to see how well it held air - this did not go well and the results were rather deafening

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near my office (Cycleman, Ashford)

I better hide the Harry O. It’s looking sad in the shed with a snapped seatpost and a lazy owner

Haha, A true classic of the ratbike genre - good to hear it's still alive though

Barely

It was never much more than that...
are you based around sunbury / ashford?

Ashford/Staines.

I’d love to get it mended, my old man loves the history and keeps banging on to get it done but it was never the right size and my gooch still hasn’t forgiven me

Pedals look to be fairly original/period correct.
The original 1938 catalogue states “racing rat trap” these are Phillips Apollo racing rat trap. The brown’s catalogue is from 1952 so I’m not 100% sure they’re original but they certainly look the part

I’ve tidied up one of them and it spins very nicely indeed

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Weird Jaftex plastic toe straps fitted along with leather coated hipster clips

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a combination of roller and ball bearings

Mental. Good work getting that sorted!

Cheers, everything so far in this build is made of steel and with a bit of oil and mechanical persuasion it all seems to come out right

I’ve just acquired my first aluminium part for this build

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I’ll attempt to make it work with the 1970’s simplex assembly that came with the bike.
I had to grind off a bit of the mount that was clashing with the larger diameter of the cyclo

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It all seems to fit ok, thankfully the pivot diameter is the same

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There’s a problem though. I think the shifter is a left hander for 10speed. Looks like I’m going to have to cut a symmetrical route from the nipple out to the end-stop

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Another problem is that the simplex wing nut is bloody ugly

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This build continues at glacial pace but hoping to get out on it over Christmas

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Meanwhile I’m also rushing to finish off another incomplete build as a Christmas gift

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