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Great stuff Chris! I had a much later Triumph roadster a few years ago. I think it was actually a 60s or 70s bike but built identically to the earlier ones: with slack angles, Sturmey Archer and stirrup brakes. I figured there was still demand for that style bike even that late on.
I found it troublesome to commute on if I’m honest! The braking was very dependent on the condition of the rims and how true they were. The chrome on mine was a bit patchy and the joint in the rim wasn’t perfect, so the braking could be a bit grabby/snatchy as a result.
Jonny69-
When I left the bike shop back in 1980ish we wew still selling the Raleigh with rod brakes, chain case, slack angles and a little lock in the fork crown. Not sure if they had the older TPI bottom bracket though?
I sem to recall they had an N frame number so made here and not brought in from a shadow factory somewhere.
Could even get mudguards drilled out to thread string through to stop skirts going into wheels lol.
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I found it troublesome to commute on if I’m honest! The braking was very dependent on the condition of the rims and how true they were.
Yes, this is a big problem for these bikes. If there's anything wrong with the rims - dents, flats or just out of true, the braking will suffer. I started off with a pair of n.o.s. rims which I thought would make the project feasible. It is possible to repair some rim damage, but this requires skill and the right tools - I do know one person who has both these, but he is not young.
Chrome just compounds the problem - luckily my rims are (were) painted. There are a few little tricks to improve matters, but I can't claim the braking is better than 'adequate'. Part of the challenge of this project is to overcome the difficulty.
Photo of rear brake to follow.
midlife
clubman
Roadsters
I'm glad that Falcon Vitesse and Crossedthread like this bike.
Perhaps it's so long ago that these machines were current that most people are now hardly aware that they were so common in the past. They were cutting edge in the Edwardian period and continued to be a basic English bike well into the 1960's. I suspect they are still widely used in India, Africa and elsewhere. There was a time when they were used by enthusiastic cyclists, but I doubt whether any club cyclists were still using them in the 1930's (except perhaps the elderly), so to use one for touring we're looking back the best part of a century.
What could be the attraction now? Well, one reason is that conditions for cycling have got steadily worse in the past 100 years, so riding an ancient bike may be an aid to fantasising that one is still (a tiny bit) in that golden age.
The Handlebars
May look modern, but they are not. In fact these are an earlier style than this bike had when new - it's possible that the tape hides this - I've never seen bars of this type taped. I had to remove the brake levers to do it, but it was necessary because my natural riding position on this machine is to hold the bars near the middle.
I'm being called away - I'll deal with brakes in another post.
Two pics : the 'cockpit' and the chainset - the BSA sets were once very common for track use, although not with a 44 ring which I'm using.