Raleigh Twenty - Shabby Shopper

I've been after a cheap bike to store at a relative's house - scouring the local car boot sales, I found this Raleigh Twenty for £20; I offered £15 and the guy accepted. At the same sale I saw someone else buy a top condition late 1980s Rockhopper for £20... I wish I'd seen it first!

I pumped up the tyres and away I went! It's hilarious to ride, but with a low BB, short wheelbase and upright position it's also very much at home in traffic. It's a bit heavy to carry and it doesn't fold up very neatly.

So hatches the plan!

1. Find/buy/fabricate a longer seatpost - getting an alu one should lighten it up a bit
   
2. Get a different saddle as this one is falling apart
   
3. Find a BMX wheelset (car boot sale, hopefully) and make some drop-bolts for the brakes. I have some 105 dual-pivots that might fit depending on what size tyres I get.
   
4. Find lighter components - an alu crankset would help, but these bikes have 76mm BB shells so I'd need to find an extra-long cotterless axle. Alternatively I could face down the shell to 68mm and fit a threadless BB, but that would cost quite a lot. Alu bars would also be good - a narrow straight bar would mean it folds up smaller, too, although Sheldon-style drop bars would make it more versatile.
   
5. Make a padded bag to put it in - one that folds up so that I can attach it to the rack when I'm riding.
   
6. Find a Raleigh-threaded ball-bearing headset, as these came with nylon bearings in the top race which feel horribly stiff (although it probably doesn't make much of an impact when actually riding).
   
   

Total spend so far = £15

you can get 400mm alu seatposts in 28.6 for £15

I'll just leave this here. It's the inspiration for my future Twenty project although really I'd prefer a Dawes Kingpin as the BB is BSA.

R20 Racer SS by n6tlc, on Flickr

That bike uses 451 rims. Not a huge amount of tyre choice but the aesthetic is a bit better than 406 rims.

Rusty - handsome bike! Mine has 451 rims now - good tyres are available in both sizes, but my reasoning for changing to 406 BMX wheels is that I can't find any cheap 451 rims or wheels - new rims alone are £35 each, and I can't seem to find anything secondhand on ebay or recumbent forums. Conversely I could buy a cheap secondhand BMX for £20, pinch the wheels and tyres (and probably the saddle, too) and sell the rest on for a fiver. They won't be great quality but they'll still be a massive upgrade over the steel wheels that it currently has.

HatBeard - yeah I've seen 400mm 28.6 seatposts on ebay for a tenner, new, which is probably just as cheap as buying a secondhand one.

I should add that this project is on a serious budget so I'll be watching my total spend very closely:
Total so far = £15

lae I have a pair of raleigh record 406 whitewalls you can have for a pint if you need them (not worth posting but I'm assuming you're london based).

^^ that is great and makes me think I should make a project outa mine.

I love twentys! Check here http://www.lfgss.com/thread1201.html plenty of information!

http://tsaleh.blogspot.co.uk/2010/01/review-velo-orange-grand-cru-threadless.html

When the bb is completely tightened to the point of bearings binding, the inner flange diameter is just below 68mm. However, the inner flange diameter has little relation to where the tool will actually tighten down in a given BB. Both flanges do not make it all the way to the bb shell. Due to the internally expanding design and variations in ID of the BB shell and roundness, the spacing between the flanges is usually a tiny bit to more than that wider than the BB shell. Alas, this means that there is virtually no way you can use this BB for a Raleigh twenty with a 76mm bottom bracket shell.

...but surely you could just get it faced/filed down a bit? 68-76= 8mm needed gone, surely 2mm eitherside will bring it within reach?

^all just guessing.

Love a Raleigh Twenty project! I've been trying to find something similar that's local AND cheap myself.

Aim for te kingpin if you can. Standard English thread rather than te annoying Raleigh one!

I quite like the idea of a newpin, the one that comes apart rather than folds.

Like this...

Dawes Fixed Gear - frame coupler by humblecyclist, on Flickr

HatBeard - thanks for the offer, I don't live in London but I do travel through regularly so perhaps I'll get in touch
Hugo7 - yep the plan is to file down the BB shell... I have access to a good engineering shop so I reckon I can do this accurately enough. I think it would be cheaper and easier to find a long 'series 7' cotterless axle somewhere, though - perhaps I'll try the Raleigh Twenty owners' forum.
yeahnerdz - if I see a Kingpin for a reasonable price, I'll buy it - the hinge looks like a better design, too. There are several on ebay but they're really expensive.

I've been looking on the bay recently for kingpins and twenties. There's enough of them about going for not much, especially if you're prepared to go and collect in The Dreaded Provinces[sup]TM[/sup]

I have a dawes kingpin for sale if there are takers. It is in superb condition and comes fitted with excellent quality front & rear racks so I aint letting it go for car boot prices.

around £70 should do.

I quite like the idea of a newpin, the one that comes apart rather than folds.

Like this...

So do you have to undo the allen key bolts as well?

Dawes Kingpin are surprisingly stiff for an old shopper, loved mine.

I have one rusting in my garden

This has the more comfy N road type bars and a fron dyno hub

It also has internal routing for the gear cables!

It has a new chain and new tyres

It can be ridden away once I have mended the puncture.

PM me if interested - £30 as its got a brooks on it as well

And it lives in E10...

Mine was this:
http://www.artdirectingmylife.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/855916018_daa32e0c71.jpeg

but will be this soon:
http://www.littlepixel.info/twenty/images/twenty-reborn.JPG

Those are 451 rims (19mm) with Primo wheelchair tyres :)
Chrome forks a £10 snip of ebay.

my kingpin, earlier:

451 on the back, 406 on the front.

it's a right larf.

http://sheldonbrown.com/raleigh-twenty.html

So do you have to undo the allen key bolts as well?

I think you can adjust the allen key bolts to take up any play that might develop between the two plates of the clamp.

haha this looks pretty awesome;

This site http://raleightwenty.webs.com/

looks like it's carried on from Sheldon.

A bike building buddy just completed this.

http://d3j5vwomefv46c.cloudfront.net/photos/large/590172476.jpg?key=23041728&Expires=1338488315&Key-Pair-Id=APKAIYVGSUJFNRFZBBTA&Signature=jfNpx8X-Xa78wcOCoPQBnuBDKCnnK2Ko5AT%7E2AY579YlZmOPhwIWQZ7Bfqa-VcnJIvcJTMfJ183JB2d3g%7E7QOVrfckfBLkR3Mxs9iqoV9SCRkEjJevTXvKFv-54tVP8hEbRDKK8OfEgMpvnl03hMxI01N0ndLgSNLbHYsaFXi00_

http://d3j5vwomefv46c.cloudfront.net/photos/large/590173715.jpg?key=36402736&Expires=1338488313&Key-Pair-Id=APKAIYVGSUJFNRFZBBTA&Signature=ZC2VNfpu9B%7EDi%7EwzHB6TiVxlIGWDaop0gOwpkAhPu9WHemXO1srlKHUHu0DmXB1eeXuwVdLvzC3wk%7Eygtsd7rVBJBPPuOp9Q%7EwKZfypNEZTtCaC76oUMqXACkn9FKhzVCbAagaiNLwv3-K74f-chA1dCmJHfQR9VpwMZRrvLG%7EA_

#DATCHAINRING