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you got it man, its a planetary, just like the SA hubs. My girlfriends bike does have a SA hub though, this two speed system was superseded by them. Its actually based in the chain ring itself, if I wanted I could remove that chain ring and put in a regular cottered chain ring, but that wouldn't be half as much fun!

It does actually have a wire cable to shift. Though the brakes are done by rod, its actually alright though, they are very well engineered rod brakes and work fine. The only thing about it is its a pretty slow bike, but leisurely.

This is my sunbeam two speed, made between 1914 and 1919 according to serial number. lives at my girlfriends house at the moment, I am restoring a matching one for her birthday which I may post a thread about. When I ride this I am so high up its like riding a horse. The two speed gear system has to be seen to be believed, I will post a pic when I get the chance... it is literally like this though:

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I am interested in this project and would love to see progress photos! Are you going with drop bars or north road type?

I am going to re do a bsa made sunbeam at some point, its in my garage

Jake

hmm, interested. If you were open to trades what sort of thing would you want to trade for? I have a couple of bikes I don't need

jake

on the subject of sturmey archer fixed hubs I found this page a while ago that has instructions for making the basic 3 speed SA hub into a two speed fixed gear hub. http://sheldonbrown.com/awfixed.html

Did anyone ever try this?

oh I just noticed something. Sorry if you already thought about this, basically the old sort of raleigh brake calliper needs a cable with a little lug on each end, they don't screw the cable into the calliper like most modern brakes.

I have heard of people using a soldering iron to put a little bit on each end of the cable after its been put in the sleeve but I just used this: http://www.trialsbits.co.uk/product_info.php?cPath=65_230&products_id=1321

solderless cable nipple, I just screwed it in hyper tight and nothing has gone wrong so far

hope that is of some use

nice upgrade there betty. I'm still amazed that you can find alloy rims for rod breaks!

I swapped out the steel rims on my humber for alloy and one day an old man was admiring the bike, after a close look he said "very nice machine....shame about the rims though" I found that very funny indeed, what an odd guy :)

Hello

I am looking for a gents sunbeam bicycle or bicycle frame preferably with this spec:
-either a 22 or 23 inch frame.
-cable operated brakes, not rod operated.
-Condition: I will consider a bike in any condition, I am no stranger to restoring this sort of bicycle.

Thank you for reading, I hope to hear from you soon

oh I could rattle on for hours about this sort of bike :P If you haven't already, do have a look at this thread in which a man restores a vintage humber bicycle in a rather interesting way http://www.lfgss.com/thread97959.html

well well lucy, you are a woman after my own heart with this project. :)

I have restored a couple of the mens version of these. I ride one every day, I love it. I agree with the idea of upgrading to caliper brakes. If you reeeeeealy wanted to go the whole hog, you can get 26 x 1/3/8 rims in alloy but if its just a bike for taking out every now and again for a bit of fun its probably not necessary. On top of that there are all sorts of bits of fun you can get if you like such as white wall tyres, most dashing!

with regards to the chain guard, It does look like a pain, you might be better served getting a guard like this if it appeals to you:

is it a single speed?

interesting front brake, I have never seen one quite like it. It looks like a fun bike

thanks butters. I just wanted some reashurence that this wasn't a horrid idea, I will give it a go.

Hippy that is the page I saw, it seemed very very in depth and that is what put me off as the amount of text seemed to give me the impression I was getting into something like astro physics whereas stuff like this makes it look doable if you have a good eye and a steady hand: [ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=svMMaGMsIMw"]How
to true a wheel while its on your bike - YouTube[/ame]

I have a slight wobble in my front wheel, it started after I left the bike locked through the front wheel, I assume what happened is that it was leaning away from what it was tied to and the lock was pulling on the wheel with the weight of the bike all day.

However it came to be.... I have watched several videos on the internet and read several pages and I am considering correcting the problem myself. I am unsure weather this is a good idea though, many videos make it look very straightforward, just look what direction the wobble is going in, loosen the offending spokes on that side a tiny bit and tighten the ones on the other side a tiny bit, working in tiny increments until the problem is solved.

However, other pages I have read are very very much telling me not to attempt anything like this as the wheel will explode and I will die then the world will end. I would be using a spoke wrench and an improvised truing stand made from a bicycles forks.

Could you guys offer any thoughts or dos and don't advice.

this is so cool. I have never actually seen a girl dealing with such greasy mechanisms! I am not sure if I like her or if I am scared of her...

hmm. I only ever had an internal hub generator so I am not sure about that. Sorry. Maybe some helpful forum member can fill us in.

haha! that's quite impressive. If the thickness of those lugs is anything to go by then the tubes will probably be safe, plus if you leave it like that then you certainly will be able to leave it parked outside all day as you said you wished.

I notice you have an old dynamo there. A note on vintage dynamos:

I have been riding with a 6v sturmey archer dynohub and was using the original old bulbs, it was ok, fairly bright but not that bright. I bought some conversion LED bulbs for the lamps and WOAH! Suddenly it was the brightest bike light I had ever seen.

If you are interested you could probably find something suitable on this website: http://www.reflectalite.com/LEDpage.html

if you can find out what voltage and wattage your dynamo is putting out then this is a cool upgrade. It explains all about what bulb is for what dynamo if you scroll down.

Just a thourght

Im surprised a Russian made bicycle would have a threading from an English company. I don't dispute it as I don't know anything about this make. Just seems curious.

Sometimes raleigh 26 tpi headsets do come up on ebay though. I bought one a while ago. Keep an eye out and one will come along.

interesting frame, hope it sells!

I did think about it. However there are few points to consider.

These type of bottom brackets are usually for cotterless cranks, whereas my bike uses cranks with cotterpins. Of course I could change the cranks, but I may have trouble fitting them inside the chainguard.

I presume it takes an Italian thread. If i am not mistaken Italian bottom brackets are smaller than Bsa ones. This could mean that a threadless one may be too big to fit in. I have never tried them though.

At the end of the day it's a financial thing. I just want a work bike, not to restore a bike to its former glory, so the cost of changing a new bottom bracket, plus cranks and a new front wheel (that's seriously on its way out) would be equal to another bike.

Fortunately, i've got a big basement to store it in just in case I come across a way of resurrecting it.

ah ok, does sound like a bit of a job. Well if the guy can straighten out your frame it sounds like it could be a handy bike so long as there are no cracks. I ride a 50s roadster every day to uni and its great.

What make is this bike?

nice ride, I haven't tried the sturmey 5 speed and am quite interested in them

hello

It sounds a shame that the bike was done for purely because of a few threads :(

Have you heard of or tried a threadless bottom bracket? It screws into itself instead of the frame and sort of clamps onto the shell, this might be an option worth exploring because It sounds like you really liked your old bike. I have never used one but I have heard good things, bad things too.

it sounds like you are doing exactly what I did a year ago. I am also a student who one year ago wanted to start learning about bikes and tinker with my own build. Its good fun but if you haven't done it before there are lots of horrid little pit falls with compatibility of components.

Its good you got that for £10. Now the frame looks much better.

What sort of bike do you want to make? Single speed, fixed or build it back up as a geared bike

interesting project

with this period of bike mud guards might not be out of place. I know you can get old steel ones on ebay but they tend to be a bit overly expensive. For your consideration might I suggest something like this bike has :
last time I was in my LBS I saw some lovely aluminium ones. Random google search gave me these: http://www.racerrosabicycles.co.uk/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=1&products_id=49

I don't mean to be pushing my ideas onto your build, just thought I would suggest. Hope it goes well.

Jake

which bike will be crap to ride?

Cheers man, its my everyday ride now. I would love to have a more sporty road bike at some point to though. I do love the early 20th c racer look. Here is some nice inspiration ! A bit of a different look than the path racers but lovely none the less

http://www.oldbike.eu/wordpress/wp-c...Sunbeam_03.jpg