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First put the rear wheel into the most forward position. You have Osgear type ends, made specially to mount the wheel forward. At present you are about 2 inches too far back. To avoid the chain rubbing on the changing fork a little movement of the gear lever is required. You move it a little...

I have recently been looking at a few of the youtube instructional videos on wheel building. I have not found one that really has a clue. In one case the video of a front wheel being spoked takes 2 hours. This should be a 3 minute job. The perpetrator even keeps referring to "drive side" while...

The tension arm should goas close to the bottom bracket as possible. Most Pros would have the arm o a brazed on piece under the bottom bracket. Keith

The best I can remember is a sort of textile covered in something looking like gloss paint over the coiled steel. Keith

You need the changing fork as close to the cogs as possible, it could need a shim in the chainstay clip. You would then have to bend the changing fork up a bit. Also I can't see if you have the tension release connected. If you wind the tension arm up a bit it will change gear better. You will...

Clinchers seem to arrived way after my time period. Original tyres for bikes and cars were called "Beaded Edge" and used on cars well into the 1920s, although cycle tyres had already changed to wire beads. Wired on needs a slightly deeper well in the rim to be able to lift the inextensible wire...

Clinchers did not exist then. Cycle tyres were either wired on or tubular. You are unlikely to get decent looking wired-ons, but you could reshape the bed of the rims to take tubulars, which are not so precise as to rim diameter. Check the diameter allowing for inflated tyre to be around 27...

I think the green was decoration. They look like old grass track wheels. The little splinter can be glued back with epoxy. You can rub them down and revarnish. I knew someone who used to finish truing with a wood chisel. Perhaps a light coat of varnish laid on with a rag, you dont want much on...

Its possible the original wheels would have been wood. The best wood rims were French. made of American maple, with perhaps 4 laminations, and were nearly indestructible. Weight around 16 ounces. Pro riders usually had the tension arm on a brazed on piece under the bottom bracket. I would have...

You have the Pro version Super Champion. Not indexed, with the very short movement of the cable you could run any gear in any of the holes on the lever. You also have the device for reducing the tension on the chain. If you want to use this just put an old gear roller in the tension arm, make...

According to the frame number list (dcscrimshaw) this frame would be W F Holdsworth from 1948. The frame looks right to me, Super Champion "Osgear" ends, 2 plate fork crown and the seat stay capping. All right for the period. The term used at that time for the lugless construction was correctly...

Clearly 100% Raleigh not Worksop. It has the standard (and stupid) Raleigh 5/16 rear ends. The bit of chromed brass covering the fork crown is the nearest it has to anything like a BSA.

After 1957, but probably mid 60s. some "BSA" were made in the Carlton works. The frames made by Raleigh before Raleigh closed Worksop production will have the octagonal headset and 26 TPI forks and bottom bracket. There was an incredible collapse in UK cycle sales in the mid to late 50s...

Its a low end Raleigh frame probably 3 tubes 531. Should have the octagonal Raleigh head set, Head and bottom bracket 26 threads per inch Raleigh standard, not normal 24 tpi. Raleigh used the BSA mark for some export markets, and poverty spec bikes for catalogue book companies. Absolutely...

Afraid this needs a bit of history. The 28 inch wheel and 24 inch frame bike with angles around 67 was originally built for the rough roads of the Edwardian period, and would have all solid ends brazed in, but the seat stays oddly were bolted on. The cranked stays were to provide clearance for 1...

I have found a 1939 Raleigh catalogue which clearly shows stainless spokes used on a hub gear with the double bend ends as you have them. I was a retailer in the 50/60s and have never seen these, although it was a known way to replace a broken spoke in an emergency behind a large cog. However...

large manufacturers always built wheels with the spokes from the inside of the flanges in opposite directions, for the fastest lace-up times, if spoke stagger and angle allowed. The rear wheel would have had 11 1/4 inch spokes crossed 4 times in a 40 hole rim. You obviously had difficulty with...

Remember left pedal is a left hand thread.

The frame has a pre-war appearance, but the brakes are post war BSA. Not uncommon in the 40s for makers to use up anything they had. 1949 would be a fair guess, possibly a bit earlier.. Are the hubs and bracket set BSA? Keith

The bottom bracket cable guide is in the right place, just backwards. Keith