Hi Everyone 
Back in early March I rescued this bike from the scrapheap of the local student run bicycle workshop, it is a 1963 Raleigh Trent Tourist three speed. I got it on the condition that I donate some of my unwanted spare wheels, which is no problem for me. The hub date is June 1963. Got her home, pumped up the tyres and oiled the chain and hub, apart from some dodgy shifting, she ran like a dream, once that is sorted out, I think I shall use her as a daily I have named her Christine after the car seeing as she is of a similar era and colour scheme
Before clean up
chainguard featuring the classic "All steel bicycle slogan"
The headbadge
Nice dyno hub powered lamps
After her clean up
The last week or so we have had a few workshop sessions with the Trent. We began by rebuilding the front hub, it was turning not bad but the grease was dry and barely useful anymore, we doubt anyone has rebuilt anything on this bike since it was new. My Dad managed to scrub up the front hub very well.
One of the ball races was in terrible condition but we put it back in because we didn't have a spare, soon we shall get another race and do it again properly, I just need this to be roadworthy to use as my daily at university. Meanwhile I disassembled, cleaned up and rebuilt the brake calipers:
The source of the nasty knocking sound was found: a broken bearing in the front hub
A few weeks ago I replaced the old worn down brake blocks with lovely new Fibrax blocks, and what a difference, I've gone from having to brake 10 seconds before I want to stop to actually skidding once Following that we rebuilt the steering, once again there were some very dry bearings:
Next to be rebuilt was the Sturmey Archer 3 speed hub, we didn't take everything out, seeing as we need this to be roadworthy soon, I am going to buy a hub to practice on before I let myself loose on something actually on a bike. We took out the cones, bearings and spindle, but left the planetary gears alone for now. Fresh grease was applied to everything that could be reached, and plenty of oil pumped in afterwards.
Unseen side of sprocket before and during clean up:
In her stripped down state:
Then I bashed the dents out of the chainguard, it isn't perfect, but it is a lot better than it was:
After cleaning, the rear mudguard was fitted, one bracket had broken due to fatigue and the other was long gone, new brackets were made from aluminium sheeting for tops of gateposts, as well as the old numberplate holder that our car had before we imported it. My long term plan is to remake these mudguards in fibreglass, using the originals to make molds, as a new set would cost £40-70 on ebay, though they aren't too bad I want to be able to make copies for when they do break. Rear end put back together:
Yesterday evening the rear brakes were reconnected, the bulb in the front lamp was replaced and the lamp wired up, and it works beautifully, and can be seen working in the videos on this bike. The front brakes were rebuilt and fitted, as well as the front mudguard, the rusty bits of the chainguard were touched up with red hammerite just to protect it. All that remains to be done now is to rebuild the twistgrip and re fit the chain and chainguard, wire up the front brakes and she'll be done We tried to get into the cranks but we could not get the cotter pins out, we did pump plenty of oil into the access hole in the bottom bracket area. Here she is as she currently looks:
and the chainguard
I have made two YouTube vlogs of the rebuild of this bike, for those of you who don't know I go by the name Bobby Kryptonite in my videos, here are the links:
Rebuild part 1: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y8WzlgKb6mo
Rebuild part 2: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ytJ2x1icGBE
Until next time
Back in early March I rescued this bike from the scrapheap of the local student run bicycle workshop, it is a 1963 Raleigh Trent Tourist three speed. I got it on the condition that I donate some of my unwanted spare wheels, which is no problem for me. The hub date is June 1963. Got her home, pumped up the tyres and oiled the chain and hub, apart from some dodgy shifting, she ran like a dream, once that is sorted out, I think I shall use her as a daily
I have named her Christine after the car seeing as she is of a similar era and colour scheme Before clean up
chainguard featuring the classic "All steel bicycle slogan"
The headbadge
Nice dyno hub powered lamps
After her clean up
The last week or so we have had a few workshop sessions with the Trent. We began by rebuilding the front hub, it was turning not bad but the grease was dry and barely useful anymore, we doubt anyone has rebuilt anything on this bike since it was new. My Dad managed to scrub up the front hub very well.
One of the ball races was in terrible condition but we put it back in because we didn't have a spare, soon we shall get another race and do it again properly, I just need this to be roadworthy to use as my daily at university. Meanwhile I disassembled, cleaned up and rebuilt the brake calipers:
The source of the nasty knocking sound was found: a broken bearing in the front hub
A few weeks ago I replaced the old worn down brake blocks with lovely new Fibrax blocks, and what a difference, I've gone from having to brake 10 seconds before I want to stop to actually skidding once
Following that we rebuilt the steering, once again there were some very dry bearings:
Next to be rebuilt was the Sturmey Archer 3 speed hub, we didn't take everything out, seeing as we need this to be roadworthy soon, I am going to buy a hub to practice on before I let myself loose on something actually on a bike. We took out the cones, bearings and spindle, but left the planetary gears alone for now. Fresh grease was applied to everything that could be reached, and plenty of oil pumped in afterwards.
Unseen side of sprocket before and during clean up:
In her stripped down state:
Then I bashed the dents out of the chainguard, it isn't perfect, but it is a lot better than it was:
After cleaning, the rear mudguard was fitted, one bracket had broken due to fatigue and the other was long gone, new brackets were made from aluminium sheeting for tops of gateposts, as well as the old numberplate holder that our car had before we imported it. My long term plan is to remake these mudguards in fibreglass, using the originals to make molds, as a new set would cost £40-70 on ebay, though they aren't too bad I want to be able to make copies for when they do break. Rear end put back together:
Yesterday evening the rear brakes were reconnected, the bulb in the front lamp was replaced and the lamp wired up, and it works beautifully, and can be seen working in the videos on this bike. The front brakes were rebuilt and fitted, as well as the front mudguard, the rusty bits of the chainguard were touched up with red hammerite just to protect it. All that remains to be done now is to rebuild the twistgrip and re fit the chain and chainguard, wire up the front brakes and she'll be done
We tried to get into the cranks but we could not get the cotter pins out, we did pump plenty of oil into the access hole in the bottom bracket area. Here she is as she currently looks:
and the chainguard
I have made two YouTube vlogs of the rebuild of this bike, for those of you who don't know I go by the name Bobby Kryptonite in my videos, here are the links:
Rebuild part 1: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y8WzlgKb6mo
Rebuild part 2: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ytJ2x1icGBE
Until next time
