Dawes Kingpin meets 90s MTB bits...

[Captain Stupido]

OK it's not a retro MTB, but I am using some MTB parts. I've been building up an old Dawes Kingpin (similar to a Raleigh Twenty / Shopper) as a bit of fun.

The forks are aftermarket ones and they have a long steerer on them. As daft as that might look it has the potential to be useful as I'm fairly tall and this is a little frame.

Any reason not to just stack spacers under the locknut and make the most of the height? Seems a bit counter productive to cut them and then have to use a ridiculously long stem...

 

[hamster]

Re: Long steerer on threaded forks.

It's OK an works fine, even if I've never seen anything quite that extreme!!!

 

[The History Man]

Re: Long steerer on threaded forks.

I think he just has. Will be fine.

 

[Captain Stupido]

Re: Long steerer on threaded forks.

I think he just has. Will be fine.

lol...

In the past I've gone pretty extreme myself with a threadless fork to get a more upright riding position.



With threaded forks I think it's a bit more unusual - quill stems can be moved up and down. And you can buy long ones.

Anyway thanks for the reassurance - here's how it looks this evening. Pretty mental so far! The saddle is temporary...

 

[sherlylock]

Re: Long steerer on threaded forks.

Following with interest.....just got myself an original Raleigh Twenty and a Puch Picnic to attempt something similar.

Is the bottom bracket a standard width/standard thread on the Kingpin? The Raleigh Twenty bb is 76mm wide and is 26TPI thread pitch so nothing off the shelf fits if you want to go away from cotter pin cranks.....

Starting to look good! Love the colour.

 

[Captain Stupido]

Re: Long steerer on threaded forks.

Following with interest.....just got myself an original Raleigh Twenty and a Puch Picnic to attempt something similar.

Is the bottom bracket a standard width/standard thread on the Kingpin? The Raleigh Twenty bb is 76mm wide and is 26TPI thread pitch so nothing off the shelf fits if you want to go away from cotter pin cranks.....

Starting to look good! Love the colour.

Yeah, Kingpin has a standard thread BB shell - one of the main reasons I chose to do the rebuild, but also because the original forks were bent (and I failed to straighten them) so it had to be a project! I put a Shimano sealed BB in it, forget the model but I was well chuffed when it fitted! The colour was another incentive - glad you like it.



With your Twenty, one option would be to see if you can find a cotterless axle which is the right length to fit in the original BB cups. I've got a box of them here... I've done that before with a French bike (also funny threads) and it worked fine. I don't know what you'll find in the Puch, but I bet it uses metric 20" wheels as standard, which makes life easier. As you can see below I'm going to have a bit of a job finding a suitable brake for the back. A friend used a Shimano IGH hub with a coaster brake on his Twenty rebuild to get around the issue...

 

[xerxes]

Re:

Watching with interest. I keep looking at Dawes Kingpins on Ebay, waiting for one to turn up cheap and nearby.

Regarding the brake calipers, the Kingping originally had 500A size wheels, which is a bit larger, 440mm diameter, than the commonly avialable 20 inch BMX wheels which are 406mm diameter. You can still find 500A rims and tyres, but there isn't a great selection.

Sheldon has a chart: https://www.sheldonbrown.com/tire-sizing.html

You could possibly use an adapter to lower the caliper, something like this: https://www.instructables.com/id/Old-bi ... -bolt-to-/

 

[Captain Stupido]

Re: Re:

Watching with interest. I keep looking at Dawes Kingpins on Ebay, waiting for one to turn up cheap and nearby.

Regarding the brake calipers, the Kingping originally had 500A size wheels, which is a bit larger, 440mm diameter, than the commonly avialable 20 inch BMX wheels which are 406mm diameter. You can still find 500A rims and tyres, but there isn't a great selection.

Sheldon has a chart: https://www.sheldonbrown.com/tire-sizing.html

You could possibly use an adapter to lower the caliper, something like this: https://www.instructables.com/id/Old-bi ... -bolt-to-/

There's one dumped near me... but you'd need an angle grinder. Mine was a tenner from the car boot. I think I over paid!

I'm sticking to BMX size wheels for better tyre availability etc. There are some brake calipers on eBay that'd do it but I'm trying to keep costs down to a minimum... I know I've got some long reach BMX brakes somewhere that might just do it... need to dig those out before I throw any more money at it...

 

[sherlylock]

I'm torn as to whether to chop the Twenty around too much as it's quite an original early example with the SA 3sp hub and twist grip shifter.....and under the grime and rust-rash I think it's got potential.

I think if I'm going to do a Twenty project I need to find a really rough tired frame.

The Picnic on the other hand.....

Not too worried about changing this around as it's not particularly original.

 

[sherlylock]

With regards to brakes - the Puch has a set of Weinmann 1020 long drop calipers which seem to fit OK - and it's got 20" BMX wheels on it. Not sure what size the originals would've been but the calipers seem to reach and work OK.

I'll measure the drop on them later to see if that offers you a potential solution. Loving the idea of a coaster brake though