Ralph_the_Rohan
Retro Guru
After seeing various modified Raleigh Twenty’s, Shoppers and other manufacturers’ versions of the classic 20” wheeled utility bikes, I decided I would love to put my on slant on the genre.
I began by sourcing a Pink Raleigh Shopper from a local Second-hand Shop for £10. Although I liked the funky 1970s paint scheme, after doing a bit of research, the various incompatibility issues with the non-standard specifications of the Raleigh, especially the 76mm Bottom Bracket Shell with its 26tpi thread, although not insurmountable, began to put me off.
I decided not to butcher the poor little Pink Shopper and donated it to the local Refuse Centre (Tip!), as they have an on-site Shop that sells the more useful rubbish that’s taken there. Interestingly I saw the very same Shopper on EBay about a month later with a £45 BIN price. Not sure if it ever sold!
I then began looking for one of the other makes of Raleigh Twenty lookalikes and the Dawes Kingpin, with its slightly racier styling (if that’s possible on a 20” shopping bike?) made it the one I wanted. Not long after one popped up on EBay, very near to me and, after an offer of £45, it was mine.
I knew all along that I wanted it to be a Single Speed, with my favourite Single Crankset, the Stronglight 49D. I handily had a set lying around, so these were pressed into service in combination with a 54 tooth TA Chainring, some modern, but retro styled MKS Sylvan pedals, MKS Toe Clips and ALE leather straps.
I initially intended to use a 14 tooth Freewheel, to closely match the Gear Inches of my Macleans Featherweight Track or Path, but I discovered, after purchasing a set of 20” x 1 3/8” (451) BMX Racing Wheels, that the smallest Freewheel I could fit without changing Hubs was a 16 tooth, so I stuck with the one the wheels came fitted with. I also had a set of Gripfast Wing Nuts lying around, so after changing the Front BMX axle to a 5/16” Road one, they were fitted.
Purely on an off chance I bought a cheap 120mm Stronglight Cotterless Bottom Bracket axle and it fitted straight in to the Kingpin using the same Ball Bearings and the original TDC Cups as both Stronglight and TDC used 1/4” Bearings.
The rest of the build came together just as easily, as the Kingpin uses Industry Standard fittings, so a 28.6mm diameter, 400mm length Seatpost and 31.8mm Quick Release Seatpost Clamp was acquired along with a new steel and alloy 1” Stem. Although the new Stem has an expander bolt I decided to leave the now redundant Dawes Stem clamp and Front Lamp Bracket in place as I just like the look of them!
Luckily the Kingpin comes ready fitted with Weinmann Alloy Sidepull brake calipers, rather than the basic steel calipers fitted to Raleigh Twenty’s, so a quick clean and they were pressed back into service after replacing the original pads with Weinmann ones more suited to alloy rims.
As set of Brick Lane Bikes Bullhorns where fitted along with Reverse Pull Levers, using the original Kingpin outer cable housing with new inner cables. I decided on orange Bar Tape to complement the Brown frame for a classic 70’s colour scheme.
Finally I had a Concor San Marco Supercorsa Saddle, which had been donated by a friend years ago, but which I had never had a use for, so that was also used.
I finally had time to do the final build up at the Weekend and a few hours later it was time for a quick shake-down ride of about 3 miles. It was a pleasure to find out that all the replacement components worked perfectly with no malfunctions at all. The whole bike is very comfortable to ride and surprising feels very similar to my Macleans, both in riding position and gearing.
All in all I’m very happy with the little Kingpin and am now looking forward to some longer rides. So, let’s see more modified Twentys, Kingpins and variants out on the road!
Here’s the Spec Sheet followed by some pics….
Frame: Dawes Kingpin – Non Folding
Fork: Dawes Kingpin
Headset: Dawes
Stem: Generic 1” Steel and Alloy Quill Stem. 25.4mm Clamp. 400mm Length
Handlebar: Brick Lane Bikes Bullhorn Bars. 380mm Width
Bar Tape: Orange Tressostar Cotton
Brake Levers/Brifters: Dia Compe Reverse Pull
Brake Calipers: Front – Weinmann 730 Sidepull. Rear Weinmann 810 Sidepull
Brake Pads: Weinmann
Brake Cables: Dawes
Shifters: N/A
Front Derailleur: N/A
Rear Derailleur: N/A
Derailleur Cables: N/A
Freewheel: 16 Tooth Freewheel
Chain: KMC 1/2 x 1/8 Single Speed
Cranks: Stronglight 49D (Marque Depose) – 170mm
Chainring: TA – 54 Teeth
Bottom Bracket: Stronglight 120
Pedals: MKS Sylvan SK-1 – MKS Steel Toe-clips – ALE Toe-Straps
Rims: Front and Rear – 20” x 1 3/8” (451) 36 Hole Alloy – Unknown Make
Hubs: Quando BMX Hubs
Hub Nuts: Gripfast Wing Nuts
Nipples: Unknown
Spokes: Unknown
Tubs: N/A
Tubes: Oxford Pathway 20"x 1 3/8"(451x37) White Wall
Saddle: Concor San Marco Supercorsa
Seatpost: ETC Micro Adjustable Alloy – 28.6mm Diameter – 400mm Length
Seatpost Clamp: Generic Alloy 31.8mm Quick Release
Bottle Cage: N/A
Extras:
Weight: Unknown
I began by sourcing a Pink Raleigh Shopper from a local Second-hand Shop for £10. Although I liked the funky 1970s paint scheme, after doing a bit of research, the various incompatibility issues with the non-standard specifications of the Raleigh, especially the 76mm Bottom Bracket Shell with its 26tpi thread, although not insurmountable, began to put me off.
I decided not to butcher the poor little Pink Shopper and donated it to the local Refuse Centre (Tip!), as they have an on-site Shop that sells the more useful rubbish that’s taken there. Interestingly I saw the very same Shopper on EBay about a month later with a £45 BIN price. Not sure if it ever sold!
I then began looking for one of the other makes of Raleigh Twenty lookalikes and the Dawes Kingpin, with its slightly racier styling (if that’s possible on a 20” shopping bike?) made it the one I wanted. Not long after one popped up on EBay, very near to me and, after an offer of £45, it was mine.
I knew all along that I wanted it to be a Single Speed, with my favourite Single Crankset, the Stronglight 49D. I handily had a set lying around, so these were pressed into service in combination with a 54 tooth TA Chainring, some modern, but retro styled MKS Sylvan pedals, MKS Toe Clips and ALE leather straps.
I initially intended to use a 14 tooth Freewheel, to closely match the Gear Inches of my Macleans Featherweight Track or Path, but I discovered, after purchasing a set of 20” x 1 3/8” (451) BMX Racing Wheels, that the smallest Freewheel I could fit without changing Hubs was a 16 tooth, so I stuck with the one the wheels came fitted with. I also had a set of Gripfast Wing Nuts lying around, so after changing the Front BMX axle to a 5/16” Road one, they were fitted.
Purely on an off chance I bought a cheap 120mm Stronglight Cotterless Bottom Bracket axle and it fitted straight in to the Kingpin using the same Ball Bearings and the original TDC Cups as both Stronglight and TDC used 1/4” Bearings.
The rest of the build came together just as easily, as the Kingpin uses Industry Standard fittings, so a 28.6mm diameter, 400mm length Seatpost and 31.8mm Quick Release Seatpost Clamp was acquired along with a new steel and alloy 1” Stem. Although the new Stem has an expander bolt I decided to leave the now redundant Dawes Stem clamp and Front Lamp Bracket in place as I just like the look of them!
Luckily the Kingpin comes ready fitted with Weinmann Alloy Sidepull brake calipers, rather than the basic steel calipers fitted to Raleigh Twenty’s, so a quick clean and they were pressed back into service after replacing the original pads with Weinmann ones more suited to alloy rims.
As set of Brick Lane Bikes Bullhorns where fitted along with Reverse Pull Levers, using the original Kingpin outer cable housing with new inner cables. I decided on orange Bar Tape to complement the Brown frame for a classic 70’s colour scheme.
Finally I had a Concor San Marco Supercorsa Saddle, which had been donated by a friend years ago, but which I had never had a use for, so that was also used.
I finally had time to do the final build up at the Weekend and a few hours later it was time for a quick shake-down ride of about 3 miles. It was a pleasure to find out that all the replacement components worked perfectly with no malfunctions at all. The whole bike is very comfortable to ride and surprising feels very similar to my Macleans, both in riding position and gearing.
All in all I’m very happy with the little Kingpin and am now looking forward to some longer rides. So, let’s see more modified Twentys, Kingpins and variants out on the road!
Here’s the Spec Sheet followed by some pics….
Frame: Dawes Kingpin – Non Folding
Fork: Dawes Kingpin
Headset: Dawes
Stem: Generic 1” Steel and Alloy Quill Stem. 25.4mm Clamp. 400mm Length
Handlebar: Brick Lane Bikes Bullhorn Bars. 380mm Width
Bar Tape: Orange Tressostar Cotton
Brake Levers/Brifters: Dia Compe Reverse Pull
Brake Calipers: Front – Weinmann 730 Sidepull. Rear Weinmann 810 Sidepull
Brake Pads: Weinmann
Brake Cables: Dawes
Shifters: N/A
Front Derailleur: N/A
Rear Derailleur: N/A
Derailleur Cables: N/A
Freewheel: 16 Tooth Freewheel
Chain: KMC 1/2 x 1/8 Single Speed
Cranks: Stronglight 49D (Marque Depose) – 170mm
Chainring: TA – 54 Teeth
Bottom Bracket: Stronglight 120
Pedals: MKS Sylvan SK-1 – MKS Steel Toe-clips – ALE Toe-Straps
Rims: Front and Rear – 20” x 1 3/8” (451) 36 Hole Alloy – Unknown Make
Hubs: Quando BMX Hubs
Hub Nuts: Gripfast Wing Nuts
Nipples: Unknown
Spokes: Unknown
Tubs: N/A
Tubes: Oxford Pathway 20"x 1 3/8"(451x37) White Wall
Saddle: Concor San Marco Supercorsa
Seatpost: ETC Micro Adjustable Alloy – 28.6mm Diameter – 400mm Length
Seatpost Clamp: Generic Alloy 31.8mm Quick Release
Bottle Cage: N/A
Extras:
Weight: Unknown
