English Cycles Range rider refurbishment.

[hedgesteeper]

Re:

Thanks for your help. It would be great to put a manufacturing date to this RR. While I originally said the RR came to me as a frame and fork, a front hub was included which I presume is a Leleu.

 

[GrahamJohnWallace]

Re: Re:

...It would be great to put a manufacturing date to this RR. While I originally said the RR came to me as a frame and fork, a front hub was included which I presume is a Leleu.

I would also assume that it came with the CW mini handlebars?
I have researched when English Cycles switched from using Leleu to using Sturmey Archer hub-brakes and the answer seems to be when the SA's became available in 1985. Though English Cycles may have had some old stock Leleu brakes to use up.

The first English Cycles Range-Riders 1983-84 looked like this :
Notice the wide Renthal riser bars and road-bike stem.
The earlier bikes also used narrow front hub but due to issues with lateral wheel stiffness, later bikes used wider rear hubs on the front. These have a threaded section where the freewheel would normally attach.

 

[hedgesteeper]

Re:

Looking at this picture the wheels would appear to be 650A or thereabouts rather than 700c that I have randomly fitted to my bike, though the latter looks fine with a pair of Panaracer Smoke Lite 700c prototypes that were given to me in 1995 for evaluation long before the concept of 29'ers were ever invented. The chainset looks to be a Stronglight 80, and there is no chainguard. My bike has the braze-on's for a chainguard so I built one as an exact replica of the one on my Cleland save for the mounting point beneath the BB shell being different. The Stronglight 80 in the pic will probably require a shorter axle than the monster 130mm required for the TA that I currently have fitted. The handlebar setup on my RR was borrowed from the Cleland, by the way, though I have a lovely pair of Renthal trials handlebars and a shorty stem to replace these.

 

[shogun]

Re: Re:

...a pair of Panaracer Smoke Lite 700c prototypes that were given to me in 1995 for evaluation long before the concept of 29'ers were ever invented

What's different about them to the identical looking 700x45 Smokes offered on Diamondback Overdrive and Bianchi bikes about five years prior?

 

[GrahamJohnWallace]

Re: Re:

Looking at this picture the wheels would appear to be 650A or thereabouts

650B to be precise, with a 54x584 (26"x2"-1 1/2") Nokia Hakkapeliitta fitted on the back and a 44x584 (26"x5/8"-1 1/2") on the front. The wider tire on the back was used by Geoff Apps in 1980 and remained in use on the early English Cycles Range-Riders.

...rather than 700c that I have randomly fitted to my bike, though the latter looks fine with a pair of Panaracer Smoke Lite 700c prototypes that were given to me in 1995 for evaluation long before the concept of 29'ers were ever invented.

Gary Fisher was the instigator of the 29'er movement when he spent $50,000 of his own money to have fat 700C knobbly tyres produced. Here Fisher explains that he got the idea from Geoff Apps who having made a 700C Range-Rider in 1981 subsequently exported hundreds of 700x47C Hakkapeliittas to Fisher.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8syt59gK65o

Though I have never seen a 700c English Cycles Range-Rider, Geoff Apps did use the size on his Range-Riders and Highpath Engineering made 700C bikes based on Apps' designs.

My bike has the braze-on's for a chainguard so I built one as an exact replica of the one on my Cleland save for the mounting point beneath the BB shell being different.

Cleland Aventuras had 90mm wide bottom bracket shells that allowed for straight chainstays whilst Torr used much narrower, standard bottom brackets where the stays had to be bent to clear the tyre. Therefore the chain-guards and bash-plates are not interchangeable and are quite different in shape.

The handlebar setup on my RR was borrowed from the Cleland, by the way, though I have a lovely pair of Renthal trials handlebars and a shorty stem to replace these.

I will ask Jeremy Torr if he fitted the CW mini-bars I suspect that he did and have seen Range-riders fitted with them. These days the CW's are very hard to find and sought after by people restoring Aventuras.

I own this completely original, unrestored English Cycles Metro-Trekker. The frame is identical to the Range-Rider but was fitted with 26" wheels, cantilever brakes and bull-noose handlebars. It is a Cleland frame fitted with US MTB wheels and componentry. Fitting 26" wheels to a frame designed for 650B gives very generous wheel/frame clearances.

 

[GrahamJohnWallace]

Re: Re:

My bike has the braze-on's for a chainguard so I built one as an exact replica of the one on my Cleland save for the mounting point beneath the BB shell being different... The handlebar setup on my RR was borrowed from the Cleland, by the way, though I have a lovely pair of Renthal trials handlebars and a shorty stem to replace these.

Hello hedgesteeper,
Do you know the frame number of your Cleland and how long have you owned it?

With regards to the CW minibars and the front brake, both are rare and very hard to find items.

With regards to the most appropriate 700C tyres for your bike, you could get hold of some Hakkapeliitta A10's but these are heavy studded winter tyres. https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Nokian-700-x ... .l4275.c10

A better and cheaper alternative would be to buy some modern copies. In the 1988 the American frame builder Bruce Gordan ran out of his supplies of 47x700C Hakkapeliitta tyres (Probably the last of the ones sent by Geoff Apps to Gary Fisher). He liked these tyres so much that he decided to have copies manufactured, and he renamed them as the Rock 'n' Road tire. The now reliable supply of tyres inspired others to build bikes using these tyres. The list of makers includes Ibis with their Hakkalugi model (a pun on the original Hakkapeliittas) and 29er pioneer Wes Williams.

These tyres are now made by Panaracer with the black ones being closest in appearance to the original Hakkapeliitta tyres.
https://www.planetx.co.uk/i/q/TYPARR/ro ... lding-tyre

If you do want to restore your Range-Rider to its original specification I can where you can get most of the original parts or suggest period correct alternatives. However, undamaged Super Champion 650b rims are very expensive and the original 54x650B Hakkapeliitta tyres currently seem to be unobtainable. (I only have old tyres in this size that can only be used for display purposes because the rubber has perished.)

Regards,
Graham