Late 40s / Early 50s René Herse tip find
- Thread starter Jonny69
- Start date
dirttorpedo
Senior Retro Guru
Will modern Rene Herse/Compass bikes rings fit on a vintage 3 bolt Rene Herse crank?
Jonny69
Senior Retro Guru
Interesting resource which doesn’t seem to have anything to do with the brand. Lots of pictures.
Jonny69
Senior Retro Guru
Managed to do a couple of jobs I've been putting off.
1. Remove the wobbly reflector and tap the back of the mudguard back into shape where it's a bit bashed in.
The nut was just spinning the stud in the plastic reflector, so I cut a slot in the end of the thread with a 1mm disc in the grinder. Stuck a screwdriver in the slot and really leaned on it while turning the nut with a spanner. Job jobbed. Used a bodywork hammer to tap the bottom of the guard back into shape. It's not perfect but it's much better now.
1. Remove the wobbly reflector and tap the back of the mudguard back into shape where it's a bit bashed in.
The nut was just spinning the stud in the plastic reflector, so I cut a slot in the end of the thread with a 1mm disc in the grinder. Stuck a screwdriver in the slot and really leaned on it while turning the nut with a spanner. Job jobbed. Used a bodywork hammer to tap the bottom of the guard back into shape. It's not perfect but it's much better now.
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Jonny69
Senior Retro Guru
2. Remove the broken screw from the chainstay bridge so I can re-fit the mudguard screw.
Ok, this is going to be a bit of a how-to with Easy Outs and what to do when they don't work (because it didn't).
First, if you can, file the end of what's left flat:
Make your life a bit easier - put what you're working on in a position where it's stable and where you have decent access:
Next centre punch the centre of the screw as close to the centre as you can get it. A little tip to help free things off is if you get a little hammer and tap away at the stuck bit for a few minutes. Don't really hit it, just tappity tap tap away. You're not aiming to deform anything, just start to break the hold that the corrosion has. Then drill a hole down the broken bit. I started with 3mm for my Easy Out and chickened out and finished it off with a 2.5mm. You can see I didn't get it perfectly centred:
Insert the Easy Out and tap it in lightly. Again, you don't want to really hammer it in, you just want to get it to bite in a bit so it can get a good grip:
Then you can start to wind it out using a tap wrench. Now, you either get lucky with these or you don't. There is a bit of skill involved, but it's mostly making a judgment call about whether it's about to break, slip, or if it's chewing up. In my case, it didn't budge in the slightest and then broke through the side where I didn't drill the hole particularly well in the centre:
That's basically not coming out. I'd suggest this happened because of a combination of my hole not being very well centred and I could have probably done with drilling a smaller hole. All is not lost though, because my backup plan was to simply drill it out and re-tap the thread. So I went through with a 4mm drill and tapped it with an M5 tap:
You'd normally drill to 4.2mm for M5, but I wanted to leave plenty of contingency metal in there and let the tap do the work instead. After tidying up the outside, I have a nice clean thread to pop a fresh screw into:
Ok, this is going to be a bit of a how-to with Easy Outs and what to do when they don't work (because it didn't).
First, if you can, file the end of what's left flat:
Make your life a bit easier - put what you're working on in a position where it's stable and where you have decent access:
Next centre punch the centre of the screw as close to the centre as you can get it. A little tip to help free things off is if you get a little hammer and tap away at the stuck bit for a few minutes. Don't really hit it, just tappity tap tap away. You're not aiming to deform anything, just start to break the hold that the corrosion has. Then drill a hole down the broken bit. I started with 3mm for my Easy Out and chickened out and finished it off with a 2.5mm. You can see I didn't get it perfectly centred:
Insert the Easy Out and tap it in lightly. Again, you don't want to really hammer it in, you just want to get it to bite in a bit so it can get a good grip:
Then you can start to wind it out using a tap wrench. Now, you either get lucky with these or you don't. There is a bit of skill involved, but it's mostly making a judgment call about whether it's about to break, slip, or if it's chewing up. In my case, it didn't budge in the slightest and then broke through the side where I didn't drill the hole particularly well in the centre:
That's basically not coming out. I'd suggest this happened because of a combination of my hole not being very well centred and I could have probably done with drilling a smaller hole. All is not lost though, because my backup plan was to simply drill it out and re-tap the thread. So I went through with a 4mm drill and tapped it with an M5 tap:
You'd normally drill to 4.2mm for M5, but I wanted to leave plenty of contingency metal in there and let the tap do the work instead. After tidying up the outside, I have a nice clean thread to pop a fresh screw into:
Jonny69
Senior Retro Guru
I ordered up some M6 x 8mm x 16mm shoulder bolts yesterday afternoon and they unexpectedly dropped through the door this morning! I got stainless ones, because the carbon steel ones have a black knurled finish on the head that thought might look a bit out of place. These look just fine imo:
Perfect fit on the bolts themselves. After a bit of faffing with the springs, the best fit seems to be with the original RH springs as the Mafac ones are 90° out and I don’t think I want to drill new holes in the spring bosses.
I found the missing nut for the rear mudguard.
So that’s it. Cables, chain and bar tape and it’s road legal and ready to ride!
Perfect fit on the bolts themselves. After a bit of faffing with the springs, the best fit seems to be with the original RH springs as the Mafac ones are 90° out and I don’t think I want to drill new holes in the spring bosses.
I found the missing nut for the rear mudguard.
So that’s it. Cables, chain and bar tape and it’s road legal and ready to ride!
Jonny69
Senior Retro Guru
First ride then. I took it into Staines and a couple of miles down the towpath. Gearing set on 48x20.
So it’s not a fast bike. What do I mean by that? It doesn’t take a lot to push it along, but it doesn’t want to go fast. It’s not like my 1938 Parkes which is springy and zips along. It’s happier just ambling along at a steady pace. It’s quite difficult to haul around when out the saddle, but this might just be the short stem and shape of the bars.
Steering feels quite old fashioned - it’s got that 26” roadster feel about it. I guess a contributor to how this feels this is the short stem and very narrow bars. I wouldn’t call it nimble like my Parkes is, but it feels perfectly sure-footed flying round roundabouts at speed. It soaks up the bumps extremely well.
So all in, I could see this being a pretty pleasant ride once loaded up and making use of the gearing, just pedalling along at a sensible pace.
The 48x20 gear was a bit too twiddly for me and it was cross-chaining ever so slightly and occasionally catching a tooth on the freewheel. When I got back I swapped it down one to 48x18 which is closer to the gearing I normally ride (about 72gi) and the chainline is improved. It definitely made a difference to the ride quality too.
So next on the list is to see what I can do to sort out the derailleur and reinstate the gears. After I’ve had a bit of a ride though.
So it’s not a fast bike. What do I mean by that? It doesn’t take a lot to push it along, but it doesn’t want to go fast. It’s not like my 1938 Parkes which is springy and zips along. It’s happier just ambling along at a steady pace. It’s quite difficult to haul around when out the saddle, but this might just be the short stem and shape of the bars.
Steering feels quite old fashioned - it’s got that 26” roadster feel about it. I guess a contributor to how this feels this is the short stem and very narrow bars. I wouldn’t call it nimble like my Parkes is, but it feels perfectly sure-footed flying round roundabouts at speed. It soaks up the bumps extremely well.
So all in, I could see this being a pretty pleasant ride once loaded up and making use of the gearing, just pedalling along at a sensible pace.
The 48x20 gear was a bit too twiddly for me and it was cross-chaining ever so slightly and occasionally catching a tooth on the freewheel. When I got back I swapped it down one to 48x18 which is closer to the gearing I normally ride (about 72gi) and the chainline is improved. It definitely made a difference to the ride quality too.
So next on the list is to see what I can do to sort out the derailleur and reinstate the gears. After I’ve had a bit of a ride though.
Jonny69
Senior Retro Guru
They’re a really good fit and they don’t rattle or clatter. 70+ years old!
