sept 1981 3 speed Raleigh bomber restoration

[darrenh]

hi folks, i didnt know where to put my bike as its not really a mountain bike, or a road bike, or a bmx ! (what is it ? cruiser ?)

this bomber has been languishing in a shed at my nans for 25 odd years. it used to be my uncles when he was a teenager and I used to use it when I stayed at weekends, nan recently moved and we are clearing the out buildings. there's a fair bit of nostalgia and sentimental value surrounding this bike, said uncle died many years ago and I don't actually have a bike, so decided to save it from going in the skip and recommission it. I owned a strika followed by chrome burner in the 80s so I was quite envious of this bigger bike, and with gears ! in the 1990s i had a Raleigh mustang, the black and red SIS version

if I remember back the bomber had a certain demographic, sort of doc martins, shaved head "hard kids", which I am not but beach cruiser/ 1950s klunker styling is very much en vogue at the minute

the bomber was stored in a draughty old shed, so while its not had direct water contact, its had a fair bit of "humidity" !! everything is free and working (including the 3 speed sturmey)

my main concern is that the chrome parts are in bad shape, down to the steel on parts of the rims. the other issue is decals, they are faded and hanging off, but I've found somewhere that does sympathetic reproduction in vinyl

the rear hub is dated november 1981, and the frame number relates to september.

I like the period features of the ever-ready lamps and the weird brush things around the hubs which I remember were luminous

 

[darrenh]

i didnt hold much hope for the chrome on the wheels but everyone regaled me how a bit of elbow grease can bring some things back from the dead. so, had a little go with some fine wire wool and engine oil which didnt turn out too well, following some ridiculous quotes for re-chroming i went down the route of new rims

yeah so that idea went out the window, i started looking for some correct replacement 26 x 2.125 rims. most of the hits came back from California, i guess the beach cruiser scene is big out there. I imported a pair of wheels from the states with the idea to use the front wheel as is, then take the rim off the other and re-lace it to my original sturmey hub.

then i inspected the bike and started raiding ebay for vintage or period correct replacement parts. i got a 1970s front ever-ready light from ebay to match my rear, and some new old stock brake blocks and retaining hooks. new retro style tyres in the shape of DMR supormoto (26x2.2) and some continental tubes to match.

a set of reproduction decals from retrospectbmx.com

NOS rat traps and cotter pins.

36 x 155mm sapim 13g spokes to mate the sturmey hub to USA sourced rim

replacement foam grips (the bomber currently has some grifter ones)

OEM fibrax brake blocks

vintage BS.A fairylite reflector as mine is missing

 

[cs1]

Can't wait to see the finished bike.

 

[Chute55uk]

Go on facebook and look up ministry of bicycles. The guy who runs it also runs the bomberdrome which is like a wall of death for bikes namely bombers. Alternatively check out billing aquadrome the weekend after next the raleigh chopper and bomber club is having their annual meet with the drome in attendance.
[urlhttps://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Ministry-of-Bicycles/319812518061428][/url]
[urlhttps://www.facebook.com/events/508963189156294/?ref=2][/url]

 

[darrenh]

thanks for the comments guys, and i will check out that facebook link

thanks H

this was a couple of weekends ago stripping the frame down, first pic is undoing the rear hubs nuts and taking the gear cable out

after getting the back wheel off and unbolting the rear eveready lamp I thought hmm that feels a bit heavy, like batteries still in it heavy. slide the cover open and found period batteries unfortunately as you can see one had leaked and the contact from the lamp has fused to the top end, which then snapped off. so this lamp is scrap but will keep for spares

wheel off, mudguard off and the rear forks removed. at this point I noticed two snapped spokes and the offside fork is bent. well they did call them action raleighs, and my uncle wasnt shy finding huge ramps lol

front wheel off, both crank cotter pins removed, plus crank and pedals

the crank pin was quite notchy so I decided to go deeper and undo the bearing adjusters, any tool kept slipping off the shallow shoulders so I just tapped it round with a drift

crank pin slid out and looking through to the bearing track on the offside (after cleaning it out). the track looked removable in the same fashion, but was well painted in so left it.

crank pin, bearing track and ball bearings cleaned up. they came up spotless so I'm guessing it was just dry old grease and grime making it notchy. note to self, 22 ball bearings I counted, 11 each side.

then I cracked off the handle bar adjuster, hooked the forks over the garden fence, applied wd40 and turned, DINK, it came free (phew) the expanding joint is free and clean

here ive taken off the fork locking nut and lamp bracket, then undone the top bearing track then caught the top ball bearings in a container. never throw away your old chinese cartons !!

then I slid the forks out and caught the bearings from the bottom. another note to self, 25 ball bearings came out top and bottom, 50 total. then I drove the bearing tracks out of the frame, and the one off the forks. everything cleaned up shiny despite starting off a bit brown, so big relief there.

final pic for today, everything except the wheels laid out. I'll probably unlace the original rear wheel later, or tomorrow.

 

[darrenh]

I heat gunned the decals off, rubbed all the frame parts down with 400 grit w+d. there were also a few splits and dents in the paint where the rust had ferreted around underneath, I had to bare metal them with the strip and clean disk then etch prime those bits.

then I busted out the compressor, gun and the black gloss, thinned it down 2:1 and did a coat every 15 mins

not a bad shine straight out of the gun. will do a wet flat with 1500 and polish it after, to get the flies out

 

[Dossa]

Fantastic work so far, glued to this thread!

 

[Chopper the ex Copper]

Highly pleasant. Like it when someone tackles every task themselves.

 

[coomber]

Yeah this is my kind of build.

Nice.

 

[Jussa]

Tuned in and having flashbacks to my youth nice thread and great work so far

Have a look at Deadrats Bomber build, viewtopic.php?f=6&t=231787

Great to see another one back on the scene

Jussa