Today's freebie barn find.

[dynamicbrick]

And it is complete.

New cables - £9
New bell - £5
Basket - £20

A lot of wire wool, and half a tube of autosol. Didn't bother with the chain, just oiled it and ran the surface rust off it. Cleaned the chrome with wire wool and autosol, and applied a bit of cure-rust to the worst patched. Re-stuckthe vinyl on the saddle with the glue gun. Some LM Grease in a few strategic places.

Job's a good un.

Everything is original except the rear brake cable.

Couldn't find a skirt guard that wasn't silly money or tackier than sin, and didn't get round to getting a mudguard mounted light. Headquarters has some fabric flowers she's going to attach to the basket.

 

[vivelesalpes]

Nice work. Your mum will love that.

Paul

 

[dynamicbrick]

Just ridden it to the shops to ascertain everything working fine and that the basket doesn't foul anything when loaded

Got a major tank slapper downhill on the way back as I went into the racing tuck and shifted my arse backwards on the saddle

Being 6' 4" it is massively too small, and the odd riding position means my legs were hurting after just half a mile.

 

[vaeske]

nice job on the resto! how old is this bike anyway? and how much does it weigh roughly?

 

[dynamicbrick]

Difficult to say - Raleigh seem to have churned this frame style out for a long period of time (late 70s to mid 90s from what I can gather). It's an odd mix of modern bits - the front and rear reflectors are modern style, and ancient things like cotter-pin cranks and fabric centres on the brake blocks.

I'd guess it's mid 90s this one... haven't found any manufacturing date stamps (haven't really looked), the reflectors are incongruously modern type - especially on the wheels.

Weight wise I'd guess 13kgs - very thin tubing, and there's not a lot of it. Front wheel is pretty llight too. The SA hub probably accounts for 15% of the total mass.

 

[bikenut2010]

Just ridden it to the shops to ascertain everything working fine and that the basket doesn't foul anything when loaded

Got a major tank slapper downhill on the way back as I went into the racing tuck and shifted my arse backwards on the saddle

Being 6' 4" it is massively too small, and the odd riding position means my legs were hurting after just half a mile.

worthy of a youtube clip I'd say

 

[GrumpyOldMan]

.. haven't found any manufacturing date stamps (haven't really looked),

The SA hub will almost certainly have the date stamped on it. It will appear as two numbers, something like 92 9 which would be september 1992.

 

[vivelesalpes]

Lol.

Mrs is watching call the mid-wife and I've not seen any of the ladies on that tank slapping on their bikes !

 

[dynamicbrick]

Evening chaps.

Well, Mum was delighted with her bike. First time she's ridden in 50 years or so - bit unsure to start with, but we managed to get three generations of Hamilton around the bloke - me on the Peugeot, youngest offspring on her Tassles-n-Dolly-Seat Raleigh

SA hub says 90-11, so she's look good for 22 years sat mainly in a barn