My winter projects: Raleigh RSW's

I recently came across a couple of Raleigh RSW's on eBay that were being sold as "local pickup only" down in Nehalem, OR.  Nehalem is just east of Manzanita, a coastal town the family and I frequent almost every summer.  I knew it was going to be a stretch for the seller to get many bids,  seeing that people would need to go to the Oregon Coast to get them, so I put the bids in.

Here are some pictures for the eBay ad...

So, bike number one is a 1970 RSW MkII.  It looks pretty much stock

Bike number two is a RSW 16.

Post Script: 3/21/2013
It is now about four months since I originally wrote this post up... and frankly these bikes were what pushed me over the edge.  The condition was poor and they weighed a fricken TON... each....

Even our dog Hazel was disappointed!

I had just returned from a trip with my eldest son, and traveling with bikes was really on my mind.  But NOT these bikes. Too heavy.  And not Twenties. Too heavy and not small enough.  So what to do?

Sell these and get a Brompton!!  More to come on THAT decision..

Starting Over

There has been so much going on recently that I need to just clean the slate and start over here...

Bikes coming and going.  We moved to a new house (more storage - yeah!). Working again..

Where to start...

First, my dream of one day doing a bike rental business aside the Pacific Ocean has left.  Come on, I was thinking, is this really going to happen??  The answer came back at first as a niggling "maybe," and then continued to get louder as "no."  So the bikes I had been collecting for over three years, at one time thirteen (13) Raleigh Twenties are starting to find new owners.  I'm going to be headed down to Portland next Friday to deliver another two.  This will put me down to ( a still ridiculous) eight R-20's:

Current R-20 Bikes I Have
  - My eleven year old's bike.  He LOVES his R-20.  It's a really nice green frame with 20" 451 narrow wheels.  I have a set of Schwalbe Durano's only pumped to 80psi so the road shock isn't too bad.  It really moves and is very nimble.

  - Our electric bikes.  These are two Twenties we converted into electric motor bikes.
  - "The Rainbow"  I have five R-20's, one of each color (blue, green, brown, white and orange).  My kids won't let me get rid of them...



Second, I finished a custom re-build of my red Raleigh International frame.  Powder coated gloss black with gold pin striping and a fresh decal set, full Campy Nuovo Record, hammered fenders, Brooks saddle and bar tape... this bike is a dream.  I plan on making it my main ride this spring and summer.

Third, and most extravagant, we are now members of the Cult Brompton.

Fourth, I have two vintage dream bikes, fully stock examples (well, except for wheel rims) of a 1974 Raleigh Professional AND a 1974 Raleigh International.  Beautiful bikes...

Fifth, I have decided to keep the two Raleigh Tourists that I built up for my wife and I.  Even if we ride them a couple times a year, they are just fun bikes...

I will be doing separate blog posts on all these, particularly my experiences with the Brompton, over the next little bit.  For now, I just wanted to say:

I'm Back!

charles

A Grand Adventure

I have been woefully remiss is my writing as of late. It is my intention to re-ignite my blog again.  But I've said that before!

What better way to start back than to recount an amazing adventure I recently took with my oldest son around the American West! He, a recent high school grad, and I, currently in a state of employment limbo, had some unstructured time, namely three weeks, to craft the adventure of a lifetime. When would we get another chance?

So we loaded the old Honda Accord with camping gear, two Raleigh Twenties strapped to the roof and hit the road.

Our trip took us east from Seattle over Snoqualamie Pass, across the high plains of eastern Washington. We started up into the foothills of the Rockies ending up on the doorstep of Glacier National Park in Montana.


The bikes were very handy getting us around towns particularly. Here we are at the railway station in Whitefish, MT.
We spent a couple days in Glacier and northwestern Montana, then headed down to Yellowstone. What an amazing place.

One of the deep geyser pools in Yellowstone.  The colors are astounding.

We crested the Continental Divide 4 or 5 times during the trip.  Here in Yellowstone on the way to the lake.

From here, across northern Wyoming to the Black Hills and Great Plains of South Dakota

Devils Tower in north-eastern Wyoming... I saw Close Encounters back in the day.  This was WAY more impressive in person.

Here is my son in front of some of the natural sculptures of Badlands NP in South Dakota.  They had a solar viewing telescope at the visitor center.  The sun was throwing off a huge prominence at the time!

We drove almost a straight line from South Dakota to Los Angeles through Rocky Mountain NP and into the red rock canyons of eastern Utah.  Here is the Balancing Rock in Arches NP.

One of the "fin" structures of Arches NP.

My favorite picture of the trip.  My eldest son (I'm so proud of him!! Graduated high school this year!) "flying" on a cliff in Canyonlands NP.

Monument Vally, southern Utah, Northern Arizona.  There was NO ONE around...

Joshua Tree, NP... words cannot explain the coolness of these trees... Best visitor center we stopped at too.  Check out the home made sandwiches and soup there!

We headed north along Highway 1 on the Pacific coast.  Here is our very comfortable abode in Morrow Bay State Park, our Twenties guarding the fort...

My favorite bird... California Raven. Big Sur, Elephant Seal Beach.

Manchester Beach State Park, Big Sur California. Cold, damp and a bit lonely.  We had the place to ourselves.  A wild Pacific lulling us to sleep that night.  Did not see any Snowy Plovers though...

Redwoods NP.  We slept amongst the largest living organisms we know of in the universe..  humbling to walk amongst them, an honor really..

Crater Lake, NP.  I didn't want to go... really, I've seen the pictures a million times (like most of us, I'd guess).  I'm glad I did.  This place is spectacular! You MUST see it for real...

Not much bike stuff here, but we had a great time... and the Twenties came in real handy.  The only technical issue we had was one of the "L" shaped seat post bolts stripped and we needed to find a replacement.  This was harder than it seemed, and we limped along with a coarse bolt, nut and a couple washers till we got home.

~charles

Ride at Alki

Heading to Seattle's Alki Beach today for a ride with my wife and youngest son. An "All Twenty" ride.  We started right where the West Seattle Bridge ends on Admiral Way... near Bike University.  Parked the van and started out.

I sprung for some tension bars that create a false top tube.  This makes getting the R-20 MUCH easier to mount on a traditional tail hitch rack.

My wife rode the pristine orange Twenty we have.  If you look hard in the distance, it matches the color of the top of the 50th Anniversary Space Needle!  My 11 year old loves this view of Seattle.

There are a ton of waterfront parks along the basically flat 5 mile or so route.  Fun to stop and smell the salt water!  Also, much of the route has dedicated "wheels" path, meaning bikes only have to content with skateboarders and roller skaters.

No ride to Alki would be complete without a stop at Pegasus Pizza, my vote for best pizza in Seattle!!

My Current Ride

This is a modified Raleigh Twenty I picked up in Vancouver BC recently. Very sweet bike and an excellent price. Considering making this my main ride now.

There is a story to this bike (of course)...  The girl who listed it on craigslist for a C$75 price mentioned when I picked it up... "my ex-boyfriend wasn't too happy I sold it for that."  No doubt!  I think the wheels/tires alone would've cost me a couple hundred!

This bike rides real quick and agile.  The headset has been modified in some way too (although it looks original).  It is much more responsive than any other Twenty I have.  I haven't taken it apart to see what was done.

I took it out the other day on a 6 mile ride and it felt identical to the road bikes I have been riding recently.  The only difference is the handlebar.  I'm not into putting ram-horns on a bike like this (i've seen others do it) but there just are not the number of available hand positions in this configuration.

There is a slight rattle in the SA hub too I need to look into.  I thought it was the dust cover behind the sprocket at first, so I took it off and slathered grease in there... nope.  Still rattles.  It is a funny rattle - only occurs when I don't have active pedal pressure on the chain i.e. coasting along.  Not sure what is going on but it is definitely in the hub.

Anybody?  Thoughts?

More to come. I'm resurrecting this blog again using Blogger on my iPhone. This is just a test for now...

Modified Raleigh Twenty: Alloy wheels (new Schwalbe tires),
Seat Post, Pedals and Handlebar.  Fully updated brake system

I added lights (2 front and two rear), odometer,
bell and Carradice with home-made support and
Brooks B-17 Saddle

Looking for a nice set of narrow chime fenders....