Twentys for 20

sherlylock

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Not sure if this is the right section......but these are going to be used as road bikes so here goes.....

I've had a Raleigh itch that I've wanted to scratch for a while.....and that was to own a Raleigh Twenty. Mainly after seeing Sheldon Brown's Twenty and then finding out that there's quite a following for these bikes......and finding out that they can be turned into funky small wheeled commuter road bikes.

I found one locally.....and snapped it up for £20. A 1970 Twenty Model.....in fairly original condition, but proper filthy and unloved.

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3spd Sturmey Archer hub with grip shift and a dynohub up front to power(!?) the lights.

Pumped up the tyres, adjusted the brakes and rode it 5miles to work. 2 of the 3 speeds worked initially....but down to one by the time I arrived at work. Bit of lunchtime gear tweaking saw a return to full 3spd functionality for the ride home. Quite enjoyed it.

Anyway....decided that I like this bike as it is and can't bring myself to modify it.

So I bought another......again for £20

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1973 "Shopper" Model.....in fairly good condition......apart from the loosest, mal-adjusted headset ever.

So this is my donor bike! The plan is to strip it.....swap the better parts onto the Twenty (nice stuff like the "R" capped nuts and some of the chromework that's in better nick), sell what I don't need and then turn the frame into the fun 20" wheel commuter road bike. I've got a couple of thoughts about how I want it to look and what components I want to run on it......but those thoughts may change as i get into the project.

First issue to get around is swapping out the cotter pin bb to a square taper version so I can run with a roadbike crank. Not completely straightforward as the Raleigh bb is 26tpi and 76mm wide - common square taper bbs are 24tpi and 68mm wide.

Looking forward to getting stuck into this project.....

Some pics of the two:

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Re: Re:

dan73uk":2u42z453 said:
I'm sure you will have already seen this, Sheldon has 3-4 options for swapping out the BB for a modern crank -
https://www.sheldonbrown.com/raleigh-twenty.html

Yep, have had a read through that, cheers for the link......and read about a fifth option of machining a standard 68mm bb spindle in half, adding a spacer to widen it and brazing it all together.

To be honest narrowing the bb shell to 68mm and fitting a threadless bb is looking favourable at the mo.

Luckily I've got access to a helpful machinist and a machine shop which should make life easier. :)
 
Are you going for drops and a generally speedy looking build on the blue twenty? If so please Please PLEASE can you keep the "Shopper" decal for added awesomes? :)
 
Re:

well this sparked some memories .. back in the day, after a thrashing the Raleigh Grifter head tube would start disintegrating at the bottom end just above the lower bearing race. as a preventative measure you could inseret the chrome cap from trhe head tube of one of these to the Grifter head tube..

why not shoehorn a set fo skyway tuffs on there? :cool:
 
Goldie":1a9ud0yw said:
Are you going for drops and a generally speedy looking build on the blue twenty? If so please Please PLEASE can you keep the "Shopper" decal for added awesomes? :)

Err.....yeah of course! I had been considering this actually......especially as it's such a hideous 70's font. I may remake it in a different colourway but I think it'll be staying!

enc":1a9ud0yw said:
well this sparked some memories .. back in the day, after a thrashing the Raleigh Grifter head tube would start disintegrating at the bottom end just above the lower bearing race. as a preventative measure you could inseret the chrome cap from trhe head tube of one of these to the Grifter head tube..

why not shoehorn a set fo skyway tuffs on there? :cool:

Funnily enough the recent fixation with Raleigh Twentys has come about after buying this from a local chap......who also offered me the Twenty for a bargain price.

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He'd bought up a load of shoppers and a load of BMX parts and had created a few hybrids to sell.....there was something strangely appealing about the Puch which meant I had to have it (along with the Twenty of course!)

I think white Skyway Tuffs against the blue would actually look great......there's already a bike on this very forum which is a blue shopper sporting white tuffs and looks great IMO.
 
bluetomgold":21s2pvbg said:
Looking forward to seeing what you do with this. The Kingpin's awaiting a new stem... getting there!

Any ideas what stem are you going for? I'm guessing I'm going to have to go for something really long (if I don't stick with the original). Can you buy long quill stems?

The blue shopper is now reduced to it's component parts. Only mildly stubborn part was one of the bottom bracket cups. The flats for getting the spanner on are really short......so resorted to a bit of nut and bolt technology to keep the spanner in place.

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I've been scouring the freeads for a donor bike for wheels to replace the chrome plated jobbies. Decided I want to run with a cassette and derailleur at the rear so I have at least a few gears to choose from - I want to commute on this eventually so it'd be nice to have a few gears to play with.

The budget is tight so I opted for this absolute beauty......for a tenner. Round the corner from me so picked up last night and had the pleasure in stripping it and throwing most of it away.

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Careful now! No stunting, No jumping. No fun.

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Good thing about kids is that they tend to outgrow stuff before wearing it out. Loads of life left in these. They're Chinese and fairly clunky but they'll get me rolling....

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So next up is a bit of cold setting of the frame to get the wider hubs to fit and a bit of dropout fettling to allow the larger diameter spindles to fit. Loving the blackness though.....having thoughts of a Gulf blue/orange colour scheme with black components.

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Good to see another Raleigh Twenty project! I'm looking forward to see how you choose to build it up.

I got used a Mavic bottom bracket to get around the shell issues, which was a little work, but I'm happy I took that approach. I might even have a spare of those bottom brackets, though I need one for my Aende, so I'd have to work out which is needed for that before parting with any.

What are you doing about brakes?
 
sherlylock":314cfyxg said:
bluetomgold":314cfyxg said:
Looking forward to seeing what you do with this. The Kingpin's awaiting a new stem... getting there!

Any ideas what stem are you going for?

Nice work on the twenty... getting those BBs out can be a pig - I bought a special tool, but your technique looks great.

Re the stem, one of these just arrived in the mail. Feels solid, but heavy.

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/PROMAX-EXTRA ... 2420460364

If you are keeping the original forks and headset you might be better off in some respects to keep the original stem / bar setup. Nice to have a quick release on the stem on one of these.
 
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