1949 Rudge Single speed

jon w

Old School Hero
Thought I'd introduce my rudge project.


I went out on th bike one evening as the british summer was defying the odds and actually being warm and sunny... post this I decided to hang about and do some work about the garage. This was intruppeed by the owner of the garage clearing out the opposite unit.... que the question.... "Is there anything you would like in here.... there's a few old bikes.... we are going to throw it all away" At this point I SHOULD have said no thanks but it came out as Ok, I'll take them....

So I became the owner of the frames two Raleighs, a Triumph, a Sun, a Rudge, and a few wheels (all scrap)

Here is the Rudge as found with two of the wheels and a few bits I had laying about from an aborted MTB project.



Now.... I've always wanted a single speed / fixie... que a plan....

Find these on ebay....


Strip and re-paint the frame...





Add a Brookes saddle, leather look grips and cream tyres, clean up the crank and you get:





 
Nice!

Another frame saved from the scrap heap. I have a single speed project underway at the minute. What make/model are the tyres?

N
 
I was wondering where this was going in terms of vintage parts being junked, but actually that's not a bad base for a SS conversion and the finished bike looks great :D

Was there not a black quill stem you could have used? I always think those threadless ones look a bit ungainly on older frames.
 
Agreed, it is the least good bit, but not actually that bad. I could have used another stem but that one was there and it seemed a shame to waste it. Once I have the niggles (like lack of brakes) ironed out I'll probably look at it.
 
Latest addition to the bike....







A vintage Carbide lamp. Unfortunatly it can never be fired up again as the water vessle and the top of the carbide chamber are rotten. But plans involving LED's are afoot...
 
This weekends ride finally spurred me into fitting some brakes....

The newish two tunnels cycleway near Bath is great for this bike.... it really can get a bit of momentum on the long flat straights... but slowing down isn't soo efficient and my knees complained... :facepalm:

So this happened:





The caliper is a touring bike deep reach, bent to suit the rear ward (and angled) mount. These had to be used as standard road calipers do not have the reach and the cable pull is too tall and narrow to allow any steering lock.

For a lever, a Dia Compe reverse time trial lever with the ball end modified to the old spade style. I'm not sure about the brown, it may get re-painted soon, but I'm happy to have brakes.



Added bling came form this for the other bar end...

 
like it
but this this bike deserves a proper thin quill stem ;)
and you can elegantly prop up the bar if you don't want it too low rather than with this modern adjustable stem :idea: :mrgreen:
or is your straight bar 31.8 mm ?
it will looks the part much better IMO
 
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