1978 Raleigh Stowaway

[FluffyChicken]

Re:

Or if the crown race is Alu and you have enough metal, mill that out. It might be easier.

 

[kingoffootball]

Thanks Ben. I will try the place in Barton. I tried Cott Cycles as well as all the other LBSs and only Cliff Pratt said they had the tool until recently, but got rid of it when they moved.

I'd rather not mill the race out if I can avoid it as I'd like to be able to use the original forks with it too if necessary and also, being an OMAS headset it's probably worth more than the bike!

 

[kingoffootball]

Dominic from Wold Cycles replied to me very quickly, but unfortunately he's now based near London.

I think I might build it up with the original forks if I get time, then switch to the Ishitawa replacements once I have them reamed.

 

[Ted66]

Re:

HI and well done on your project, can you tell me where you managed to find the alloy rims for that size, cheers

 

[kingoffootball]

Thank you, I'm hoping to finally get it built up this weekend.

The alloy rims I have used are unbranded ones I picked up on ebay for something stupid like £5 each plus postage. I thought they might be terrible, but the quality actually seems quite good, though I haven't ridden on them yet. I seem to have been able to get the wheels pretty true with them though, on my first ever wheel build. If they ride well I'll be wishing I had bought more.

CRC used to stock them, but I've just checked and they don't have any now. SJS have a few, but they are £30-£35 per rim. I thought they would be easier to find these days, with more foldable bikes around, but they don't seem to be. If I find any more at good prices I'll pm you a link. They are a reasonable upgrade on the steel rims in terms of improving braking.

 

[kingoffootball]

These would fit on a Twenty:

http://www.bankruptbikeparts.co.uk/inde ... ct_id=2813

but you would probably struggle to find tyres for that obscure size.

 

[kingoffootball]

Wheels all finished, correct presta tubes this time and fitted with the tyres that began all this madness:

For my own reference, the wheels weigh 730g front and 800g rear without the tyres and tubes.

 

[Jonny69]

You might just need to buy a cheapy JIS headset off eBay for the crown race, which is what I did when I made up one on a Russian bike. I've seen 27mm crown races by themselves if you have an open bearing headset but not a tapered seat one for sealed bearings. It's also worth checking the cup sizes because most modern JIS headsets e.g. Tange actually have ISO sized cups. One of the Tange range comes with both sizes.

 

[kingoffootball]

Thanks Jonny. I had assumed that a JIS crown race would not sit flush with my headset, but that gives me another option. I'm still not sure I can bring myself to use a different crown race from the OMAS original, but it may come to that.

 

[kingoffootball]

Victory is mine!

This afternoon a friend came over to work on the Raleigh Stowaway/Twenty he has bought for his girlfriend and so I was inspired to work on mine. For a couple of hours at least I got absolutely nowhere, with everything seeming to change size the second I put it down.

Having accepted the replacement forks needed sending away to be reamed I decided I was building it up with the original forks. I tried to bit the crown race, but ...... it would not go on the original forks either :x In a fit of frustration, I decided to file them a touch. After working on the originals a bit I decided with care I could actually manage it with minimal scuffing and relatively accurately so switched to the Ishitawa forks. Half an hour or so later, it was down to 26.4mm and the crown race could just be persuaded on. There is scuffing to the powdercoat on the crown of the forks, but not very much, most of which is hidden by the headset and to turn unusable forks into usable forks it's a price I am willing to pay.

So, forks mounted, I'll leave it there for today, so as to delay discovering the next hitch until another day. Anyway, I need some spacers now for the headset.

Thank you to everyone for their advice for the crown race and sorry if I ended up going back to what was probably the most obvious solution. I really didn't believe I could do it to a standard I would be happy with.