Cleland Range Rider (RR-001 English Cycles) Highpath. 1982

[GrahamJohnWallace]

The dropped top tubes on the Snowdon bike are interesting but I guess ultimately not as strong meeting the seat tube where they do.

History would suggest otherwise as the point at the top of the seat tube, where the other tubes are joined, proved to be the structural Achilles heel of the Cleland bicycles. For a period David Wrath-Sharman was kept busy repairing fractured seat tubes by brazing in thicker tubing where the seat-tube passes through the chain-stay, brace and top-tube cluster. I can see that he has done this to RR-01 though this may well have been carried out as a preventative measure and not a repair.

Partly this weakness was connected with the fact that lightweight micro-adjusting seat pins longer than 170mm were impossible to obtain in the mid 1980s. As a result seat-pin insertion, especially with taller riders, was often inadequate. There was also a metal fatigue issue in this area related to the flexing of the tube when the quick release bolt was tightened and loosened.

The bikes that did not have any problems with this issue seem to be those:
*that were ridden by shorter lighter riders or were maybe abused less.
*those that were fitted with the longer seat-pins that soon became available.
*and those with larger frames that had slightly dropped top tubes. (This is probably because the miss alignment of the top-tube and seat-stays helped to brace the seat-tube and prevented it bending as much under load).

 

[firedfromthecircus]

G

I mentioned this strange rack earlier on in the thread, does anyone knows why it has a 100mm long, 10mm O.D tube welded on top?

Or have a guess.....
:?

Could it be for some kind of tow behind contraption? Either for a tag-a-long or a trailer arrangement? 100mm is front fork spacing.

 

[REtrouble]

Could it be for some kind of tow behind contraption? Either for a tag-a-long or a trailer arrangement? 100mm is front fork spacing.

Good thinking, only thing is it's only brazed on in two spots so not super-strong.

I'm beginning to think it might have been a way of positively securing some one-off panniers?

 

[GrahamJohnWallace]

[vimeo]https://vimeo.com/41379844[/vimeo]
This video I made in April 2012 shows in order:
* four of the bikes lost in the Leicester house clearance
* my two original bikes
* two modern cleland style bikes
*and a Cleland Aventura that belongs to a Roughstuff Fellowship member

The auction buyer of four of the Leicester bikes found this video and used the information from it to more accurately describe three of the bikes in the most recent eBay auction.

 

[REtrouble]

Good stuff Graham, & an image of mine I assume you took from the same meet up.

From this thread -
viewtopic.php?f=1&t=44909&start=40

Which gives an indication of why it hadn't been ridden since it's restoration.
A good view of the tyres :shock:

.

 

[GrahamJohnWallace]

Good stuff Graham, & an image of mine I assume you took from the same meet up.

That's correct.

Which gives an indication of why it hadn't been ridden since it's restoration.

The only thing that makes me think that this bike has been used since 1982 is the reinforcement of the seat tube. However this could have been done when the new rear triangle was added in order to stop metal fatigue from occurring in future.

If the rear triangle is offset so that the rear wheel does not need to be dished, then that is near certain proof that the rear triangle was fabricated by David Wrath-Sharman at Highpath.

A good view of the tyres :shock:.

The backstory of those tyres is that around 1987 and long before 'Fatbikes' were conceived, David Wrath-Sharman made a bike that had two low-pressure 650b Hakkapeliitta tyres laced onto a single hub. Also he replaced the standard tungsten ice studs in the tyres with longer spikes.

Steve Chantler's version of these tyres was a homage to this legendary Highpath Creation.
Highpath Engineering, under David Wrath-Sharman was the most amazing of bike makers. Every bike was effectively a one off-prototype individually designed for its owner. Custom built components were made whenever David was not happy with available manufactured parts, and some of these were designed and made for just one bike.

The story of Highpath and their unique bikes is one I have never told. Mainly because I think it would be best if David wrote it himself, about which I have been badgering him for decades. If not, one day I promise to document Highpath's history in the best detail that I can.

 

[drcarlos]

The seatstays that have been grafted on look like they came from the late 80's Raleigh lightweight division and could be 531 if they were liberated from the 1988 Avanti or 1989 Moonshine. They could even be 653 if taken from a 1989 White Lightnin', but are more likely to be the generic ones (no tube description was ever offered from them) fitted to the Chinook, Cajun, Ozark, Thunder Mountain, Team, Blueridge or Appalachian.
The chainstays are easier to place if taken from the Raleigh lightweights too. A double bend will signify the lower spec ones where as a single bend means 653 or 531, helping also to place the seatstays.

The Moonshine, Avanti and White Lightnin' were not very common and only a handful have been seen on here and eBay, however the other bikes are quite plentiful (except the team).

Carl.

 

[REtrouble]

Drcarlos, the wealth of knowledge on this forum never ceases to amaze me!

I'll take some photos of the seat/chainstays, it'd be fun to know what they came off.

Excuse my total ignorance, is there a period that Raleigh stamped it's name into the top of the seatstays?

 

[drcarlos]

Drcarlos, the wealth of knowledge on this forum never ceases to amaze me!

I'll take some photos of the seat/chainstays, it'd be fun to know what they came off.

Excuse my total ignorance, is there a period that Raleigh stamped it's name into the top of the seatstays?

Only from 1987 to 1989 in the lightweights. The more basic range lasted longer (up to about 1991 with the k2 range) but the design is different and easy to separate from the higher end lightweight range.

I can see from your seat stays they are from the higher end lightweights. I should be able to tell the chain stays too.

Carl

 

[REtrouble]

Ok, some shots of the seat/chainstays-

I got to the bottom of the intermittent brake squealing problem, I was doing right by chamfering the shoes only they needed a lot more, I chalked them to see where they were contacting & it turns out they needed chamfering from about half way round! The front also had the back-plate twisted slightly by a miss-aligned torque arm, anyway all seems good now with silent (just acceptable) brakes

A couple of pics from my relaxed ride today-