Rudge Ulster Sports bicycle, how old and what to do with it?

[mikeyboyo]

Hi everyone, I picked up this old beauty last week from my local bike workshop. It is a Rudge Ulster Sports bicycle, I have looked on the web and wikipedia says that Rudge Whitworth are defunct as of 1939, somewhere else I saw something about a 1952 Rudge catalogue, so I have no idea how old this is :/ could someone enlighten me please? Can someone please tell me a bit about these bikes, their history etc and what a complete/good condition one should look like. I am as yet undecided about what to do with this bike, the previous owner tried to make it into a fixie as the cassette is seized, I want to convert to hub gears, I have a spare 3 speed hub as well as a 5 speed hub kicking around. I am thinking of doing a sort of rat/restomod thing here, keeping the frame forks and crankset original, going for some tasteful modern components, hub gears, shorty mudguards, brown bar tape and saddle etc, a bit like what the guy in this video did with a Raleigh Lenton sports https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lzC4JZ2yMkw

Anyway, here are some pictures, better pics to follow soon













Regards
Michael

 

[oonaff]

wicked ha that crank! the hand,do you think it is the red hand of the ulster men ? i thought rudge were birmingham way ?i must find out more.
there was a chat here recently about them being taken over by raleigh.i really like the chrome fork crown cap .i wonder if the slight bend of the down tube near the h tube is typical or an optical illusion.
cause im sure that sportsman frame shared it.[great film,i would have lug lined and box lined gold & deff snipped off the top of the m guard stays]
and a shame they lost the reg harris and 531 sticker]

kevin the gerbil

 

[barry2017]

That's well post-war. Mid-late fifties, I'd imagine. As discussed, Raleigh took them over and for many years produced badge-engineered versions of their own bikes.

The Rudge crank's probably one of my favourite bike components of all time. Forget your CNC nonsense, cotterless cranks really were art.

I've got a 1951 Raleigh Lenton. It's got modern, box section rims and a modern 3-speed hub, as well as dual-pivot brakes. You really need to switch to 700c, you won't find decent rims or tyres in 27 x 1 1/4" anymore.

Shorty mudguards are best left in the past, I feel. A pair of Bluemels Lightweights would look good, and they were made in the same shade of blue. As to bar tape, I would suggest cloth. Although it would probably have originally had grips at the end of the drops, like mine:

 

[oonaff]

alright chris is the 3rd on a SA 4sp neutral ?
you need to correct to cotter'd
what are the num' of teeth on that crank please.

 

[barry2017]

Most 3-speed hubs manage 30,000 miles without maintenance.

On the other hand, 4 speed hubs are terribe. Get used to a lot of neutral gears with your 4-speed. They're collectors pieces nowadays.

 

[barry2017]

Of course, if you want to keep the look and the 40h shell, you could always transplant a 3 speed gear into a 4 speed shell. No one would know....

 

[oonaff]

hi mikeyb did i read right,did you say contemplating 5sp hub ? if so what make and range ?
im off to post more items sold for a loss now! :roll:
i wonder if the two head lugs are identicle and because the down tube is coming in
at a slightly different angle to the angle of the lug,that is why it looks slightly bent.

 

[keithglos]

Re:

You have a low end standard Raleigh from probably mid 1950s.
Beware of non-standard 26 threads per inch forks and bottom bracket.
Keith

 

[supercourse]

Rudge also made motorbikes and raced them very successfully in the Ulster road races in the 1930s and used the red hand as part of their branding. The bicycles were originally built in Wolverhampton and later Birmingham until taken over by Raleigh.

 

[oonaff]

Rudge also made motorbikes and raced them very successfully in the Ulster road races in the 1930s and used the red hand as part of their branding. The bicycles were originally built in Wolverhampton and later Birmingham until taken over by Raleigh.

hi yeah,this is it the history doesnt seem to go any more detailed than that.
i mean one would assume a n irish man was one of the founder's of the firm
but is that where they started then moved to wolverhampton because of a business
or was ulster the head of a m bike racing cult or something
there must be more stuff prob in motorcycling history
cyclist just been done for breaking speed limit in hyde park