First Ride for the 1953 Sports Tourist

I mounted the seat and took the 1953 Raleigh for its maiden voyage after the refurbishing.  Went for a short ride on the W&OD rails to trail bike path.  Made some seat, handlebar and brake adjustments on the ride.  Over all I'm happy with the results.  Still need to find some proper pedals and a black reflector.  Just ordered a Carradice Barley saddle bag for it.  I borrowed the bag in the pictures from my 1949 Comrade Roadster.

I'm also looking for a new fork.  You might be able to tell from the pictures that it is bent, also the steering tube had a bulge from someone over tightening the quill.  I knew the fork was bent when I first disassembled the bike, I thought I had a Black replacement in some old parts; however, the replacement was for the larger 23" frame.  Rather then wait to find a suitable replacement, I continued with the build using the original fork, hoping it would ride OK.  It seemed to be fine on the ride, but I do want to replace it at some point.

LED Lighting: Wiring the lamps

Now that the circuit board is completed and the LEDs are mounted I can start running the wire from the Dynohub to the lights.  I'm using black 22 AWG zip cord (aka lamp cord).  I like using this smaller gauge wire because the circuit board and LED leads are 22 AWG.  It also a better fit with the original cable clamps.  I wanted to use the original Dynohub hook connectors so I removed them from the old wire for installation on the new zip cord.

Original "hook" Dynohub connectors and new 22 AWG wire

New wire and connectors mounted

Wire fitment under cable clamp

After running the wire up to the front light and back to the rear light, I started connecting it to the circuit board leads.

The circuit board has been mounted inside the front light, connecting the blue circuit board leads to the input wire from the Dynohub

Connecting the LED leads to front and rear wiring

Here are the lights converted to LED lighting.