1957 Raleigh Dawn Tourist

The owner of this 1957 Raleigh wanted to get this classic back on the road for leisurely rides to the local post office.  This bike has the larger 23" frame, rod brakes, enclosed chaincase, 3-speed Sturmey Archer "AG" rear Dynohub (dated October 1957), and Brooks B-66 saddle.  A check of the Raleigh 1957 catalog indicates this particular bike with this equipment is probably a Dawn Tourist model. 

Unfortunately the front and rear lamps and Dry Battery Unit were missing.  The front brake pads and anti-vibration plates were missing, and the shifter cable anchorage was missing. The rear of the enclosed chaincase was mangled from the 18 tooth cog coming loose at some point.  The owner only wanted to get the bike in rideable condition and not disturb the patina (rust and dirt).

Since the bike was missing all of the lighting equipment is was determined to switch out the heavy, notchy "AG" hub for an "AW" hub and rims from a donor Raleigh Sports bike.  The rod brake pads were replaced and shimmed for proper contact with the cleaned and polished Westrick rims.  The chaincase was removed and straighten, the shifter cable anchorage and new indicator were installed, new 19 tooth rear cog installed, and all hubs cones adjusted.  After installing new tires, tubes and chain the old classic was again rideable and ready for the road. 



 

 

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.

LED Lighting: Preparing the Housings

While waiting for the brake and shifter cable housings to arrive, I'm going to start preparing the light housings for conversion to LEDs.  The Sturmey Archer Dynohub and lights were an option on the 1953 Raleigh Sports Tourist.  This particular bike has the smaller front light housing, I believe the larger housings were used only on the Superbe models.  I previously converted the lights on my 1949 Comrade Roadster to LED's; however, it used larger housings.  Hopefully; I will be able to squeeze the circuit board into the smaller housing.

These are the housings before any prep work, there are some dents in the front housing, and someone drilled a hole through the side of the housing to install a switch.

I will wire brush the housings, try to fix the dents and extra hole, and repaint as necessary.  First I need to remove the internals and prepare them for LED lighting.  I'm going to use the same approach previously used on the 1949 Comrade.  Its been installed for over 3 years and I know it works with the Dynohub.  There is a wealth of information and opinions on-line for LED bike lighting.  The circuit I used for the Dynohub is a simple variation of more sophisticated options.  In addition to the LEDs, it uses only two components, a Bridge Rectifier, and a Capacitor.  Also needed is a Heat Sink for the high powered LEDs. From browsing the web, these seems to come in many variations, from commercial products to DIY versions using a bolt and some washers.  According to the "experts" a heat sink is needed to draw heat away from the LEDs to prevent damage.  I will make some heat sinks similar to what I used on the Comrade, but made smaller fit the Sport housings.  In addition; they will provide a mount for the LED's within the vintage housings.  These are the heat sinks made from aluminium rod to replace the bulbs, they are sized to be a friction fit within the original bulb housings.

Rear light heat sink.

Heat sink for rear light inserted into bulb holder.  The LED will be mounted to the face of the heat sink.

Front light heat sink

Front light heat sink inserted, the LED will mount to the face of the heat sink.

This is a patch to repair the hole that was drilled into the lamp housing by a previous owner.  With a little Bondo and some sanding and it will be unnoticeable.  I also had to shorten the screw that fits into the rear of the housing because it was interfering with mounting the circuit board.  I will use J-B Weld epoxy to affix it to the housing.

After Bondo and sanding

Shorten screw, will be epoxied to rear of housing

The next "LED Lighting" post will cover building the LED circuit board and mounting.  Please share your comments and experiences.
 

Rims and Spokes

Now that the hubs are rebuilt I'm ready to starting lacing up some new wheels for the 1953 Sports.  The original 26 x 1-3/8" Raleigh Patent Rims which are commonly referred to as Westrick rims were rusted beyond use.  Most classic three speeds use a Westwood; Endrick; or Westrick type rim.

Westwood rim, these are intended to be used with rod-brakes, the brake pads bear against the raised center section.  They do not have side faces for caliper type brakes.

Endrick rim, these can only be used with caliper type brakes, there is no raised center section they can not be used with rod-brakes



Raleigh Patent rims, A.K.A. Westrick, these are a cross between Westwood and Endrick rims.  They have a raised center section so rod-brakes can be used as in this picture.  You can also see they have a side face for caliper type brakes.

That ugly sticker just peels off

I will be replacing the rusted steel "Westrick" rims with Sun CR-18 alloy rims.  If you want to maintain complete originality replacement Westrick rims are usually easy to find.  I wanted to try these rims for their lightness and better braking, especially when wet.  When ordering new rims you must know the Bead Seat Diameter (BSD) of the rim.  For many classic three speeds using 26 x 1-3/8" tires this is 590mm (sometimes is referred to as 650A), but be careful there are some that have a BSD of 597mm.  The 1953 Raleigh Sport rim is 590mm.

I've also decided to use new spokes with the CR-18 rims.  When building wheels with new rims and spokes you also need to know the Effective Rim Diameter (ERD) of the new rim in order to calculate the proper spoke length for the wheel.  There are several ways to measure ERD, search on-line and find one you are comfortable with, most rim manufactures also publish this dimension, I prefer to measure it using the actual rim I'm building with.  I measured the original Westrick rims to have a ERD of 576mm, and the new CR-18 rims measured 578mm.  In this case there is very little difference between the two so the original spokes would  have been useable assuming I used the same number of spoke crossings.  There is an advantage to using the old spokes if you can because they are a better fit with the thin flanges used on the Sturmey-Archer (SA) hubs.  Modern spokes are designed for thicker hub flanges.  If you use modern spokes in the thin flanges of  a SA hub, you will need to use spoke washers to take up the extra space under the spoke head.

In addition to the ERD, most on-line spoke length calculators require measuring the diameter of the spoke hole circle on each flange, flange spacing center to center, number of spokes, and the number of spoke crossing you will be using, (2X, 3X, 4X, etc.).  I made a simple stand from a scrape piece of 2 x 4 and metal plate, with a 13/32" hole drilled, so the hub can stand upright on its locknut to facilitate obtaining hub measurements.

After you obtain your rim and hub measurements find a on-line spoke calculator you like and enter the input values, I usually use this one www.wheelpro.co.uk/spokecalc .  In my case using a CR-18 rim, 3X crossing, and a 40 hole AW hub, with 12mm spoke nipples, the spoke length calculated was 272.2 mm for the left flange, and 271.7 for the right.  I rounded these to 272mm and ordered 40 272mm spokes.  The spoke length for the front Dynohub using 3x crossing on left flange (small), and 2x crossing on the Dyno side (large flange) and a 32 hole hub, the length calculated was 282.8mm for the left, and 256.3mm for the right.  I rounded the left to 282mm (only even size lengths available), and the right side to 256mm.  I ordered 18, 282mm, and 18, 256mm spokes for the Dynohub.

Once the spokes and nipples are received I can start building the new wheels for the 1953 Sports.  There are many on-line sources for information on wheel building, find one your comfortable with and start lacing.

Please share your thoughts and experiences.

1953 GH6 Dynohub Rebuild

The last post covered rebuilding the rear hub from the 1953 Raleigh Sports.  This post will look at the front hub for this bike a Sturmey Archer Dynohub model GH6 (Generator  Hub 6 volts).  It has a date stamp of 9 53 (Sep. 1953).

This bike originally had two lights mounted, one for the Dynohub, the other was connected to a tire driven bottle generator.  The wires to the Dynohub were not connected  so I assumed the Dynohub may not be working.

I mounted the rim in the truing stand, connected a multimeter to the Dynohub terminals and gave the rim a spin.  Amazingly; after 60 years, and sitting unprotected in the weather the Dyno still produced a current.

Knowing the  hub still has some life, I was ready to start disassembly.  I removed the hub from the rim and gave it an initial cleaning and degreasing.



Note the lack of a Spacing Cup (HSD 301) on the left side against the Dyno.  Instead, two thick washers were being used.  I'm assuming it did not come from the factory this way?

The internals of the Dynohub are not that different than a normal front hub with the exception of the Armature and Magnet, basically just cones, races, and bearings.

The Dyno is on the right.  The black center portion is the Armature which is stationary, the outer ring is the Magnet which revolves around the Armature producing current.  

An important word of caution, never separate the Armature and Magnet.  Separation even for a fraction of a second will cause loss of magnetism.

This bike appears to have seen many miles, the rear AW hub cones/races were very worn, these are equally bad.  The bike did have an old District of Columbia bike registration sticker, that plus the additional lights, and all of the reflective tape suggests a well used DC commuter bike.

Finding replacement parts in the USA for a Dynohub is much more difficult then obtaining parts for a AW rear hub.  The bearing races are part of the hub shell and cannot be replaced without replacing the entire shell.  The cones are also hard to find, unless you can cannibalized another Dynohub.  The caged ball bearings and dust caps are interchangeable with those of the AW rear hub.

The cones on the left are from the 1953 hub, the cones on the right are from a 1947 hub and will be used as replacements.



As noted before, this hub appears to be missing the Spacing Cup (HSD 301), these are also difficult to find.  I was able to make an replacement on the lathe from aluminum, hopefully it will work OK.  I think the only purpose of the Spacing Cup is to fix the terminal plate in place, preventing it from rotating with the wheel, and set the "over-the-locknut-distance (O.L.D.) to fit within the front dropouts.

This picture show the original two spacers used in lieu of a Spacing Cup on this hub in the background. The Spacing Cup on the left is from the Dynohub used on the 1949 Comrade, the one on the right is what I made on the lathe to replace the two washers in the background.
 

Original configuration with two washers

This is with homemade Spacing Cup

This is the hub rebuilt with replacement parts, new grease, and shell buffed.  I'm measuring the "over-the-locknut-distance" (O.L.D.) to make any final adjustments with spacers, washers, etc.  The front fork dropout spacing on Raleigh Sports is approximately 90 mm, so the O.L.D. should be equivalent.

 Please share your thoughts and experiences.