Bought this for the missus at the car boot sale last week.
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From the frame number and the markings, I reckon it was made between the end of the war and 1951. It has a Sturmey Archer AW 3 speed rear hub and a Dynohub on the front (not tested yet).
I'm planning to sympathetically restore it - aiming for good mechanical condition, but leaving it looking a bit scruffy and old. Going to ditch the modern rack and saddle and put a wicker basket on; she wants a bike for going to the shops and pub on - did have her heart set on a pashley princess, but this is much more classy.
The wheels are a pretty weird size. They are 24 x 1 3/8", which seems to be a very common wheelchair size 🙂
I've started taking the rear hub apart for a service. It seems to work, but its a bit clunky and full of brown water. Anyone got any experience of servicing these old 3-speeds? I'm aware of sheldon brown's site which has helped me so far, but I'm a bit scared of losing all the bits when I pull the internals out!
Dave
quite a lot here if you've not seen it;
[url= http://www.hadland.me.uk/samaintind.htm ]http://www.hadland.me.uk/samaintind.htm[/url]
cheers, I had linked through to some of that from sheldon brown.
The exploded diagrams are very useful, although quite scary 😯
Dave
That's really nice. Do post your restoration pics as you go.
Can you not try just flushing the hub with oil - a light oil a couple of times to wash the gunge out of it? Leave al the internals in place?
My mum had one exactly the same but in majestic purple - it was originally my granny's. I used it for a few months to commute between Aberdeen and Culter along an old railway track and loved it.
Assuming the hub gears still work, despite being full of sludge, I'd be tempted just to get all the sludge out, pack it with grease and forget about it - they seem to be fairly bombproof.
EDIT, what TJ said ^^^
Can you not try just flushing the hub with oil - a light oil a couple of times to wash the gunge out of it? Leave al the internals in place?
To be honest, that is what I'm hoping to do... I'm going to remove the internals from the hub shell and see what's what.
Hopefully, I'll be able to give it all a good clean/flush without taking it apart any further (the internals *should* all stay together!), regrease, reassemble and fill with oil.
There is quite a worrying section in the middle of the cable pull when it drops into neutral. I'm hoping that this will reduce with a bit of lubrication and a decent adjustment of the cable will help.
Rod brakes are a bit of a dark art - the spring on the bars for the rear brake has snapped, so they're not returning very well. I had to adjust them because they were set in such a way as to foul on the fork, giving about 10 degrees of turn either way - the turning circle was like an oil tanker!
Dave
Had a box full of those hubs to strip and rebuild. Just take it apart and lay it out as an exploded diagram, clean it, take any worn parts to your LBS and replace them. Rebuild. Its a 20 min job once the internals are out.
It was my initiation as a bike mechanic to rebuild a box full of them, with no help or instruction, just "get on wi'it lad"...
good luck with the rod brakes though! 😉