Renovating a Raleigh Twenty: Part 6 - Headset, nylon bush & handlebars

The infamous nylon headset bushing. (For a general description of the headset and a quick service, see this post). Instead of a top race, this is what the Raleigh Twenty uses for a bearing at the top of the head tube. The bottom end has ball bearings - there are photos of that below.

This is the rear view of the nylon bushing. Note the cutout in the steerer tube that allows the steerer clamp to grip the stem. (Photos of the original headset configuration are here). Here, the nylon bushing is being taken out. It's all really very curious. I wonder why Raleigh did it that way?

View of the cup at the other bottom end of the headtube. All greased and ready to be assembled.

New balls please! This is a photo of the balls on the crown race, all greased and ready for assembly. They are new shiny ones, 25 of 5/32" size.

I'm going to use the top half of this Madison M:Part Sport threadless headset. That will replace the nylon bushing at the top of the head tube. At the bottom of the head tube, I'll leave the original cup and bearing arrangement, because it's absolutely fine.

Just one spacer above the bearing cap, then the original lock nuts, turned carefully to apply the right amount of pressure - so that the forks rotate freely with no tightness or binding, and no play in the headset either.

Here goes the new stem. It's an alloy quill with an adjustable alloy stem with three bolt handlebar clamp. Madison M:part again. Titec Hell Bent alloy bars, with a small rise.

The bars were too wide, so I had to saw the ends off (to ~56cm total width). Simply filed the ends off after cutting with a junior hacksaw.

Ta Da! The bike, now even more transformed to the 21st century. The difference that the headset makes to the ride quality is amazing. It's now really responsive, but at the same time stable. I can ride hands off. Previously, you had to apply positive force to the bars to turn. Now you can "think" and lean the turns, just like a "proper" bike! In fact, it feels MUCH better to ride now than my commuting Dahon Speed D7 folder. The Triumph Twenty is a small bike with a big bike's personality!

View from the driving seat. Tioga Power Stud bar ends, give a welcome change in hand position. Trigger shifter is in easy thumb and index finger reach (as is the bell!). Swanky new, but oh so cheap, brake levers. Brakes are really good now, even the back one is not bad, despite the original sidepull caliper and pads. They will improve further when I replace the steel rim with an alloy one.

Looking good. The main work left now is to replace the rear steel rim with an alloy one, just like the front wheel. I'm still musing over the mudguards. Should they stay or should they go?

Proudly sporting the Triumph head badge. Actually, that is the main reason that I didn't want to send it off for re-spraying or powder coating. I couldn't figure out how to take off the head badge without damaging it. It seems to be riveted in place (three rivets I think). Awkard to reach the back of the rivets inside the head tube.

Very satisfying to reach this far, with no hitches along the way. She really is a lovely bike to ride now.

UPDATE: 22 September 2010

Days after the above blog post, she moved to a different town to be used as a commuter by a student cousin of mine. So I won't get a chance to replace that rear steel rim for a while. Meanwhile, my 8 year old son has implored me to buy another one and to keep the old steel bars (because they were "cool" and "retro" - he's EIGHT for goodness' sake!). By all accounts, in virtually daily use, she has been completely reliable thus far.

Raleigh Twenty in a public bike shed

An unassuming bike, locked up in a shed. She's taking shape now. The only major piece left is to replace the rear steel rim with an alloy one. I'm not sure if I'll replace those heavy mudguards with modern plastic ones. The only real advantage is to modernise the appearance. There would be a weight saving, but I'm guessing it's not very big.

Renovating a Raleigh Twenty: Part 5 - Chain

I decided to break the old chain at the half link. Although I'd cleaned and oiled it and it was ok in practice, it was stretched/worn beyond acceptable limits. I counted 93 links in the old chain.

Then I attached a fresh half link to the new chain. I'm replacing with a Wippermann Connex 100 1/2" x 1/8".

Here's a photo of the chainwheel (which as I mentioned earlier I'd straightened a tad). The cotter pins are new and I had applied just a little grease on their flat faces in a bid to prevent them seizing up in future. I tapped them in, rode it, tapped them in again, rode it and finally tapped in again and tightened the nuts. I'm happy that they are in properly now, but not stupidly tight.

The connector link is now in place. This is really so much easier than using a chain tool to re-connect. There are 93 links in the new chain too.

The outer plate goes on next.

The spring clip is then placed in position. With a screwdriver, just slide it so that it clips in place. NB: A reader, JJ, pointed out that the clip is the wrong way around. I think he's right! The closed side should be facing the driven side of the pedals - I must have been confused because the bike was upside down. However, it doesn't matter now, because since then, the bike was stolen from my student cousin to whom I loaned it.

The joined chain. Lovely! One thing I noticed is that since the wheel axle is now nutted a bit closer to the chainwheel (because the new chain is shorter than the old stretched one), the gear cable tension had to be re-set. It didn't take long, but I hadn't thought of that effect of the new chain.

Anyway, she rides so much better now. I could feel the increase in efficiency first from the serviced bottom bracket and then another incremental improvement with the new chain.

Raleigh Twenty on a train

Well, she's not as small as a Dahon and nowhere near the compactness of a Brompton. Here, I haven't dropped the handlebars, or seatpost, so the folded package could be smaller than in the photo. Definitely useable, but not in a busy train I'd suggest. Fairly easy to fit inside the boot of an average car - I have managed to pack both a Dahon Speed D7 folding bike and this Triumph Twenty into the boot of an estate car, without the rear seats folded and with quite a lot of space to spare. This photo was taken before I'd changed the pedals and serviced the bottom bracket.

Renovating a Raleigh Twenty: Part 4 - Bottom Bracket

I was intending to service the bottom bracket and change the chain today, but was stumped by the fact that the old chain had 93 links. That's possible because of this half link with cranked plates - photo of the old chain above. I don't have a replacement, so had to order one. Anyway...on with the bottom bracket for now.

Above is a photo of the bottom bracket with the retaining ring removed. The cotter pins came out with no difficulties, thankfully, but I'll need new pins when I re-assemble.

Here's the axle cleaned up, with shiny new 1/4" balls, 11 each side. Cups were in reasonable condition and although the axle has bearing wear, it's good to go for a while yet.

I forgot to take a photo of what was inside the bottom bracket shell when I opened it. It was dry, balls were all present, but there were flakes of rust scattered around, mainly over the middle of the axle inside the shell. The photo above is after I'd cleaned it and packed the chainwheel side cup with ball bearings and grease. (The chain wheel side cup is welded in place). Looking inside, you can see that the shell itself is absolutely fine, the steel is in great condition actually. So, the flakes of rust must have fallen through from the seat tube opening - at the top of the cylinder. So, the frame saver that I squirted down the seat tube was needed! I decided to make a sleeve, in the good old fashioned way from a washing up liquid bottle.

Thing is, that nowadays, washing up liquid is not sold in cylindrical bottles any more! So, here's some transparent plastic taken from a bottle of some potion, nabbed from da boss's toiletries collection.

After a bit of snipping with scissors, in goes the sleeve. It butts conveniently against the lip of the chain wheel side cup. The ends overlap at the bottom, in case any water gets in there, it has a way out.

Here you can see the sleeve after being trimmed to size and in position. The outer edge is just inside the thread on the shell.

After screwing in the cup, I gave all the stay tubes a few squirts of frame saver. I've been doing that as I work round the frame, and the only tube that still needs some frame saver is the big chunky down tube.

On eBay, you can buy these cheepo plastic pipettes for pennies. These are great for all sorts of uses round the house, including squirting engine oil into the Sturmey Archer AW hub!

Next time I'll assemble the cottered cranks and fit the new chain. By the way, on close inspection, the chain wheel was not totally straight. Clearly it had been knocked from the side at some point in history. Actually, I had not noticed until now. A couple of whacks with a hammer, and the chain wheel was much straighter! That's the beauty of steel...

Shimergo Reynolds 531C road bike

I bought this Reynolds 531C frame brand new from SJS Cycles' eBay store. Originally, I fitted it with Shimano down tube gear levers, but later, I replaced them with Campagnolo Ergos, in a configuration widely known as Shimergo. This article by the CTC's Chris Juden explains it all. And I describe how I did it here.

Campagnolo Veloce 10 levers. These fit the hands really well. A friend of mine has a bike that is all Veloce 10 and he says that this Shimergo bike shifts just as well if not better his all Campag groupset.

Side view. I love the ride of 531C steel. It has a kind of springy, live feel. Steel is real!

Rigida flyer rims, allow hubs.

Closely spaced teeth numbers on the rear block.


I love the blue and red contrast! Personal taste, I guess.

Campag Veloce levers fit the hand really nicely.

Trusty Stronglight Triple and cartridge bottom bracket.

Shimano Tiagra rear mech.

Front brake, Shimano Tiagra dual caliper, in the evening sun...

Raleigh Twenty Links

Here are some of my favourite sites about the Raleigh Twenty:

1. Fabulous Raleigh Twenty to Life site.

2. Sheldon Brown's pages which I am sure are responsible for causing a number people to develop Raleigh Twenty addictions!

3. The history of the Twenty by Tony Hadland.

4. A super site by Hartley Martin collecting information from many Raleigh Twenty owners round the world.