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LG's 80's Raleigh 20 in a fetching shade of rust...


Lord Gruntfuttock

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Never had one of these as a kid,  and saw one semi local (same island) with a buy now of $30 so pulled the trigger not knowing anything about it, apart from one blurry pic on TM.  thought if it was rubbish I'd just use the frame to build a special. Mate picked it up for me and delivered to home so I could check it out...

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Think it's early 80's version going by graphics and chrome carrier, (date code on brake lever says hub was made in 1980)... 

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and was pleased to see it has the Sachs Duomatic coaster hub, had assumed it was a poverty spec single speeder so that's a win (these hubs go for decent money Stateside). It's all there, apart from grips, and seat & tyres are fucked, so looked for bits... 

Ali let me down for grips surprisingly, but found some retro white ones via eBay France with cheap postage so grabbed them, then looked for tyres. These came with the 20" x 1 3/8" rim in NZ (37-451) so are a little hard to find. Found some whitewall Michelins in Italy that looked ok, and for $62 delivered it was a done deal. Also grabbed a seat from @MightyJoe  on here, $10 bargain...

Chain was seized almost solid, it bent in about 3 places, so 15 mins on the wire wheel and it looked much better, gave it a bath in old ironhead oil afterwards...

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So though I never had one I did ride ride mate's ones as a nipper, now I'm a fat old barry grownup they seem to have shrunk. Good excuse to look on Ali for replacement seatpost and steering stem for a little extra height. Pulled stuck seatpost out, would clean up ok but longer Ali alloy job only $19...

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Steering stem and bars cleaned up ok, but my knees bashed em, so Ali longer stem again...

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Rims, had decided to use the originals as they seemed ok, then was looking on Ali and accidentally bought a couple of 451 alloys (delivered for $62 was too good to pass up). When the tyres arrived I was tempted to just bung them on the original rims and ride, but with several bent spokes thought I'd see how seized/rusted the nipples were. Oddly enough they undone really easy, so got carried away and dismantled both hubs. Measured the spokes as 210mm R and 216mm F, and with them out of the way could measure the hub and rim dimensions... 

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New alloy rims are a bit deeper so spoke lengths calculate at 200mm and 206mm - ordered some from Ali and will hoard/sell old hubs/spokes as they are pretty sound really. New spokes arrived and looked pretty good, was home sick so tried to lace one up and failed terribly.  Put it down to being under the weather so pulled apart and tried again with same results...  

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Real WTF moment so looked at it properly, seems somehow I had begun with the correct long front spokes then started taking short rear wheel spokes from the other pile, so was never going to work... :grin:

Anyways, once I'd separated and sorted spokes right they went together piece of piss... 

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and I trued them up on a wet Sunday arvo in front of the telly. The whitewalls look bloody neat on them too... 

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Too flash? So now thinking again about stripping the frame...? Although the patina with clean running gear and lighter alloy bits is attractive (and cheaper)...

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Regards wheels, the oddball size makes it a bit spendy to replace rims/tyres, so the standard bmx 20" rims are an option (20" x 1.75" - 406mm). You can get some pretty cool ones but they are a little smaller, so the pedals can ground out. Not ideal with a back-pedal brake, which is why I grabbed the correct size. Being alloy they are heaps lighter and the front brake should work better too...

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And lunchtime hoon achieved. gears brakes etc work sweet...

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Pretty happy with the clean Ali bar setup. Had to drop stem slightly due to brake cable length...
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And ready to roll. Will prob replace brake cable and sort guard gaps, but happy with overall look...
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Pub bike sorted... :thumbleft:

 

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Looks damn cool mate. 

If there was voting for what to do next id vote for leave that sweet patina frame and roll with all ya shiny new parts and just start collecting photos outside sweet old southland pubs. Nice work 

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