1964 Raleigh Sports Deluxe

[wrongway]

I bought this off Ebay and got it in today. I knew going into this that the front wheel and seat were wrong, but I have parts so I'm not concerned. I had high hopes for the rear derailleur, but it doesn't look good. I can't pedal the bike and when I loosened one of the axle bolts the rear wheel popped out as if it had been forced into the frame. So.....somebodies hopeful hack job? I think the derailleur is a 1957 Benelux Mark 7.

 

[SirMike1983]

That does look like a homebrew job. But I would clean it all and see just what has been done. It is possible to combine those old derailleurs and Sturmey hubs. Check the spacing of the axle and check that the Sturmey hub works. I would not write it off yet.

 

[bulldog1935]

That is a Hybrid drive or hybrid gearing, and was a fairly common conversion for alpine touring.
Here a very good article in Classic Lightweights (Peter and Patricia in UK)
http://www.classiclightweights.co.uk/hybrid-hd.html

Sheldon defines it in the glossary, but doesn't have an article.
Wait, here we go, Sheldon does have an article
http://www.adventurecycling.org/default/assets/resources/hybrid_gearing.pdf

Looks like people still do this.
http://lovelybike.blogspot.com/2015/07/hybrid-gearing-in-wild-bryans-6-speed.html

Congrats on acquiring a Benelux derailleur - that's trick.

google hybrid gearing will get you a library
https://theoldbikeshome.wordpress.com/2015/07/06/hybrid-gearing/

 

[SirMike1983]

But the question is whether it has been set up correctly and will space properly for that frame. I think you can get it to go with some fiddling.

 

[wrongway]

When I get more time next week I'm going to play around with it. Hoping it might work. It's interesting. Maybe the guy got greedy and should've put a two speed on if he could've found it.

 

[wrongway]

I'm thinking that it's going to make the chain run at an angle. It looks like it does now, anyway. Should I also have a front derailleur?

 

[wrongway]

I was able to get this to......sort of work on another bike. On a bike that has become a test bed of sorts. I still couldn't get it to work quite right. It kept binding up, so much so that it unscrewed the small gear and I eventually took it off. I was able to ride it around a block or two before I gave up, but it did shift. It wouldn't hold middle gear, but that could be an adjustment issue. As odd as I may sound, I'm just not very talented when it comes to shifting deralliuer bikes and am more confident with IGH bikes. I will probably sell this Benelux unit someday.

 

[SirMike1983]

If you end up selling that, clean it up well and keep all the parts together. You probably could get a decent price on eBay-- lots of road bike people like this old derailleur stuff.