'57 Lenton Grand Prix project

[bulldog1935]

Guaranteed Genuine English Lightweight

I'm sure someone parted out this bike because the Williams crank had the Raleigh heron silhouettes, and GB brakes, and suicide FD, and Cyclo Benelux rear. The temptation was too great, and the patina on the frame detracted from its "showroom" quality. He probably could have sold this bike for $250 and instead, sold the crank for more. I ended up with a such a deal on a frame not everyone would want.

The bare frame and original fork for a bike I always wanted, and my birth year to boot.
The '57 Alfa 1900 GTS Zagato of my dreams is not attainable

But this is attainable, and I happen to like the patina - the faded decals. I like the ghost of the Lenton GP fleurs and wreaths, the herons turned white and gold, The steel is blued under the silver paint, and over 60 years, the bluing and silver paint have diffused, making a platinum gray that I like. The head badge paint is great, and the two coolest decals are flaming hot - the Reynolds 531 on the seat tube, and the Reg Harris decal on the top tube.

Not a spot of rust anywhere on the frame. So I cleaned it and rubbed it and waxed it. As I said, bare frame and fork, and found a new Whitworth 26 tpi headset at Yellow Jersey for $30.
Planning to use all the pieces I have around that have been on and off my '76 Raleigh, ebay (vt) what I need, and engineer the rest.

Collectors are not going to like what I'm doing, and businessmen are going to think I'm mad. But for less money than it would take to buy back the original parts and make this bike stock again, I can make it Very reliable, a joy to ride, and still look traditional.
I also plan to not alter the original frame and fork.
I'm going to end up with a modern bike, on modern wheels and tires, that incorporates 60 years of my favorite bike tech, and is an allusion of the original.
So here's my kick-off photo, and in my normal tedious narrative style, I'll be adding progress and detail photos later.

 

[bulldog1935]

next installment
As promised, photos of those two hot decals
That's the fork crown below - I'll always be looking down at the Reg Harris decal

The dropouts...Raleigh used the same frame for the Lenton GP as for all the pathracers, so rear dropouts are 114mm OLD, and 8mm axle slots.
Presents a problem for a wheelset. I have a set of Zeus dropouts, but I'm going to keep this frame and fork original.

Hunt down 60-y-o hubs with 114mm axles, go with a 3 speed (not for my hills), or the esoteric, though reliable, approach.
I'm ordering a Phil Wood hubset, freewheel style, and having custom axle ends machined by Phil. They'll use 10mm axles stepped to slide into 8mm slots and tighten with nuts, like these:

And should I ever decide to use the wheelset for something else, all I have to do is change back to stock axle ends.

Will go with H+S TB14 rims, since they look the part and will let me ride on the best 700c tires.

I've mostly worked out the rest of the drivetrain, and have a cyclotouriste ring stack and crank arms ready to go - well mostly, drive arm is a TA, left arm is a Nervar that will do the job.

Phil makes the bottom bracket I need, 123mm asymmetric, off the shelf, with the Raleigh 26 tpi cups.
With my freewheel hub, a 5-speed IRD freewheel (already have two of these around), and here's the gear chart I've worked out - it's pretty perfect - couldn't do better with custom cassette.

And yes, I'll need a long-cage rear derailleur to get the chain wrap I need.

One more close-up. It has a single braze-on rear shifter boss.

This was made for a Cyclo Benelux, but will also fit Simplex and Huret.
And it won't fit any modern shifters.
Going to use Huret shifters with a single Huret band clamp for the left side.

 

[bulldog1935]

So, will finalize with Phil next week, and it will be awhile until I have my wheels, BB, and can work on the drivetrain.
It's a rainy day (maybe tomorrow, too), but I have something to tinker with...

I put this chain guard rig together awhile back, never used it, but it makes sense for this bike - it will be the last thing to install next to fenders, but I'm fitting it up to see how it will work.
The Simplex chain guard was made to fit a piston FD, but I worked how to attach it to a Cyclone FD - plus it kind of looks like a suicide FD and takes your attention away from the 80s FD

The front support arm will go under the chain guard, with the screw head on top, but tightening this band clamp will be the next to the last thing to do before marking and drilling that hole, and I must have the whole drivetrain functioning to final position everything.
But in this condition, it's easier to see how it works.

I attached the guard to the Cyclone FD using two pieces in a Z-shaped standoff.
I replaced the FD band bolt with closely measured M5 standoff. This measurement is what centers the FD parallogram in the chainguard hump.
Attached the L-standoff that came with the guard hardware with an M5 button head.
Also planning to tap the L-standoff to M5 to get a better bite than it has with the French M4. But the variable geometry of the Z-bracket and front support will let me final position this after I have drivetrain adjusted and FD cage at full outside travel.

the critical fitting on this will be clearing the low-Q of the TA crank arm - at outermost travel, the FD cage will have to be pressing against the inside of the chain guard in order to clear the crank arm.

 

[TR6SC]

I love these dérailleur/guards. Great looking bike. Inspiring schtuff!

 

[Bikerider007]

Nice Bulldog. You are creative and good with details. Look forward to seeing it done.

No real builds or cleanups going on at the other site, same ol' stuff. I think a good amount of vintage stuff is now on FB. Only down side, the format is not build friendly. Some great unique stuff to be found there though.

 

[bulldog1935]

good to see you friend - post some bikes for us

 

[Dale Alan]

I like your ideas,this will be a nice build .It will be quite unique,good to see you are only limited by your imagination.Working with quality components makes it a pleasure. I will be watching your progress.

 

[bulldog1935]

my serial number came out very nicely after rubbing the bike

but it doesn't specifically help for dating the frame.
Kurt Kaminer simply says this system began in 1955 moved the RA/RB up front and added a suffix letter in '61 or '62.

and here's that nice hedbadge

I may touch up the white

 

[bulldog1935]

Making a little more progress and learning.
Have ordered my bottom bracket, and still working on the wheels. Phil Engr. has to approve the 115mm OLD axle set before I can order my hubs.
I also gave up trying to find a hanger for a Campy Gran Turismo RD and decided instead to go with a Raleigh branded Suntour VGT - it's a great derailleur, and will do exactly what I need. That makes the hanger easy, using the one I already have.
I made it fit the 8mm axle slots using dremel cut off and cropping each of the 10mm spaced tabs in half - came out perfect. A little more tedious was reducing the shoulder width on the shouldered nut for the derailleur hanger, using a screw-slot file and a jeweler's file.

I did the same thing to a dropout spacer for the other side, and proved to be even more filing.

Learned something else - even though the braze on boss looks just like a Huret, the diameter is too big and the thread is wrong. It's English, and there is only one shifter that will fit it, so I found one.

You Schwinn guys will be happy to know I'm using a single Huret band clamp and shifter for the left side and FD

Got my brakes for a great price - no, not even going to try to buy GB, but found NOS Weinmann 730 for a great price.
Measured reach on these after I installed them and, as expected, and they will let me use 700C rims.
Something else about the rims - not going with the totally traditional looking H+S TB14 rims after all. In order to submit my hub offset to Phil Engr., had to agree with go with 4mm offset (rear) Velocity Synergy rims - no worries here, though, have these rims on my International and am very happy with them - and they build a stronger wheel.

 

[Dale Alan]

Looking good,love the Cyclo shifter. I thought that was a Huret boss too,do you have to modify the band clamp on the RD side?