# more Raleigh Lenton GP



## bulldog1935 (Feb 12, 2017)

At our group ride today, Lou showed up with his new-old Raleigh Lenton Grand Prix.  I believe this is a '59 or '60 with dual Belelux derailleurs and 5-sp freewheel.  Most of my phone detail photos didn't come out so I'm just posting the ones that did .

Lou's truck and new old bike.  The rear window bumper sticker fits Lou...





That's Tad chatting with Lou - sorry, Lou didn't make the photo




Brazed on Cyclo shifters


 

Benelux RD




and the 5-sp rear




got this one photo of the GB brakes


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## WVBicycles (Feb 12, 2017)

awesome truck and sweet Raleigh


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## Dale Alan (Feb 12, 2017)

Beautiful pair right there .


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## bulldog1935 (Feb 5, 2019)

Looks like I posted this on the wrong thread, so edit to throw in my modified '57 Lenton (from bare frame) along with Lou's slightly modified '60




I had to do this stupid chore again, and just finished it up again this afternoon
On a greenway ride a few weeks ago, crossing the one major intersection on a standing start, I hooked the chain guard on the heel of my shoe.
The front derailleur band exploded, the cage bent - even the cast parallelogram arms bent - the chain guard and its brackets.

I was able to use a sweat band to give me the middle chain ring and position everything else out of the way to finish the last 7 miles on my ride.
When I began this bike, figured out how to mount the Simplex chain guard to a SunTour FD-1300 , replacing the band clamp bolt with an M5 computer board standoff, the Simplex hardware, and tapping one of the French threads to M5.

So I began the search on ebay for at least a VG condition SunTour FD.  Most everyone in the US wanted $100, which is crazy, but found a great one for less than half that in the UK.
So during the next 3 weeks, got everything else ready, straightened the chain guard and brackets, etc...







From my parts stores, had a complete new set of rust-free Simplex hardware.  Another mod, this bike uses a single English (Cyclo) right-side shifter boss (originally a Cyclo suicide FD), so I used a single Huret band clamp for the left-side shifter.  Again from my spares, I had a cabled NOS shifter ready to swap out.
The new FD arrived yesterday, delighted with the condition - had the derailleur functioning perfectly, adjusted and final tightened before I retired last night.
This afternoon, the refurbished chain guard bolted right on - we're on the road again.

and I see from my photo, need to clean some road grime - Finish Line spray wash works wonders


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## juvela (Feb 5, 2019)

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No worries anent posting error.

A tip o' me chapeau to you Ron; I could never conceive of fabrication and problem solving _lykka datta!   _

It was enjoyable to revisit Lou's Lenton.  How didst that Torresini come to find its way in there?

Saw it on Los Angeles CL prior to his purchase.  IIRC his daughter lives/lived in the area was able to be the facilitatior.

He certainly did an outstanding job with it.  

For readers who may not know, he also did a thread on the bike/project over at BF.

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## bulldog1935 (Feb 5, 2019)

What he did was swap cottered cranks so he could switch the half-steps for a wide unknown, wide unknown rear freewheel (should have kept one or the other), and SunTour VGT RD to get range and chain wrap. What he ended up with was much fewer than 10 gear choices because of duplicates, and too wide steps between the gear choices that remained.  I've picked on him about the unknown gear swap before.  

Lou's truck is definitely a winner - unfortunately, his McGovern sticker weathered away.

Here's my engineered drivetrain   - up front, you can throw out big-big, which I would never use, but every other gear selection works and is unique. 
Algorithm for half-steps is going up or down, always shift first in the front, then adjust in the rear as needed.  I can ride this blind and shift everything with my right hand. 




I can tell you something else, working on my bike this time, marveled at the efficiency of my 115mm OLD custom Phil rear hub - backing the crank for chain clearance check at opposite ends of the FD adjustment and freewheel, the rear wheel spins backwards like a dynamo from the light friction of the freewheel pawls.
yeah, $100 frame on a $1000 wheelset




While choosing the chainguard was a bit of stylizing, it also serves a functional purpose.  Most all cyclists have scars on their calves from walking their bike and having the teeth on their their big chainring dig into their calf - the chainguard prevents that.
The original Cyclo FD that was on the '57 Lenton also offered a similar-appearing bolt on chainguard



right paint, age, looks like my bike, but isn't - my bike was bought as a bare frame -- and it's really close - but my bike has an original Wastyn Cycles Chicago sticker on the seat tube that this bike doesn't have -
- my bike does have bright spots in the paint where the two bands for this original FD were in place -
part of my logic for first using the Simplex chain guard was to take your focus away from the SunTour FD, plus I knew I could build a better bike for less money than it would take to hunt down an original parts set, and monetary would never be worth either


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## bulldog1935 (Feb 6, 2019)

on the road again - really improved my FD installation and adjustment this time - it's working super-sweet.
I somehow narrowed the cable pull required to cover the 3 rings, I think it's partly by having the derailleur down as far as possible.  With the chain on the smaller half-step ring (middle), the cage is so close to the teeth over the big ring, there's not a penny gap between them - and I've always used a penny to space there before.
The result is the half-step and even the granny drop shifts are completed before I expect them, and with both FD travel adjustment screws tighter than I've ever had them.
The other, suspect I have the cage fore-aft alignment better.  The overall result is likely better reliability, as well, since every shift is completed with less travel in the FD parallelogram and less cable pull.  Happy camper here.
Lou's made this ride, he knows how often you need to shift a half-step or more on the bluff climbs along the creek, plus there are two tall climbs on the trail (you make 4  climbs going back and forth), twice where the trail leaves the creek for the divide with another creek.


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## juvela (Feb 6, 2019)

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How is it that Sig. Torresini was permitted to sneak his way into the one photo?

"A feller's  gotta keep alert fer them thar bleedin' oytoys! "  

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## bulldog1935 (Feb 6, 2019)

That was Lou's ride that day - his Lenton stayed locked to the truck - I think he was afraid of the 46T chainring on the final climb up Broadway returning to Alamo Heights.
First thing Lou does with a bike is blindly swap to a wide freewheel - sometimes he gets lucky 
Don't get me wrong - Lou is a strong rider, and the stock Lenton gearing is all narrow and tall - too tall for riding in Terrell Hills.
What would make his Lenton perfect is finding a smaller big ring to make half-steps on his current wide freewheel, something like 44/39T or better, 46/42T.


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## Sven (Feb 7, 2019)

bulldog1935 said:


> View attachment 943856
> Looks like I posted this on the wrong thread, so edit to throw in my modified '57 Lenton (from bare frame) along with Lou's slightly modified '60
> View attachment 943855
> 
> ...




Nice "in field" repair job. Glad ya got your machine, great looking I night add, back on the road. I have also taken notice of a few things , not just bike parts, on ebay that are cheper in the UK than here.


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## bulldog1935 (Feb 7, 2019)

Since I've already picked on Lou about his drivetrain, a lesson to learn about swapping gears.

if you're wide in the rear, you want narrow in the front, and vise-versa.

Again, here's my half-step + granny - wide rear, narrow front.  I was lucky in having the TA 47T chainring around (they're hen's teeth - I have a running e-bay search with e-mail alert, and another has never turned up).
When I started the bike, went through the gear calculator exercise using the fixed TA ring bundle, and trying different freewheels, first what I had around, the IRD, SunTour winner-5, and Ultra-6.  Stuck with the 13-28t IRD - it was perfection with the TA ring bundle I already had.
Wide range, narrow steps, all under 10", Zero duplicates - this is the single-best drivetrain I have ever ridden - does everything and more than anybody's new 2 x 11.
(If I ever had to replace the 47T chainring, would go 46/42T half-step, and pick a different freewheel - this is the near-perfect example on my '74 International)




A well-designed drivetrain should have a couple of gear choices between 70" and 80" - this is where we do our flat riding. 
I can and do ride all day long on the 71" and 79" gear half step (one rear cog). On the ride just above, I'll make all my steep climbs on the 57" and 63" half-step (another rear cog), and I'll drop to granny when I leave the pavement for the single-track to the BBQ stand. 
All the other gears are for longer and loaded steeper climbs, which I do use in the TX hill country, including getting home - 400' climb with 14% grade. 




This bad example shows what happens when you go wide in the rear and wide in the front
(throwing out the granny)
Instead of 10 gear choices, there are only 7, and where we normally ride and live, 70-80", there aren't any gears at all, and the two steps up and down from that range are 15" and 20" apart.
So if you had this drivetrain, except for having a few climbing gears, you would find yourself using only 65", and all your friends with more gear choices leaving you behind.
This will work for a grocery-hauler, but is unacceptable for group rides. (It's wasting a bike to get a 38" climbing gear)


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