# '60 Raleigh Lenton



## LouB (May 5, 2017)

First post here.  Hi all!  I've been restoring a '60 Raleigh Lenton Grand Prix.  Its been interesting and its a wonderful bike.  Currently running Benelux front and rear derailleur with a 5 speed freewheel. I love the look of the old Williams 49T/46T half-step crank, but its a chore powering up hills. I need that small ring...smaller. say a 40T.  Has anyone ever modified a single Raleigh Heron style crank and added a smaller ring to it?  Is this doable? It appears to have the structure to add one, but I am a novice in such areas.  I figure I might have to change the front derailleur. I'd hate  to change the rear.  Its just too cool imho. Thoughts please


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## bulldog1935 (May 5, 2017)

It's my buddy Lou - welcome, friend

give us a tooth count on your rear - every cog, and we'll plug it into Mike's calculator
we'll begin with a gear analysis of what you have

In the meantime, look at these Williams chainrings from Hillary Stone
He has them down to 32T

Here are the crank arms to switch to Williams C1000 if needed

ps - here's a few photos I took of Lou's bike (and that famous truck)


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## Andrew Gorman (May 5, 2017)

The real pickle is that these early derailleurs can't handle a lot of difference between chainrings at the front, and can't handle a large sprocket at the rear. The half step crank is all the front could shift.  If the small ring is bolted on you could find a smaller one and if the derailleur  can't make the shift you could at least downshift with your toe.  Maybe look for a more touring geared set of cranks? Or, as suggested, some period arms that take replaceable chainrings.  I'd want to keep the Beneluxes too!


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## bulldog1935 (May 5, 2017)

The FD is the easy part.  Work out the gears you want first - I'll help, I've done this before.  
If you want the FD to look period, Simplex, and Huret piston FD, and even Campy into the early 70s.  Your Cyclo shifter will work fine with any.  
If you don't care what it looks like, Shimano 600 EX is the best FD I've ever used, and SunTour Cyclone a close second.


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## SirMike1983 (May 5, 2017)

On a bike like that, I think I'd do hybrid gearing with a Sturmey Archer rear hub and Cylco Benelux kit rear. The front, I'd probably just do a single chainring like a Clubman. That's my take though, and not the most practical to find the stuff for it.


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## bulldog1935 (May 6, 2017)

That definitely would be the traditional way to go, something I've always thought was really cool - esoteric in a cool way.
Unfortunately, it would be a lot easier to go from the 3-sp Lenton Sports to the hybrid than the Lenton GP
Hybrid gearing originated as a way to turn a 3-sp into a 9-sp for distance touring.
catching Lou up here,
http://www.classiclightweights.co.uk/hybrid-hd.html
http://www.adventurecycling.org/default/assets/resources/hybrid_gearing.pdf
http://lovelybike.blogspot.com/2015/07/hybrid-gearing-in-wild-bryans-6-speed.html
https://theoldbikeshome.wordpress.com/2015/07/06/hybrid-gearing/

Once we get his tooth counts, it's something we could throw into Sheldon's calculator

An advantage is his dropouts should already be correct for the SA hub.  The disadvantage is the wheel build, including a different freewheel - it wouldn't work with his 5-sp freewheel.
He would gain the lower drive ratio.  The higher drive ratio would mostly be without value.

Mechanically, the crank swap is much simpler.
The advantage of going with the Williams 3-bolt cottered crank is no bottom bracket changes are needed.
It's a quick, bolt-off/bolt-on effort.
My '57 Lenton, in contrast, began with a bare frame - everything was bolt on and fixed all the difficulties with $

BTW Lou, you will be limited by the chain-wrap capacity of the Benelux RD. 
So you'll still need fairly tight difference between big and small chainrings.


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## petritl (May 6, 2017)

52/36


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## SirMike1983 (May 6, 2017)

petritl said:


> 52/36
> 
> View attachment 462321




With a two chainring set up, I also like having the much smaller inner gear. I have a '74 Raleigh Grand Prix I'm working on now like that (I think mine is 52-42 though? I'd have to check). I find the main purpose of a two chainring set up is to have a "bail out" front for really steep hills.


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## bulldog1935 (May 6, 2017)

I checked Sheldon's catalog database. Technical Specs page, and '74 Grand Prix was listed 52/40T, but they often substituted 50/40T and 48/40T

If you have an option in ring sizes, it's still best to check on a gear calculator and pick ring sizes to minimize duplicates (wasted gear combinations)
Here's a 52/42T "ten speed" that only has 6 gears  because of bad duplicates, and they all have 15" cliffs between them.
Probably wouldn't care riding alone, but you couldn't keep up with your friends on newer narrow-spaced gearsets - even 7-speeds from the 80s.
In comparison, here is the same wide freewheel with well-thought half-steps, giving 10 well-spaced gears (even though you would probably only use 9 of them - no reason to use largest rear cog on largest chainring).  But with this simple setup and a 5-speed freewheel, you could keep up with any group ride outfitted with brand new road bikes.


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## SirMike1983 (May 6, 2017)

bulldog1935 said:


> I checked Sheldon's catalog database. Technical Specs page, and '74 Grand Prix was listed 52/40T, but they often substituted 50/40T and 48/40T
> 
> If you have an option in ring sizes, it's still best to check on a gear calculator and pick ring sizes to minimize duplicates (wasted gear combinations)
> Here's a 52/42T "ten speed" that only has 6 gears  because of bad duplicates, and they all have 15" cliffs between them.
> ...




It probably is that 52-40 spec then - this thing is pretty stock. I picked it up a few weeks ago for $75. It does have some of the cool period stuff like the Stronglight cranks and Normandy hubs. I'm dumping the Simplex derailleurs and going to Suntour ones.


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## bulldog1935 (May 7, 2017)

Mike, looking forward to photos of your new GP.
Couldn't count the number of bikes I saw just like it in college.  Varsity was the high school bike, Grand Prix was the college bike.
Told the story more than once, but I bought a '77 model when it was introduced, in Fall '76.  My frame was dated May '76.  First GP frame to be all ISO threading, though the original swaged cotterless crank didn't last for me - stripped out in Austin hills.




This is after my '78 rebuilds including a really nice wheelset, which changed the nature of the bike.
They're great-riding, great-climbing frames, worth the effort to upgrade, and still one of the best loaded-touring frames you could want.
Even the Weinmann CP brakes - again on alloy rims and with modern toe-adjustable pads are the next-very best thing to my Paul canti brakes - make panic stops on the greenways all the time
(last week it was a woman walking the center of the trail with a yo-yo leash over each side as I was coming around a blind drop)


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