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1968 Raleigh Sports

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Or options in general? I’ve heard road bikes with Reynolds 531 tubing are good and light but I’m guessing expensive...


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Questions are kind of getting wide, but there are some incredible Craigslist buys in bikes out there (long stored in garages).
My buddy paid $125 for this almost-never-ridden Univega mixte for his wife - Miyata built this bike with Tange Cr-Mo butted tubing, arguably better than Reynolds 531
(one of the few high-grade mixtes ever made by any maker)
CMo7ZYz.jpg

But easy to rebuild all the bearings (or get a bike shop to do it), re-cable, and set up how you prefer with minimum parts buys (can even move those shifters to stem mount).
 
Last edited:
Several different questions there.

First, it is easier to re-grease the bearings than it is to re-build the wheels or to mount new wheels. The reason to change the rims (or wheels) is because you want something lighter and that brakes better when wet. Most people use the Sun CR-18 rims with the polished finish. If you're using this as a hobby/fun bike in only good weather, the original rims are fine. If you're commuting on the bike and out in a lot of wet weather, the Sun rims will be a bit better functioning for you. I prefer the originals and find the CR-18s a particular pain to mount tires. When people buy CR-18s and try to get rid of their original Raleigh rims, I offer trade/buy them up because I like the originals so much.

Reynolds 531 - this is another type of steel. Raleigh used 10-20 and 20-30 steel for the regular Sports over the years. The 10-20 and 20-30 are just fancy names for plain carbon steel. The 531 allows you to build a lighter frame using thinner walls on the frame tubes. The trade-off is that the 10-20 and 20-30 will take more abuse (people over-clamping stuff; over-tightening kickstands, etc.). This plain carbon 20-30 steel is perfect for a utility bike like the Sports - durable enough to take some abuse, but light enough to ride much livelier than a department store cheap-o bike.

Brake pads - the salmon-colored pads do seem noisier to me than the generic black pads when dry. The salmon stops much better when wet. I've had very good luck with the "Sunlite" brand "X-cut" generic black brake pads you get for cheap in the bike shop (or in bulk online). They work fine in dry conditions. Again, if it's going to be really wet, the salmon Kool Stop is better. When I fit new pads, I pre-contour them so they hit the rim face squarely. This helps reduce noise and improve brake out-of-the-box.
 
Last edited:
Questions are kind of getting wide, but there are some incredible Craigslist buys in bikes out there (long stored in garages).
My buddy paid $125 for this almost-never-ridden Univega mixte for his wife - Miyata built this bike with Tange Cr-Mo butted tubing, arguably better than Reynolds 531
(one of the few high-grade mixtes ever made by any maker)
View attachment 807528
But easy to rebuild all the bearings (or get a bike shop to do it), re-cable, and set up how you prefer with minimum parts buys (can even move those shifters to stem mount).

Thank you for the advice. I’ve been keeping and eye on Craigslist and there are definitely a lot of great bikes for sale.


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Several different questions there.

First, it is easier to re-grease the bearings than it is to re-build the wheels or to mount new wheels. The reason to change the rims (or wheels) is because you want something lighter and that brakes better when wet. Most people use the Sun CR-18 rims with the polished finish. If you're using this as a hobby/fun bike in only good weather, the original rims are fine. If you're commuting on the bike and out in a lot of wet weather, the Sun rims will be a bit better functioning for you. I prefer the originals and find the CR-18s a particular pain to mount tires. When people buy CR-18s and try to get rid of their original Raleigh rims, I offer trade/buy them up because I like the originals so much.

Reynolds 531 - this is another type of steel. Raleigh used 10-20 and 20-30 steel for the regular Sports over the years. The 10-20 and 20-30 are just fancy names for plain carbon steel. The 531 allows you to build a lighter frame using thinner walls on the frame tubes. The trade-off is that the 10-20 and 20-30 will take more abuse (people over-clamping stuff; over-tightening kickstands, etc.). This plain carbon 20-30 steel is perfect for a utility bike like the Sports - durable enough to take some abuse, but light enough to ride much livelier than a department store cheap-o bike.

Brake pads - the salmon-colored pads do seem noisier to me than the generic black pads when dry. The salmon stops much better when wet. I've had very good luck with the "Sunlite" brand "X-cut" generic black brake pads you get for cheap in the bike shop (or in bulk online). They work fine in dry conditions. Again, if it's going to be really wet, the salmon Kool Stop is better. When I fit new pads, I pre-contour them so they hit the rim face squarely. This helps reduce noise and improve brake out-of-the-box.

Thank you SirMike, I didn’t know that about the CR-18’s. I was curious about replacing my originals since I saw I video on going through a dyno hub front like mine and it seems pretty tough. With the rear, I don’t know how to go through the hub since mine doesn’t shift smoothly. I have a back up from a 1952 Rudge Sports so I might give that one a try.

Thank you for letting me know about the brake pads. I got a set of the salmon kool stops but I might get the sunlite pads you mentioned instead
since I don’t ride in the rain.


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Adding to what Mike said, if you've got noisy brakes, you're probably not getting proper brake pad toe or possibly even alignment - and with the old style pads, you may not have any adjustment.
Certainly scarfing the pads to shape is one way to correct it.
tSLUZ2m.jpg

A big advantage of newer cartridge pad designs is a spherical washer and/or a conically free stud that gives them varying degrees of adjustment.
Yokozuna makes somes nice (and cheaper) ones, which I have on my '57 Lenton with Weinmann side pull brakes, replacing the black pads from the photo above.
PS0TQNr.jpg

(the black stripe on the rim was the truncated contact patch from bad alignment on the black shoes)
Aside from no noise, these cartridge pads when compared to the black originals made these brakes go from marginally scary (stopping would be good) to more than adequate.
Though the spherical adjustment is limited on the Yokozuna cartridges, if it's close enough for your rim width and caliper travel, they self-align and self-toe with proper installation.
You can also adjust the caliper travel (closer parallel to rim) by shimming the shoes with M6 bellville washers.

The Kool Stop Dura II cartridges are on my '74 International with Weinmann center pulls. These cartridges have even greater spherical freedom, adjustment, definitely self-align and self-toe when you follow the installation instructions, regardless of rim width, and these brakes have all the power of my Paul touring cantis on another bike (you can't get more than lockup); though they definitely don't modulate as well as the fancy (and very expensive) cantilever brakes installed on my pro cyclocross frame (the Paul cantis will stop that bike from 15 mph in 4 feet - made that stop on the greenway today for a runner with earbuds coming my way and reading his phone - Planet Earth).
KZ9MDRn.jpg

though I used belleville washers here, too, and looking at the pad stack from inside to out (l to r) are spherical washer, bellville, caliper, bellville, flat washer and cylindrical stud nut.
Bellville washers are conical spring washers that compress to flat as you tighten, and lock everything in place.

Also nice about cartridge pads, when you need new pads, you don't have to change your adjustment on the cartridge holders. You just back out the M2.5 in the cartridge holder, slide out the old, slide in the new and retighten the M2.5 set screw.
40502.jpg
 
Last edited:
Adding to what Mike said, if you've got noisy brakes, you're probably not getting proper brake pad toe or possibly even alignment - and with the old style pads, you may not have any adjustment.
Certainly scarfing the pads to shape is one way to correct it.
View attachment 808130
A big advantage of newer cartridge pad designs is a spherical washer and/or a conically free stud that gives them varying degrees of adjustment.
Yokozuna makes somes nice (and cheaper) ones, which I have on my '57 Lenton with Weinmann side pull brakes, replacing the black pads from the photo above.(these are also 700C Synergy rims)
View attachment 808120
(the black stripe on the rim was the truncated contact patch from bad alignment on the black shoes)
Aside from no noise, these cartridge pads when compared to the black originals made these brakes go from marginally scary (stopping would be good) to more than adequate.
Though the spherical adjustment is limited on the Yokozuna cartridges, if it's close enough for your rim width and caliper travel, they self-align and self-toe with proper installation.
You can also adjust the caliper travel (closer parallel to rim) by shimming the shoes with M6 bellville washers.

The Kool Stop Dura II cartridges are on my '74 International with Weinmann center pulls. These cartridges have even greater spherical freedom, adjustment, definitely self-align and self-toe when you follow the installation instructions, regardless of rim width, and these brakes have all the power of my Paul touring cantis on another bike (you can't get more than lockup); though they definitely don't modulate as well as the fancy (and very expensive) cantilever brakes installed on my pro cyclocross frame (the Paul cantis will stop that bike from 15 mph in 4 feet - made that stop on the greenway today for a runner with earbuds coming my way and reading his phone - Planet Earth).
View attachment 808121
though I used belleville washers here, too, and looking at the pad stack from inside to out (l to r) are spherical washer, bellville, caliper, bellville, flat washer and cylindrical stud nut.
Bellville washers are conical spring washers that compress to flat as you tighten, and lock everything in place.

Also nice about cartridge pads, when you need new pads, you don't have to change your adjustment on the cartridge holders. You just back out the M2.5 in the cartridge holder, slide out the old, slide in the new and retighten the M2.5 set screw.
View attachment 808146

Thank you for letting me know. Is changing over to this step up difficult?
 
Thank you for letting me know. Is changing over to this step up difficult?
really nothing to it, and you'll be so proud of your brakes you wouldn't care if it had been more difficult.

Sometimes older calipers, and especially steel calipers, are so thin you need to stack washers in order to be able to tighten them properly:
Likewise, the new pads aren't quite as thick as the old pads, so you may want to stack a couple of washers between the pad and caliper so the caliper doesn't have to travel too far.
Take a look at my stack and caliper alignment on the Weinmann center pulls in the photo above.
1/4" and M6 washers are so close, they're interchangeable for this.

1/4" stainless bellville at fastenall, $0.40/

M6 zinc-coated steel bellville at mr. Metric $0.12/

Looks like Yokozuna are hard to find, but here are the really good Kool Stops (sold by pair)
this is also the same price as one ebay seller with the Yokozunas, so the Kool Stops here are a better deal - they come with an extra pair of pad inserts.
Rivendell used to carry Yokozuna holders, but right now all they have are Ultegra black holders, and you'll want silver holders.
I'll throw these up anyway on ebay, but when Rivendell was selling these, they were Yokozuna-packaged, salmon pads, and $15. https://www.ebay.com/i/262482892866?chn=ps

The directions are basically simple - set them up loose, and squeeze the brake lever - they self align and self toe - tighten them.
I use a wide stout rubber band around the brake lever for this part, freeing up both hands to keep the pad from rotating when torquing.
 
Last edited:
really nothing to it, and you'll be so proud of your brakes you wouldn't care if it had been more difficult.

Sometimes older calipers, and especially steel calipers, are so thin you need to stack washers in order to be able to tighten them properly:
Likewise, the new pads aren't quite as thick as the old pads, so you may want to stack a couple of washers between the pad and caliper so the caliper doesn't have to travel too far.
Take a look at my stack and caliper alignment on the Weinmann center pulls in the photo above.
1/4" and M6 washers are so close, they're interchangeable for this.

1/4" stainless bellville at fastenall, $0.40/

M6 zinc-coated steel bellville at mr. Metric $0.12/

Looks like Yokozuna are hard to find, but here are the really good Kool Stops (sold by pair)
this is also the same price as one ebay seller with the Yokozunas, so the Kool Stops here are a better deal - they come with an extra pair of pad inserts.
Rivendell used to carry Yokozuna holders, but right now all they have are Ultegra black holders, and you'll want silver holders.
I'll throw these up anyway on ebay, but when Rivendell was selling these, they were Yokozuna-packaged, salmon pads, and $15. https://www.ebay.com/i/262482892866?chn=ps

The directions are basically simple - set them up loose, and squeeze the brake lever - they self align and self toe - tighten them.
I use a wide stout rubber band around the brake lever for this part, freeing up both hands to keep the pad from rotating when torquing.

Okay great, thank you for letting me know! Those brake pads are pretty pricey compared to the koolstop continentals I bought so I think I’ll hold off for now. I appreciate you letting me abort them though.


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