Hybrid Gearing

[wrongway]

I've been intrigued by this since I saw one for sale on ebay and had to buy it. At that time it was on a 1964 Raleigh, but I took it off and installed it on a 1970 Raleigh. No difference really. The rear dérailleur I have is a 1957 Cyclo Benelux 3 speed (23-19-15). I don't have clearance for the last, smallest gear. Is it safe to just keep adding washers till the gear fits and the rear stays are....2' apart? Anyone else messed with these? I rode it some as it is and I must say it's quite promising!

 

[rhenning]

Built one like that in 1964 on my 3 speed Hawthorne made by Raleigh at age 15. Added a double up front and ended up with 12 gears. Rode it until 1974 when it got stolen the first year I was married. Roger

 

[sam]

you can cold set or spread those old steel frames with no problems---just don't get carried away.

 

[bulldog1935]

you can cold set or spread those old steel frames with no problems---just don't get carried away.

The problem you can run into in trying to cold-set by hand is setting one side and the other not taking a set, resulting in misalignment.
My '74 International frame had been spread to 126mm that way. I let my Great Mechanic at my LBS align it, and it came out great.
My former '76 GP frame, I cold-set with all-thread, washers and nuts, and it came out properly aligned from the get-go.

I posted this on another thread, and it really belongs here
Nosing around on Sheldon's site, I also found Raleigh sold a 26" Lenton "convertible" in '62 with factory hybrid gearing.
http://www.sheldonbrown.com/retroraleighs/catalogs/Raleigh-Catalog-1962.pdf

 

[wrongway]

I would like to duplicate this '62 Raleigh Convertible as best I can. Shouldn't be too hard as I already have the bike and the gearing. I would like to use a set of Lauterwasser Bars because I am more comfortable on them. I've thought about moving the down-tube shifter to the bars some how. I don't really want bar end brifters. What other option is there? Can a Sturmey Archer trigger actually be used as a friction shifter even though it is basically indexed?

 

[bulldog1935]

you can use band-clamp shifters. I'd go with either Campy or Huret
Here my Lenton GP, which originally had a braze-on for a single English (Cyclo), and rod-operated suicide shifter on the seat tube (my bike began as bare frame)

But I used a Cylco shifter on the braze-on, and a single Huret band clamp for the front shifter:

The other choice is friction bar-end shifters, but you'll still need a cable stop clamp on the downtube.

Rivendell sells (DiaCompe Ene) bar end pods that fit most standard older friction levers - certainly Campy
https://www.rivbike.com/collections/shifting/products/silver-bar-end-shifter-pods-mounts-pair-17068

You might want to look at some of the details on these threads, because I have a bunch of good photos:
https://thecabe.com/forum/threads/57-lenton-grand-prix-project.106349/
https://thecabe.com/forum/threads/tip-your-hat-to-lady-gwendolyn.100109/