Author Archives: Nola Wilken

About Nola Wilken

Cycling enthusiast and owner of Restoring Vintage Bicycles; CPA/Founder of Wilken & Company, P.C., CPAs

A Raleigh Alyeska Touring Bike

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During the mid-1980’s Raleigh came out with a whole touring line-up that ranged from the top-end 650b Portage to the entry level Wyoming model.  In between were the Kodiak and the Alyeska models which used 27inch wheels.  All of their touring frames were built with Reynolds double butted 555R tubing and forged dropouts, with the main differences among the models being the fork material, braze-ons and components.  All of these bikes were simply amazing in their build quality, and any one of them would be a great platform for many different kinds of riding.

When I purchased the bike 16 years ago from an eBay seller, it had gone through a restoration which involved having the frame powdercoated.  The job was well done, and the brick red color is evokes somewhat the hue of the original paint.  The lugs and lettering were highlighted with gold, a nice touch.

The Alyeska model featured so many nice touches:  a rear brake bridge, double eyelets front and rear, vertical rear dropout, 2 bottle cage mounts, a pump peg, rear rack and front low-rider braze-ons, and classy engraved Raleigh lettering on the seat stays, as well as the Raleigh logo engraved on the fork crown.

I believe this bike hails from 1986, given that the bottom bracket serial number begins with a 6.  The above scans are from a 1986 catalog I found at kurtkaminer.com.  You can also find a beautifully scanned 1984 catalog at Josh Capps’ site,The Simplicity of Vintage Cycles.

The original Sakae CR touring crankset was included with the bike when I purchased it.  However, I did swap out the middle 45T ring for a 39er, to make shifting a little easier, as not everyone is a fan of half-step gearing.  These chainrings are now 50/39/30.

I also made some other drive chain changes from the previous build to make the bike more user friendly:  a 14-28  7 speed indexing freewheel, Shimano indexing/friction bar end shifters and a bullet proof Shimano Acera rear derailleur.  The front derailleur is the original Shimano model and works well with the triple crank.  Gearing is now 29-96 gear inches.

The wheels are a new in 2007 set built by legendary Harris Cyclery (RIP) using SR M13II rims laced to Quando sealed bearing hubs.  I’ve never had to true the wheelset in all this time, and the Quando hubs are spinning perfectly as well.  The previous owner kept the original 27 inch wheel size for this upgrade, but the cantilevers will easily accept a 700c wheel.

And, the upgrade done by the previous owner included my favorite cantilevers:  Suntour XC Pro in classy Champagne finish.  There’s nothing to improve here!

I enhanced the elegance of this bike with a rando style bottle cage and some lovely MKS touring pedals.  I also added SKS fenders and removed the gigantic Surly touring racks included with the bike when I first purchased it.

Custom Meral and Raleigh Alyeska at the Pumpkin Patch on Sauvie Island.

We had loads of fun on the many rides we enjoyed over the last 16 years, but as of late the bike has not been ridden much.  It is time to pass it on to a new custodian.

I gave the bike a complete overhaul, and while most of the bike was in surprisingly great shape, I did find some nearly complete paint loss on the rear dropout.  A few small areas of paint loss also developed underneath the bottom bracket.  I have found similar issues on other powder coated frames I have worked on.  A bit of surface rust had developed on the exposed areas, so it was necessary to sand the compromised areas down, then apply primer and paint.  When I applied the first several coats of primer, I noticed that it was nearly the same color as the powder coat itself.  So, I called it good and added a few coats of clear coat on top.  The color difference is not really noticeable, as you can see from the previous photos.

It’s time to sell this lovely 37 year old.  It’s looking spry and should last for decades to come. The frame size is 21 inches which translates to a 53 cm seat tube.  Top tube length is 54 cm. I prefer to sell it locally ($900 firm) and not ship it, so if any Portland area readers are interested, please contact me:

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Wear and Tear

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Portland grown tomatoes

It was an extraordinarily gorgeous summer here in Portland.  We didn’t have super hot days, nor tons of wildfire smoke.  It was dry, as is true of the last several summers, but sans apocalyptic occurrences like pandemics, heat domes, and unbreathable air.  In short, this summer was a welcome relief from the past few even though we had very little rain.  While my flower and vegetable garden thrived,this also seemed to be the season of various equipment failures, including rims, tires, cassettes, an ebike motor, and my own muscles.

Deore hubs

Ritchey rims

What seemed to start it all off were the Ritchey rims that I had been using temporarily on my Terry.  These are 80’s rims that came off the Bridgestone and in a long convoluted story of wheel and tire swaps, they ended up on my Terry, replacing the wheelset I had originally built for the bike.

I never liked these un-eyeleted rims, but they were laced to a smooth as glass Deore hubset that really made the bike whiz around impressively.  So I tolerated the fact that I had to true them with some frequency, which is definitely not normal.  Finally I decided to take a closer look at the rims and discovered that some stress cracks were beginning to develop around the spoke holes.  That explained the truing problem, and made me worry that the rims were on the verge of failure.

This led to a lengthy process of trying to source either an appropriate 26 inch wheelset or a set of narrower 26 inch rims to replace the Ritcheys.  As part of this process I also noted that my tires (26X1.25 Pasela Tourguards) were looking pretty bald and worn.  And that involved another lengthy process of trying to source 26X1.25 tires, which are now nearly non-existent in the marketplace.  (Note: The Society of Three Speeds Blog recently posted about the difficulty in sourcing 26 x 1 3/8 tires and rims, which are used on many vintage 3 speed bikes.  This is a different size than used on my Terry, but also sad to note.)

I finally found some non-belted Paselas on eBay, and a set of CR18 rims from good ol’ Bell’s Bike Shop.  The regular Paselas ride a bit nicer than their belted counterparts, but offer less flat protection.  Also, they measure 28mm wide mounted to my rims as opposed to the 32mm wide Tourguards.  I was hoping they would plump out after use, but sadly – no go.  While waiting around for rims, I really wanted to keep riding the Terry so I stole the wheelset off the Bridgestone, and now the Terry is back to the wheelset I originally built.

All was well and good until I pulled a muscle during an over-vigorous and un-warmed-up climb and then had to stop riding altogether for awhile.  When I got the go ahead to cycle again, I needed to take it easy (impossible due to the hills around my house) and that meant using the dreaded…Brompton e-bike.

Ebike Schmeebike

Atop Mt. Tabor

So, am I being too harsh in my dislike of this bike?  I still own it and would happily sell it.  I think it was a mistake to to offer an e-bike version of the Brompton without making critical changes to address the harsh and bumpy ride (bigger tires, bigger wheels even?, front suspension?).  I would forgive all of this bike’s other disappointments if the ride quality could be improved.  Nonetheless, I rode around on this bike while recovering from my injury.  The one upside:  riding to the top of Mt. Tabor with energy to spare.

While my spine suffered abuse bouncing around on the Brompton, my muscles did heal, and finally I was back to riding my regular bikes.  During this time, an acquaintance let me know that he was selling his e-bike (not a Brompton but an Aventon) to upgrade to a new e-bike.  His bike looked about right for a family member that expressed interest in getting back into riding.  So, I bought his bike (which did not have a transferrable warranty) and planned to tune it up and pass it on to my family member.  Even though the bike worked fine on my test ride, it failed to operate as soon as I brought it back to my shop.  I then took it to the dealer, who though it was the controller cable gone bad that was causing the failure.  After waiting months for a replacement part, it turned out the that motor itself had failed, after only 11 months of use.  With no warranty, the cost to build the new motor into the wheel just didn’t make sense.  While I could have done it myself, at this point I didn’t want to throw good energy after bad money.  So, I gave the bike to the dealer.  So much for quality control.

Freehub too free?

1980s ALAN

During the rainless summer days, I was able to ride the ALAN with more frequency.  This bike was built as a cyclocross machine but I converted to commuting duty.  It’s got 24 inch wheels, and was built as a “Junior Racer” which may describe me as well.

11 tooth smalll cog

Wear on the splines

But yet another equipment failure occurred with the ALAN:  my gears began slipping in the higher gear/smaller cogs.  While this was happening my memory was prompted to think about the freehub:  it’s from the ’80s; and it’s weird.  I started to remember that either the freehub couldn’t take an 11 tooth small cog or that something else was odd about the freehub.

DESCRIPTION

Courtesy of Sheldon Brown

Upon getting it into the shop and removing the cassette (which was adequately torqued) I saw that it was one of those early threaded 8 speed freehubs which could accept both Uniglide and Hyperglide Shimano cassettes. I looked at the cassette and could see damage to the shoulders of the splined sections.  Then I took to the internet to read the Sheldon Brown articles about freehubs of this era.  Not only is this freehub threaded on the outside and the inside, it’s one of those non-11 tooth cog compatible hubs.  Basically, no matter how much you torque the lockring on the cassette, there will still be too much free play in the cassette if you use an 11 tooth small cog.  So, the solution is to NOT use an 11 tooth cog.  Once I figured this out, I ordered the correct 8 speed cassette and now (hopefully) I’ll never have this problem again.  Another more expensive option would be to replace the freehub, but I’ll save that for another day.

1980’s Custom Meral

On a positive note, I sold my Meral to a reader of this blog – wishing Mike many happy miles.  I’m looking forward to some splendid Fall cycling on my fun vintage machines.  And, while it can be tedious to keep our beloved bikes on the road, I think the payoff is always worth it.

The Lowly Seatpost

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1920’s CCS clamp

Seatposts are an often ignored and misunderstood component. If you’ve ever replaced a saddle or a seatpost, or adjusted your saddle to fit your riding style, you’ll know what I mean.  A well designed seatpost is critical to riding comfort, yet rarely do cyclists give much thought to the component, simply tolerating whatever seatpost they are currently using.

The world of seatposts is surprisingly varied and complex, with many features to be considered, including seatpost diameter, clamp style, saddle rail style, angle adjustment, and fore/aft positioning.  The seatpost conundrum is part of the saddle mystery, and when working together properly they can solve part of the puzzle of rider discomfort.

Late 1800’s seatpost

Late 1800’s seatpost for bamboo frame

Historically, seatposts were first designed to allow fore and aft adjustment via a sliding clamp on a horizontal tube.  Saddle height was usually adjusted via a binder bolt on the frame’s seat tube. The bamboo bike shown above, however doesn’t have a height adjustable seatpost because it is incorporated into the ornate lugs binding the frame together. (Photo credit:  The American Bicycle (c) 1995 Jay Pridmore & Jim Hurd).

Lever actuated design

Later, mid-Century component makers focused on fore/aft adjustment, with some designs allowing for adjustment while pedaling!  As shown above, the Grimpex and the Alpina allowed the rider to reach under the saddle and loosen the clamp in order to move the saddle back and forth while riding.  There was even a lever actuated model, although I can’t quite figure out how this worked. Cycling lore of the time held that it was critical to sit in a different position relative to the handlebars while ascending and descending steep hills.  Fortunately, this “innovation” died out as most cyclists would have no need to make such onboard adjustments.  These seatposts would also have been heavy in comparison to standard designs.  And most importantly: yikes!  (Text credit:  Rebour (c) 2013 Rob Van Der Plas).

The ubiquitous steel clamp

For the masses, cyclists were offered those funky steel clamps that fit over a straight seatpost (also often steel). Straight seatposts are found on vintage British bikes, French bikes, and some early mountain bikes.  A narrower section at the top allows you to mount the clamp, to which the saddle is affixed. These clamps typically came with different numbers of serrations ranging from 24 to 54.  The more serrations on your clamp, the better chance you have of getting the most suitable angle on the saddle.  However, according to Fred Delong, even the high serration count produced an angle difference of about 7 degrees which is still a big jump in the saddle angle.  That’s why seatposts with true micro-adjusting clamps are better.

These clamps also require a LOT of tightening so that you don’t find yourself in a new position after hitting bump, but I’ve also stripped the threads on these clamps trying to get them to hold.  You can find higher quality clamps made for straight seatposts which also offer true micro adjustment, such as the clamp on my Brompton.

Campagnolo’s double bolt design, a true micro adjusting seatpost, was also introduced mid-Century and was definitely an innovation.  The downside was doing the actual adjustment which required patience as well as a special 10mm wrench.  This is an elegant seatpost, but maddening to use in practice due to the adjustment and tightening difficulty.

Photo Credit: Delong’s Guide to Bicycles & Bicycling (c) 1974 Fred Delong

Credit: Bicycle Design by Tony Hadland & Hans-Erhard Lessing (c) 2014

As time progressed, a lot of different ideas emerged, especially in regard to micro-adjustment.  The above scans show designs by Nitor, Ideale, and Simplex.  There’s also a lightened seatpost from France-Loire and a ratcheting model by Vincar.

A special problem for vintage bicycle restorers is the flat rail saddle carriage (often made from “Dural” or “Duralumin”) featured on the higher end saddles of the time. The above scans show offerings from Dumont, Mansfield and Ideale. These saddles require a special clamp.

I have such a saddle on my 1947 Camille Daudon.  It features a custom seatpost handmade by Daudon.  But, one of the clamp brackets had failed.  Daudon used an alloy clamp, which was unusual for 1947. Not being able to find a replacement, I modified a double rail steel clamp and got it to work by straightening the brackets in my vice to match the shape of the original brackets.  Not the best solution, but a decent hack for now.

J.P. Routens seatpost with angled clamp

Vintage Titan seatpost

Simplex single rail

Seatpost diameter indicator

25.0 American Classic for ALAN bicycles

While modern seatposts are mostly utilitarian (with the exception of Nitto), vintage seatposts were often elegant as well as innovative.  And, higher end vintage seatposts offer the same micro adjustment that’s available on current models.  If you are working with a straight seatpost and clamp, you may be able to upgrade the clamp to a model with more micro adjustment, but still preserve the original seatpost.  Or, you can simply decide to replace your vintage seatpost with a higher end vintage offering such as a Simplex, Nitor, or Campagnolo model.  For seatpost and saddle adjustment tips, I recommend visiting the Sheldon Brown site, for this article authored by bike guru John Allen. If you are experiencing discomfort while riding, it may take a while to figure out what’s wrong.  One thing I’ve learned when making adjustments:  resist the urge to make more than one adjustment at a time.  Don’t adjust saddle height and the fore/aft position simultaneously.  Don’t change saddle angle and bar height.  Do each of these separately and take long enough test rides to feel the effects of each change.  It can take time to get to the perfect solution for cycling comfort, and if your seatpost is part of the problem, consider replacing it.  There are many fine vintage seatposts available to solve the seatpost conundrum.