Category Archives: Vintage bicycle restoration

The Case of the Mysterious Mark

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1941 Goeland fork

There is usually some sleuthing involved when it comes to restoring vintage bicycles.  While that is definitely one of the satisfying elements of the restoration process, there also can be dead ends leading to unsolvable mysteries.  The 1941 Goeland fork depicted above has an interesting hand drawn signature on the steerer tube.  I haven’t been able to really isolate the letters, except for the “e” and the “g” at the end of the scribe.  This kind of mark is unusual.  I have seen stamped marks on frames, forks and components, such as the builder’s marks on a 1929 Griffon that I restored a while back, shown below.

Builder’s mark on 1929 Griffon.

The little bug-like mark is, I believe, the builder’s mark, and the “9” is a mark that was on each of the components of this 1929 Griffon, which I took to be a date code.

1941 French freewheel with engraving.

The 1941 Goeland’s freewheel also has a mark that I can’t quite make out.  The freewheel has no other manufacturer’s marks or codes, just this elegant engraving on the cover plate, unlike the 1947 freewheel (from my 1947 Camille Daudon) show below, which has marks, plus a strange engraved signature on the back side of the freewheel, but no indication of the manufacturer.

Engraving at the bottom.

Or, should it go this way?

Deciphering these marks can be challenging.  Even standard marks can be hard to make out.  While I was working the wheelset of the 1941 Goeland, I needed to remove a broken nipple and rusted spoke.  Even though there is a clear manufacturer’s mark on the nipple, I still can’t make it out.

And that’s after enlisting my little magnifying glass – a relic from my parent’s gem collecting days.

The 1941 Goeland seems to be bursting with mysterious signatures.  The above photo is the bike’s hand-made spoke protector.  It has a beautifully engraved mark, shown above.  With time, and a little more patience, and perhaps some help from technology and readers of this blog, I hope to solve these mysteries.

UPDATE 4/26/17:

Reader Bruno (see comments below) has supplied the following information:  The spoke protector is a “Le Pratique”, made by Lefol, and the Daudon freewheel is a J Moyne with an unusual hand drawn engraving.  Here’s a vintage Moyne advert for reference:

 

Hybrid Gearing

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Sachs Orbit 2 speed hybrid hub with 6 speed cassette

I became interested in hybrid gearing after acquiring my 1973 Jack Taylor Tourist, about 9 years ago.  The bike features a single front chainring, 6 speed cassette and a 2 speed Sachs Orbit internal hub.  That gives it 12 gears overall, with a good range for the kind of riding I do, as the internal hub’s lower gear is about a 33% reduction, which is quite significant. For awhile, I didn’t think much about this interesting arrangement, and instead just enjoyed riding the bike, and being able to do a substantial downshift while sitting still at a stop light.

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Sachs Orbit 2 speed hybrid hub with 6 speed cassette.

There are a number of ways to accomplish hybrid gearing.  You can forgo a front derailleur, and use an internal two or three speed hub to take the place of multiple chainrings.  You can also use multiple chainrings with an internal hub, and forgo the cassette/freewheel.  Or, you can be like Sheldon Brown and do both, achieving a 63 speed bicycle – his beloved “O.T.B.”  which used a 3 speed SA hub, a seven speed cassette, and 3 chainrings.  Doing the math:  3 x 7 x 3 = 63.  So with modern technology, let’s calculate the possibilities:  a 14 speed Rohloff hub, paired with an 11 speed cassette, with a triple chainring = 462 gears!  Probably that set up would be a mechanic’s nightmare, so if you really want this many gears, I suggest you purchase a continuously variable NuVinci hub – but be prepared to deal with quite a bit more than a couple of pounds of extra weight.

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Sachs Orbit hub – NOS early 90’s with two optional cassettes

There is really only one source on the internet for information about the Sachs Orbit 2 speed hybrid hub, and that of course is the Sheldon Brown site, with additional information and clarifications by bike guru John Allen.  One of the things I worried about with this hub on my Jack Taylor was being able to find replacement parts, given that the hub was so rare.  Fortunately, a while back I found a NOS Sachs Orbit hub, pictured above, which I could use as a replacement in case something went wrong.

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1973 Jack Taylor Tourist Sachs Orbit hybrid hub

Meanwhile, the original hub is working just fine, and needed only occasional lubrication with automotive oil.  I had sent the hub out for a rebuild nine years ago, and it is working perfectly, still.

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Info on the box of the replacement hub seems to indicate this is a 1992 hub

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Very pretty hub logo engraved into the hub shell

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Be careful with these spindles!

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The replacement hub I purchased is quite lovely, and has two different cassette options – for 5 or 6 speeds. The cassette cogs and spacers slip onto the freehub with tabs to line up the rings, except for the final smaller cogs, which screw onto the freehub.  As one pedals, these smaller cogs with screw-on threads will get tighter and tighter.

Because this replacement hub is so nice, I have been thinking about using it to build into an interesting wheel set for a road/commuter bike, rather than keeping it in reserve for spare parts. One of the convenient features of this hub is that it can be operated by pretty much any front derailleur shifter, as there are only two positions on the hub.  And, if something goes wrong with the hub on the Jack Taylor, maybe I will rethink hybrid gearing altogether.

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1973 Jack Taylor Tourist

The bike’s rear wheel was an alteration from its original 1973 build, and whether or not this rear wheel was built by the Taylor brothers is unknown.  However, I have noted that British bikes built in the 60’s through the 80’s sometimes featured hybrid gearing.  This was especially true for the boutique manufacturers of that era.  Sachs internal hub gears are considered on par with Sturmey Archer, and I will say that is true, based on my experience with riding this Jack Taylor. The hub has been totally reliable.

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This early 90’s Sachs Orbit 2 speed hybrid hub has 36 holes, so it could work with a number of possible rims.  It needs a bit of lubrication to bring it back to full glory, and if I end up needing to rebuild it, John Allen and Sheldon Brown will come the rescue.

An Illuminating Subject

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Dynamo lighting:  who hates it?  Almost everyone.  But virtually all vintage bicycles, except those wondrous vintage Raleighs with Sturmey Archer’s dynohubs, use sidewall or bottom bracket-driven dynamo lighting.

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Soubitez dynamo with Margil roller

Today, I was finally connecting the wiring on the Mercier Meca Dural’s lighting system  – a project I have been putting off because, well, I hate dynamo lighting. The bike’s own original fork-mounted dynamo had long ago been lost, so I set up this nice Soubitez unit, shown above, which is very light-weight and free-spinning, as compared to its slightly older counterparts, shown below.

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1941 Radios dynamo

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1950’s Ducel dynamo

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1953 EDELKO SELF dynamo

Lighting set-up is a project that I would rate right along side fender line adjustment and front rack mounting:  patience and resolve can be sourly tested as one works through the glitches and conundrums involving wiring routing, bulb wattage, voltage mysteries, and the absolute worst:  cutting electrical wires and clearing their housing so that they can be spliced properly to carry the current through the system.

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There are very few resources which adequately discuss how to set up a sidewall driven (or bottom bracket driven) lighting system. For the uninitiated, setting up the wiring on these old systems can seem daunting.  The most important aspect of the set up is insuring that the dynamo is positioned correctly so that a straight line can be drawn through the center of the dynamo, down to the center of the wheel’s drop out.  This will insure that maximum efficiency is obtained from these already inefficient devices.  Another mystery can be the wiring set up. Every dynamo needs a ground.  For vintage steel bicycles, the ground often existed automatically via the presence of a “ground screw” which contacted the steel frame.  The above illustrations are courtesy of Glenn’s New Complete Bicycle Manual.  They show how to set up the wiring, and how to position the dynamo.  Fortunately, the wiring part of these old systems is very simple:  hook one wire to the front bulb, one to the rear, and both into the dynamo.  These old systems are 6 volt/3 watt power that can easily be upgraded to LED lighting. One can apparently blow out the lights if going at very high speeds.  I haven’t had that experience yet, though.

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3 wires through the lug braze-on: shifter cable, brake cable, and dynamo wire.

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Routing the dynamo wires across the bicycle’s frame can lead to frustration.  If you are really obsessive, you can make the whole thing look magnificent (clearly, I am NOT in this camp).  Ideally, you wrap the lighting wires wherever they can be wrapped, in this case around the brake housing. This Mercier Meca Dural has wonderful lugs which include many options for cable routing, so I ran them through one of the openings, and brought the wiring up across its sloping top-tube, to the front fork where the dynamo resides.  In between, I wrapped the wires around the front and rear brake cables.

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Amazingly, after changing out the wiring with something new and replacing a burned out front bulb in the Luxor 65 headlamp, the system worked!  Testing this out on the road will be fun, as this dynamo’s drag is significantly less than other’s I have tested.

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Soubitez dynamo on 1977 Jack Taylor Tandem

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Soubitez dynamo on 1973 Jack Taylor Touring

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Busch and Muller Dymotec 6

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If you really are interested in dynamo lighting for your own bike, you could consider using the more efficient Dymotec 6 from Busch & Muller.  I’ve had one of these around in my shop, but haven’t tried it out yet.  It is definitely lighter than any vintage dynamo I have handled.  However, I will also say that Soubitez dynamos appear to have the least drag among all the vintage dynamos I have tested.  I have two of these – each mounted on my Jack Taylor bicycles  – a 1973 Touring model, and and 1976 tandem.  They still work very well after all these years.

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I do love the engineering quality of these old steel dynamos.  They are very pretty, but very heavy.  And, while I still hate dynamos, there are lots of reasons to love them. They can be disengaged whenever you want, so are only creating drag when lighting is needed.  They aren’t that much heavier than a hub dynamo, and are simple to add or subtract to an existing bicycle, without the complexity of a hub dynamo.  So, if you like riding vintage bicycles, maybe you will like dynamo lighting.