My Raleigh Twenty

A Work in Progress

I picked up my Twenty on eBay a couple of months ago.  I had been looking at Sheldon Brown's write-up about his fleet of Twenties that he has owned over the years and was bit by the bug.  I rode a Raleigh RSW folder in High School and had fond memories of it. So I decided to pick up a Twenty and fix it up as a secondary bike.  

I didn't take any pictures of the bicycle when I first acquired it, but suffice it to say that it was complete, and in fairly decent condition, suffering mostly from years of dust gathered in storage.  A quick trip to the car wash to let the pressure wand do its magic took care of most of the problem.

I purchased a new (old stock) Sturmey Archer AW hub on eBay and had it built in a wheel based on a Sun Rynolite rim.  The front wheel was replaced with another Rynolite with a Shimano Nexus hub providing electrical power for the Lumotec headlamp (with led standlight) Peter White did a beautiful job of building this wheel for me. (Link at bottom of page)

A new Brooks B66 saddle replaced the old Brooks saddle that came as original equipment.  The original has been since installed on another Twenty I purchased for my sister. (She saw my bike and had to have one also.)

Schwalbe Marathon tires have been mounted, giving a much better ride for my rather substantial size.

My new rear wheel has finally been mounted! Built around the SRAM Spectro S7 Hub on a Sun RynoLite rim this 7-speed bad boy provides a total of 303% of gearing spread over 7 gears in an internal hub. I chose the internally geared hub over a deraileur because I didn't want to have to worry about damaging a derailleur as I put the bicycle in and out of my car's trunk.

During the rework I put a Shimano XT bottom bracket in with Phil Wood retaining rings holding it all together. Should be good for a few miles.

Finally, I have a wonderful Carradice saddlebag (Camper Longflap) in bright red.  Wallingford Bike acquired the leftovers of a special production run and I was lucky enough to get one before they were all gone.  I added some Texas stars (see photo below) as an homage to my years in the Lone Star state.

Anyway, way too much talk.  Enjoy the photos and share your opinions.  I'd love to hear from you.

This first picture shows the bicycle prior to mounting the SRAM hub, etc.

After mounting the new wheel I decided to give the Carradice saddlebag a little more support. I mounted a Bagman Expedition bag support from Wallingford Bike Parts on the Brooks saddle. A few minutes of cursing allowed me to get the blocky clamp between the rails on the saddle. It was worth it.

Let me hear from you when you get a chance.  Lenny, King of the road

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