Things are looking shiny.

Well, yesterday I undertook a tad bit of cleaning and a couple of the bicycle parts have cleaned up nicely. Namely the handlebars which have gone from a greasy rust spotted look to a rather nicer one.

Here is a picture of the beauty! Certainly looks better without the cheap looking plastic handles. Luckily the rust spots were only on the surface so with a bit of wire wool and metal polish it has cleaned up nicely.

Spokes from one of the wheels

My dad was dismantling the wheels meanwhile for me- although the spokes are in good condition with no rust and came out cleanly with no breakages the rims are not salvageable. They are rusty as anything!

Here is a picture of one of the rims- and one of the areas in a better condition, some of the parts were thick with rust.

I am going to get some new rims and my dad is going to show me how to rebuild the wheel with the hub etc.

The hub is in good condition- looks to be a Sturmey Archer although I haven't yet worked out when it is from. It needs some cleaning up, but looks clean and non rusty underneath the rust.

The gear shifter also cleaned up very nicely- once again the rust spots seemed to largely be on the surface so with a bit of steel wool and metal polish they came straight off, leaving me with a nice shiny little piece of kit.

Given the amount of parts needed to do this bicycle up to the quality I would like wherever we can save a bit of money by polishing up or fixing an existing part is worth it!


I have ordered a few parts from an eBay store which seemed to have a lot of old unused stock for raleigh bicycles etc so will be posting up pictures of those when they arrive...

Oh and as a bonus picture; showing how although parts may have got cleaner my hands definitely did not!