My 1974 Raleigh Tourist DL-1

I went through a busy time without posting any new stories. It's easy to do. You let a week go by, then another.

I was riding quite a bit, as much as you can in the St. Louis area during winter. I had a better January than February. And now, with snow on the ground and more coming, my rides have ground to a halt.

This year I've finally had some time to put into an old interest, vintage bikes. I decided I would just jump in and try to do a "build" on an old tank style bike from the 60s. And as that got going, I got interested again in old Raleigh bikes. I had posted a picture a year or so ago of a Raleigh Tourist DL-1 that I liked the looks of. As I began learning more about Raleigh three-speed bikes, I learned that there were various models over the years, and I learned more about their differences.

It was the DL-1 that totally won me over. So I watched Craigslist and eventually one came up for sale from a private collector in St. Charles. I jumped at the chance and bought the bike before I even really understood that much about it. I had been reading about them, but had never even seen another bike with rod-operated brakes.

So the past two months I've been learning first-hand about this bike. Mine doesn't have a name yet, but I'm searching for one. I want a man's first name that is both iconic and readily identifiable as British. I've learned how to adjust the rod brakes, how to change and replace the tires, raise the handlebars, adjust the Sturmey Archer internal gears and much more. Just learning to take off the back wheel was a big project the first time.

Doing many maintenance and upgrades will require removing the rear wheel. I found the gearing a bit too hard for my riding style, so I decided to swap the 18 tooth rear cog for a 22 tooth. To do so requires the following:

1. remove brake pads from rear brakes


2. remove gear indicator spindle


3. loosen and remove indicator nut and axle nuts


4. remove fender (mudguard) stays from axle


5. remove chain tensioners


6. remove chain from cog


7. remove rear wheel


8. remove washer from right side of axle


9. remove circlip


10. remove old cog and replace with new 22 tooth cog

Now, reverse the entire procedure. However, the larger cog means that the chain will no longer fit, so I needed to add two links to the chain. Centering the wheel takes some time, and adjusting the position of the wheel in the dropouts requires some care. Once in position, tighten the chain tensioners to hold it in position, then replace hardware and tighten the axle nuts.

Also, after putting the brake pads back in, it's necessary to adjust the position of the brake pads to the rim with care, loosening the adjustment bolts and moving things by hand, then retightening. Finally, having removed the internal gear hub indicator spindle, replace it and then adjust the tension of the cable by loosening the small knurled locknut, adjusting the cable tension, then tightening the locknut to keep the cable in its place.

I also discovered that Raleigh bikes of this era (and earlier) have different, and sometimes proprietary, bolt and nut sizes. I had a stripped backstay bolt -- it's a bolt that goes through my chain guard, then holds the rear triangle frame together. A small bolt goes through here and tightens into a threaded bushing. As it turns out, this was fairly difficult to replace. The bolt was a 1/4" diameter with a 26 TPI thread, which is an older British cycling standard. I found a bolt that would work through www.britishfasteners.com for a small price. They require a minimum $5.00 order, so I bought several sizes and multiples to get to that minimum. The bolt worked fine, though a bit longer than the original.