Hercules

Winter is here and so there’s going to be a lot less biking around here. That’s ok though because I’ll be spending the winter working on my Hercules and Keri’s Robin Hood! Just ordered NOS front and rear cables for my Hercules today. These cables are really really hard to find but I found one of each for sale on Ebay AND they’re still in the original packaging! Sweet! They don’t make this type of cable anymore. The ones I had on the Hercules were so stretched out there was no braking power left and I was forced to replace the entire braking system with a spare set salvaged from a Columbia 3 speed. Later tonight I’ll be ordering a reproduction frame pump that fits the pump bosses on my bike. Next up is to replace the shifter cable. The pics above are a bit old so I’ll take some new ones as work progresses.

Currently the bike has a Peugot saddle since the old Pearson’s pretty much fell apart. I’ve repainted the fenders a nice cream color to match the original paint.  I took care not to paint over the decal. The rear fender reflector was salvaged from an old Raleigh fender. I’ve replace the basket with a slightly smaller version. I’m on the lookout for a replacement pedal cap since one of mine has rattled off recently. Grr… The original front wheel needs truing badly so I’ve temporarily placed a spare on for now. The rear wheel needs truing soon. Eventually I’d like to rebuild both wheels using these hubs and rims. The bike rides pretty smooth but has developed an annoying click that only happens every other rotation of the pedals. I haven’t been able to pinpoint where it is coming from. I thought it might have been the pedals so I broke those down today and repacked them with new grease. Click’s still there. Hmmm. I’m kind of thinking I’ve got a broken gear inside the old Sturmey Archer SW hub so I’m going to have to take that apart at some point. Luckily I found this video:

I’m a bit nervous about doing this without practice first so I need to find an old junked wheel with a similar hub to try it out on.

 

Update:

reddit is just awesome. The other day I posted in r/bikeshop asking if anyone had an old Sturmey Archer 3 speed hub they didn’t want. I’ve been wanting one to use for practicing how to disassemble and reassemble one before attempting it on my old Hercules bike. Reddit saves the day and a user there is sending me one for FREE all the way from Vancouver! Sweeeeeeeeeeet.

 

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