Bicycle Build/Restoration

[SlappyWhite]

A friend gave us an old Raleigh 24" Tomahawk kids mountain bike (made in Canada). The bike was scratched up, seized up and the rims were warped. It had been sitting outside for years. Not sure of the original age of the bike but I figure 20+ years old bike based on the fork not having lawyer lips and the vintage of some of the other components.

I did a full restoration on it rebuilding all the bearings, derailleurs, truing the rims, rebuilding the brakes, new shifters, new cables and refinishing all the scratched up and rusted parts--now has custom purple paint. We then donated it to another friend's family for their daughter.

Some interesting aspects (well for me...), the rear derailleur is a "Rapid Rise" AKA low neutral. Most rear derailleurs return to the smallest rear sprocket on their own (high neutral). This one is backwards and rests on the inner largest rear sprocket. First time I have worked on one of these (the trend never caught on). On the grip shifter 7 is low and 1 is high, otherwise works perfect.

The front derailleur is a SIS (Shimano Indexed Shifting) but it does not work with mountain bike indexed shifters (Shimano or otherwise)! Seems to be road ratio... Forced me to use grip shifters instead of trigger so I could use a "friction" shifter on the front.

Next time I have to remember to take some before pics, it was really rough!

 

[bonneyman]

Great job! Always nice to see someone salvaging a discarded bike and bringing it back to use.

 

[CarBikeGuy70]

Yes the rear derailleur is the rapid rise style that was used in the US (and I assume Canada as well) many years ago. When set up correctly they worked very well but only with the correct shifters. If the front derailleur is a road application your MTB shifters will not work. The cable pull and indexing position is not universal across the Shimano product line. Shimano does (or did) market a shifter for flat bars that will work with a road specific front derailleur but I have only seen them on bikes brought in from Europe. Nice job on your restoration - I am sure it will make someone very happy when they have it to ride.

 

[SlappyWhite]

The front derailleur still has me scratching my head. It is only a 42t which seems way too small for a road bike (to me anyway) but it is definitely not mountain pull ratio (about 2/3 of mountain, which is about road...). No idea if it was original or not, can't seem to find any info on the specific model.

I spent a good three hours trying to tune it in, first with Shimano trigger shifters then with a MicroShift index grip shifter. I gave up and switched to a MicroShift "friction" grip shifter, solved the problem.

The rear works well with the MicroShift indexed rear shifter--it is just backwards on the shifter numbers wise.

When the bike comes back for its next tuneup I might just make up new labels for the shifters so the numbers are right. Trying to think up a way to do it to not look amateur.

 

[bonneyman]

The front derailleur still has me scratching my head. It is only a 42t which seems way too small for a road bike (to me anyway) but it is definitely not mountain pull ratio (about 2/3 of mountain, which is about road...). No idea if it was original or not, can't seem to find any info on the specific model.

I spent a good three hours trying to tune it in, first with Shimano trigger shifters then with a MicroShift index grip shifter. I gave up and switched to a MicroShift "friction" grip shifter, solved the problem.

The rear works well with the MicroShift indexed rear shifter--it is just backwards on the shifter numbers wise.

When the bike comes back for its next tuneup I might just make up new labels for the shifters so the numbers are right. Trying to think up a way to do it to not look amateur.

Yeah, some of the triple ring cranks had odd numbers of teeth. Typically it was like 28-38-48. Your biggest being 42 is a bit low, but someone could have swapped a crank onto the bike at some point to tailor it to their specific use. Maybe they were using the bike as a hybrid? A MTB frame and tires but more of a road gearing.