Friday, January 6, 2012

The Raleigh Dawn Tourist

The Raleigh Tourist has was the premium Raleigh 3 Speed for years. First introduced to the American market in the 30's, The All Steel Bicycle, never meant so much. The braking system was rod actuated with a special "Westwood Pattern" Rim. Like what we know as a DL-1, but with 26 x 1 1/2 wheels.


Rod brakes never need cable replacement. Keeping the brake clean and lubricated was all that was needed for sure stopping. Brake levers needed to be adjusted by bending then out to increase the throw. After a while the levers would bend closer to the grip not allowing the brake to work as intended. Mechanics I have worked with hated to have to adjust these brakes, It only took raising the handle bars 1/4" to bring both the front and rear brake pads closer to the rim. Micro adjustment could be done with a rubber mallet moving the handle bar stem down slightly with a snug, but not tight stem Raleigh Dawn Tourist The bicycle pictured is from the 1967 UK market catalog.

3 comments:

  1. Very cool bike. Strange that it was not speced with a Brooks Saddle. The rear hub was a Sturmey Archer AG, thats the AW with the genarator in the hub. It has a shorter AW internals.

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  2. i see many photos that have the front generator hub with the generator on the left side, and a few with them on the right side, is there a reason for the difference? also could you do a post on why the old rims were laced without threading the spokes, seems all the wheels i look at are 3 cross but all "under" or "over" not under under over. and what about 4 cross lacing? thanks scott!

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