Dynamite!

RALEIGH DYNA-TECH

The bonded frame experiment from the late 80s that didn't really work!

It all sounds great in theory. Let's make a new bike frame without brazing, the conventional way. Let's make aluminium cast lugs, add a variety of tube materials like Cr-Mo, Titanium, aluminium, metal matrix to build up a range. Now, we can't weld different materials together so let's bond them. The heat weakens the frame anyway. This new concept of manufacture will change the whole industry. Well, as you can imagine, it didn't. The serial number dates this frame to 1990.

Who would think of doing this? Well, bonded bike frames had been around for quite some time, the French manufacturer Vitus had successfully done it in the late 70s and high profile professionals like Sean Kelly actually won races on them in the mid 80s. The concept is simple, make alloy lugs, use alloy, steel or carbon tubes and bond them together. It does away with brazing, a method where high temperatures are used at the joints, in turn weakening the steel in those areas. Well, I have never personally cracked a steel frame that was brazed. I cracked forks at the crown from doing wheelies. I know, road bikes are not designed for wheelies! A BMX is for that kind of thing. 

In the late 80s things started to change in the bike manufacturing world and companies like Raleigh felt the pressure to develop new products. The bicycle industry was in a bit of a decline, there was lots of competition from the far east too. Mountain bikes were the big thing back then and the casual rider often came away from a bike shop with a heavy metal monster with big fat tyres and 21 gears. It could climb any hill but it never had the finesse of a proper road bike. Even a Raleigh 501 road bike was miles better and more comfortable than these clunky elephants, but that was the way the industry was going. On the other hand there was some high-end MTBs that are certainly very nice but these were for the off-roaders, the trail-blazers, and hey, there's nothing wrong with that, in fact it's great fun on a great MTB, but not the low-end steel deadweight, that's really for going to the cornershop for the paper or picking blackberries in summer. Funny how the 80s started with the BMX and ended with the MTB!

Where was I? Oh, yes Dyna-Tech, they were made by the Special Products Division, Nottingham, England, and went into production around 1990, don't quote me, just look on-line and you will be pretty disappointed with the lack of information on these machines. There's a lot of talk on the forums, a good few pictures, but apart from the odd brochure in pdf, you can forget it. There is no official site, figures, dates of manufacture or statistics simply because around the mid to late 90s when Raleigh was sold off and taken over and then went bang or whatever happens to once great British companies. Today the Raleigh badge is slapped onto generic crap in a box from the Far East. No disrespect, but to me personally, Raleigh of Nottingham was a solid part of my boyhood years, a reassuring comfort through thick and thin of teenage insecurity and the best of British bicycle engineering. Of course you had lots of other British manufacturers that made the high end racing machines, but they were far out of the reach of the average boy and girl that liked to cycle.

How did I discover these bikes? I was combing through an online advertising site that I spend a lot of time watching stuff on, particularly bikes and I saw a Raleigh M-Trax 600, MTB Cr-Mo/Titanium Duo-Tech I was drawn to. (that bike is featured elsewhere in my blog), I went and looked at it and immediately loved it after a test ride and bought it on the spot. Why did I buy a Dyna-Tech road bike? Why? Even after reading what little there is to know. Reading that they de-bonded. That they crack. That they were a failure. I bought it out of sheer curiosity. The MTB didn't de-bond after cycling it everyday for nearly two months. It's a pretty light, it's dinger and I'm proud of it and
if it was stolen or smashed I would buy another. 

I saw this Dyna-Tech 400 on the adverts site and asked to see it. The 400 was the entry level machine with Cr-Mo tubes bonded to aluminium lugs. The seller agreed and I met up with him. On inspection it was a bit grubby but there was no visible damage or cracks on the frame. There was a bit of paint flaking from the right rear chain stay behind the chain rings. I examined this and if it was rotted through I would sadly have to walk away, but there is no point buying a crippled duck. I took a small spin and there was no wobbling or creaking. I beat the seller down on the price by 20% we shook hands and I pulled the wheels off and piled it into the car in three pieces! Once I got it home I started to dismantle it. It needed a good clean. I worked on it for almost four hours, bringing back the shine it once boasted back in the early 90s. The wheels were in very good condition for their age. I took it for a ten mile run, it was lively and smooth but I noticed a lot of rattle from the brake levers, it was very annoying, ruining my spin and a priority fix once back to the workshop. I curbed this by shooting in a little wood glue to stop it and it worked. There was a strange rattle in the rear rim and after a thorough examination I found a spoke nipple hiding in there! Once it was removed the wheel returned to silent running. 

The final outcome after a bit of work. New bar tape. The two brake cables and the two gear cables replaced. I decided to resprayed the rear stays after sanding off the rust. I masked the rest of the frame in pages from an old telephone directory an sprayed on four layers of silver and three layers of lacquer from cans and it looks pretty good.

 Shimano Exage 500EX

 Shimano Exage 500EX Rear Derailleur

 Shimano Exage 500EX with BioPace Rings 52/42

 Shimano Exage 500EX Dual Pivot

 Shimano Exage 500EX Levers (rattless type!)

Reynolds Cr-Mo Fork Blades

Shimano Hubs but unstamped with name.

 Alesa Rims

 Shimano PDA550 pedals with nylon toeclips

SR Stem and Road Custom Handlebar

 
SR Seat Tube

Head tube aluminium lugs with mitred Cr-Mo tubes

Aluminium sear clamp with bolt-in rear steel stays.

So what's it like to ride? It's bloody good actually, while not as light as my other Raleigh 501 bikes it certainly has a lot of whip and goes like shit off a shovel. One thing I do notice in comparison to my Raleigh Elan 501 and that is, regardless of it's tighter frame geometry, it seems to die a bit on hills but on the flat acceleration is quite noticeable with plenty torque under feet. It is very smooth, the gears are silky and you can hardly hear them change. I have rode it almost now for almost eight days in a row and I am growing very fond of it. The next step is to put Shimano clipless pedals on and then it may reveal it's full potential. So what do I think of the whole Dyna-Tech concept? After discovering this machine, buying it, servicing it and riding it nearly two hundred miles in just over a week, in an age of mass produced Taiwanese alloy clones, amazing hi-tech carbon, over-rated and overpriced 'ubermaschines' I think Dyna-Tech is not a bad idea at really. Try one, you may fall in love with cycling all over again!  

French Fancy

PEUGEOT PH8

Acquired in terrible condition, this bike was saved!

The PH8 was a well equipped machine that was for touring or commuting.

They were made in the 80s and came in various sizes and colours.

Underneath all this clutter and junk lies a beautiful French bicycle!

This wheel is shot! Look at that horrible steel Huret derailleur.

The chain is seized, it's all rust and dirt.

Big horrible waterlogged reflector and manky dynamo lamp!

A carrier and red light on a rear mudguard! Who want's them?

Front wheel has come to a halt!

Ah, Carbolite +, lugless frame, now you're talking! 

Who ordered that thing? A stand on a bike? What the hell, take it off now!

After the big strip-down!

Te crap that came off it!

Ta-Dah! Hard to believe it's the same bike.

Peugeot MTB

BRINGING THE 

PEUGEOT EXPLORER

BACK TO LIFE!

I bought this as is for €20. I like Peugeot bikes as they always look good, even when at deaths door. This is an old mountain bike with 24 gears from the early 90s. I aim to use a 6 speed Shimano freewheel with a single chainwheel on the front. I want to keep this one simple. That's right, simple! Oh, and the plan is to get it road worthy by spending as little as possible!

 As is! This bike is heavy even though it says "light Weight Brazing Technology" on the frame! Bloody advertising. Make no mistake this bike is in shit!

 All this has to go. A 6 speed Shimano thumbshifter and two new brake levers should do the job. 

 This Shimano has seen better days, but it will probably still work if cleaned up. The Japanese built stuff to last forever.

 There is absolutely no need for triple chainwheels now that this will be a six speed! Plastic coated steel cranks are the worst of the worst!

 These Shimano brakes are good for go, or stop I should say. A matt black spray over will make them look new again!

This wheels on fire! No, this wheel is clapped out!

I've seen less rust on Titanic!

The headtube badge! It's a Peugeot and it's made in France!

Now it's starting to look better!

 This chain wheel and crank set is from an old ladies Viking from the early 80s! Two very nice piece of alloy indeed!

I changed out the Shimano sealed unit in the bottom bracked and used the old Viking one. I did a bit of 'frame adjustment' with my hammer!

 Nice clean Shimano derailleur hanging merrily beside the 6 speed Shimano freewheel sprokets.

 A Promax stem that was rusty but good. I sprayed it matt black.

 Promax brake levers I had hanging around.Sprayed matt black too!

 The wheels which were off my old Saxon Nighthawk are in good shape and were hanging on the wall for four years!

Nice Sun Race 6 Speed thumb shifter.

The end product. I sprayed the front forks with Rust-Oleum gold and will also do the rear stays. The seat post was sanded down and then I sprayed it matt black. The pedals are nylon spares I had from another bike. All ready to go!

Gimme a brake!

THE INCREDIBLE

WEINMANN 500

BRAKE CALLIPER SALVAGE

Some people may not believe this story, coming from the disposable world we live in today. It's a bit unbelievable when you consider exactly the circumstances. I was pretty amazed myself in fact that a pair of brake callipers that have been rotting for almost two decades in a garden hedge on a badly rusted Peugeot Carbolite from 1985 are now in full working order! 

Here you can see the Weinmann 500 callipers in their respective places. The centre spindles snapped after a bang of a hammer. These were rotten and unusable but it was the two alloy  arms I was after.

I still had my doubts after removing the adjuster barrels and lock nuts even though they opened pretty easily and without any release spray.

I thought the springs would be red rotten but no, not at all only slightly coated with rust. 

I cut the front nuts off with a hack saw in seconds.

I tapped a big flat screwdriver with a hammer and parted the arms from the spindle.

After a bit of donkey work I am left with what I needed.

Next out with the Brillo and scrub, scrub, scrub!

The pair of 500s freed from garden hedge hell!

There was even a date stamp on them. One was made in January 1985 and the other March 1985. Over thirty years old! Insane!

After rebuilding them on another spindle and attaching the barrel adjuster and locking nut. I also used a very fine emery paper sponger block to shine them up.

The spring was still as good as the day it was abandoned amazingly.

Fitted to another Raleigh 18-23 steel frame project and working.

I have to admit it is a testament to the build quality of Weinmann ,and while they were the bog standard alloy brakes on millions of bikes back in the day, they were certainly built to last. I wonder if some of the Taiwanese bike parts of today would stand the test of time like these did!

A little bit about Weinmann Type 500 Side Pull Brakes

Weinmann were based in the town of Schaffhausen in northern Switzerland and have their origins in the late 1930’s. They started appearing in the British market around 1949. They originally made steel brakes but in the late 40’s began to use forged alloy. Prior to 1946 the brakes did not have a model number.

 The Type 500 for close clearances. These were made until their demise in the late 1980’s. These were, for over thirty years, the core product competitively priced. The 500 was always the cheapest option for equipping a close clearance frame, this design was extremely influencial for the major Far Eastern brake manufacturers. There were longer reach versions the 810, 890 and 1020 originally for balloon tyred bikes. The 730 was also made in the 50’s under another model name, ‘Capella’ these are extremely rare.