Late last year I came across a classic 1969 three speed Robin Hood bike named Doris at a thrift store for only $55. The Robin Hood brand at that time was essentially a re-branded Raleigh bicycle, made in Nottingham, England. Doris was just begging for some fresh life to be breathed into her, so I picked it up and had myself a nice project! It took several month of cleaning, steel-wool-ing, polishing, greasing, waxing, etc. I took this bike down to each bearing, and rebuilt the wheels with new nipples. I rarely think ahead, but for this project I remembered to take some before and after photos! Oh, and the name Doris? I didn't give her the name myself. Just check out the photo of the underside of the saddle.
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| Before: not too far gone, just needs a serious tune, clean, scrub, and rust removal service. |
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| The Robin Hood headbadge, perfect condition! Made in Nottingham England. |
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| Rust and putting on the Robin Hood Stem and bars. |
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| Sturmey Archer 3 speed shifter, quite dirty and with a crack on the cover. |
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| Seat tube decals were in fair condition. |
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| The best part about this bike was certainly the pedals. This model could easily be ridden barefoot. Very nice pedals. |
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| 40 spoke Sturmey Archer 3 speed AW hub. It is a 4 cross wheel but the spokes aren't laced! I changed that when I rebuilt the wheel. |
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| The decal on the rear fender was in poor condition, poor Robin Hood has no face! |
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| Rust and light pitting on all chromed surfaces. |
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| I ended up replacing all the loose bearings on the bike. |
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| CH CH CH CHIA |
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| Cleaning the Sturmey Archer 3 speed AW hub. |
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| Here is her namesake, a blue Dymo label, the one and only: Doris! |
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| All done! |
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| I ended up not replacing the shifter casing, just cleaning it. |
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| Fine steel wool and polish on all the chromed parts... wow that is labor intensive. |
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| A shot of the cleaned up crank and wonderful pedals. |
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| Fender mount, indicator chain nut for Sturmey Archer toggle chain. |
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| You can see in the bottom center of this photo I laced the spokes. They weren't like this before. This is my first 4 cross wheel that I have built. |
At that time I had a coworker at work whose teenager was obsessed with all things UK, and happened to desperately want a cruiser bike... so she ended up with this one!
