Raleigh Tourist DL-1
Rod operated drum brakes, Sturmey Archer 3 speed hub, slack angled frame... what's not to love?
My interest in this type of bike came from reading posters stories on the Bike Forums thread "For the love of English 3 speeds..." At the time I came across this thread I had acquired a 3 speed Raleigh Sports that ended up being a bit small for me, and has since been sold. This is when I first realised I was much more comfortable on a longer bike - ie. a longer top tube. My leg length is shorter than average for my height, so my torso needs that little bit of extra length in a bike for it to feel like it fits me right. Although the Sports was the correct frame size for me, it wasn't long enough for my torso to legs ratio. A good top tube length for me seems to be 590 - 600 mm. A longer stem, a set-back seatpost, or both can also help with fit, but there are limits to this too, particularly if you want to keep things relatively period correct.
Kinda reminds me of the 1st verse of a song by Australian band The Bedridden -
Well my hair's too long for my face and my legs are too short for my body
My wrists are too big for my hands and my chest is too wide for my torso
My neck's too big for my head and my dick's too long for my testicles
Guess I'm gonna have to face it now, I'm d d d deformed
The DL-1 was manufactured mainly in 22" and 24" sized frames - this one is the 24" and has a 600mm top tube length. Even with the almost non-existent stem length I'm a very happy rider. Stand-over height is old school - an inch or two (still very close) between me and the top tube, leaving the saddle height roughly level with the grips. Wheels are an English roadster sized 28"/700B/635mm, a little larger than the modern 28"/700C/622mm, and the tyres are 1 & 1/2" - 37mm wide.
I jumped on buying this bike quickly, as I thought it would be snapped up fast - I'd been looking for a good 6 months with zero examples up for sale. After an almost full refurb (apart from the mudguards and chaincase) I'm very pleased that I did - this is a heavy bike with the drum brakes fore and aft (18.4 kg), but wow, what a great riding experience! That big front wheel way out in front of me doing a great job of soaking up and smoothing out path and road bumps, the rebuilt gear hub smoothly ticking along and changing gears so satisfyingly with the way past vintage and now antique Sturmey Archer quadrant shifter, the B33 Brooks saddle further emplushening the overall ride quality. This is a joyful take it all in affair, an equal pleasure at a moseying along pace, or digging in and pushing it to it's full stride. With an 11 out of 10 for style of course.
It was quite satisfying removing all the rust on the parts and finding enough chrome underneath for things to shine again. Unfortunately my plan to just touch up the rusty areas of the frame vanished once discovering that the rust had spread underneath the paint. The frame was completely stripped back to bare metal, and wiped down with a rust neutraliser before two coats of zinc primer and 4 coats of brushed on epoxy enamel were applied. The brushed on coats took time, as each layer needed careful sanding so as to not remove too much paint from the edges of lugs etc. The final finish looked way too glossy to match the obvious patina of age on the cleaned up parts, so I went over the whole frame with fine steel wool to dial back the gloss. After following this with a polish, the finish had a high satin shine, which suits the bike perfectly. I did apply a couple of reproduction decals, but I took them off for the same reason as knocking back the gloss shine of the paint - they just smacked of too new. I think it looks great without.
New parts include front spokes, nickel-plated chain, rear hub sprocket, repro grips, and repro 'Raleigh Roadster' tyres. 2nd hand bits are an original Raleigh front rim, '65 Sturmey Archer front drum brake hub, Sturmey Archer quadrant shifter & cable pulley, pedals from my stash, and the first utility crankset I used while I waited for a Raleigh 'cranes' crankset to show up for sale. The new 22 tooth rear cog combined with a 46 tooth chainring puts the 3 speed gearing into just the right places for most uphills, flats, and downhills/fast. Notice the almost parallel grips in the image below - it was a surprise to me that the resulting wrist position is extremely comfortable. Also note the impressively massive original 'ding-dong' bell inscribed "Super friends of the road".
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| One day I'll put mudguards and the chain case on, but for now the Raleigh DL-1 tourist is a fine dry weather cruiser |
My interest in this type of bike came from reading posters stories on the Bike Forums thread "For the love of English 3 speeds..." At the time I came across this thread I had acquired a 3 speed Raleigh Sports that ended up being a bit small for me, and has since been sold. This is when I first realised I was much more comfortable on a longer bike - ie. a longer top tube. My leg length is shorter than average for my height, so my torso needs that little bit of extra length in a bike for it to feel like it fits me right. Although the Sports was the correct frame size for me, it wasn't long enough for my torso to legs ratio. A good top tube length for me seems to be 590 - 600 mm. A longer stem, a set-back seatpost, or both can also help with fit, but there are limits to this too, particularly if you want to keep things relatively period correct.
Kinda reminds me of the 1st verse of a song by Australian band The Bedridden -
Well my hair's too long for my face and my legs are too short for my body
My wrists are too big for my hands and my chest is too wide for my torso
My neck's too big for my head and my dick's too long for my testicles
Guess I'm gonna have to face it now, I'm d d d deformed
The DL-1 was manufactured mainly in 22" and 24" sized frames - this one is the 24" and has a 600mm top tube length. Even with the almost non-existent stem length I'm a very happy rider. Stand-over height is old school - an inch or two (still very close) between me and the top tube, leaving the saddle height roughly level with the grips. Wheels are an English roadster sized 28"/700B/635mm, a little larger than the modern 28"/700C/622mm, and the tyres are 1 & 1/2" - 37mm wide.
 |
| When it first arrived at its new home, missing a chain-case part and with the wrong front wheel |
I jumped on buying this bike quickly, as I thought it would be snapped up fast - I'd been looking for a good 6 months with zero examples up for sale. After an almost full refurb (apart from the mudguards and chaincase) I'm very pleased that I did - this is a heavy bike with the drum brakes fore and aft (18.4 kg), but wow, what a great riding experience! That big front wheel way out in front of me doing a great job of soaking up and smoothing out path and road bumps, the rebuilt gear hub smoothly ticking along and changing gears so satisfyingly with the way past vintage and now antique Sturmey Archer quadrant shifter, the B33 Brooks saddle further emplushening the overall ride quality. This is a joyful take it all in affair, an equal pleasure at a moseying along pace, or digging in and pushing it to it's full stride. With an 11 out of 10 for style of course.
 |
| Before/After: trimmed-back leather after it tore punching the first few holes - lucky I started in the middle! 1.6 kg of seriously sprung awesome |
It was quite satisfying removing all the rust on the parts and finding enough chrome underneath for things to shine again. Unfortunately my plan to just touch up the rusty areas of the frame vanished once discovering that the rust had spread underneath the paint. The frame was completely stripped back to bare metal, and wiped down with a rust neutraliser before two coats of zinc primer and 4 coats of brushed on epoxy enamel were applied. The brushed on coats took time, as each layer needed careful sanding so as to not remove too much paint from the edges of lugs etc. The final finish looked way too glossy to match the obvious patina of age on the cleaned up parts, so I went over the whole frame with fine steel wool to dial back the gloss. After following this with a polish, the finish had a high satin shine, which suits the bike perfectly. I did apply a couple of reproduction decals, but I took them off for the same reason as knocking back the gloss shine of the paint - they just smacked of too new. I think it looks great without.
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| Before/After - Rear Sturmey Archer AB hub made in 1963 |
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| Aww yis - love the new repro grips. The shifter is far enough forward to not be 'unmanning' upon dismount |
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| Mooooo! ...riding in Canberra, where the country is never far away - this is about 7 kms from my suburban house | |
Additional notes: Extra weight was lost by replacing the original 5/32" (4mm) heavy duty cranks, cog and chain. These were often used on older delivery type bikes eg. Butcher's bike. It would have been interesting to weigh these, but they are now sold. For comparison many single speeds or internally geared hubs run a 1/8" drivetrain and most multi-speeds run a 3/32" or narrower drivetrain.
The braking was improved a little by cleaning the drum shoes with brake cleaner and adjusting the reach of the levers. Over time the levers bend closer to the handlebars - I think they're now set at about 3 & 1/2". One day I'll try to tighten up the rode linkages so they're less wobbly at the joins, and this too should improve the braking.
I love this saddle and want it to last - you can't see it but I've inserted a 15mm thick piece of high density grey foam between the leather and the frame to hopefully relieve some stress from the leather.
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