When a bicycle needs repair often a replacement part will be required. A modern bike can be fitted with a modern part which is usually readily available. On an old bicycle it is often possible to get the bike back on the road by fitting a modern part, but in doing so we lose some […]

This Raleigh Hustler was almost scrapped I found this old bike in my storeroom. It had been cannibalized for parts over many years. When the time came to scrap what was left of the bike I couldn't do it. So I rebuilt the bike instead. Preservation is often better than restoration. The Raleigh Hustler dates […]

The Golden Sunbeam - A Beautiful Headache This lovely old bicycle was brought into the workshop for me to make it ridable. The Sunbeam is not the easiest bicycle to work on as the machine wasn't designed to be taken apart and put back together by anybody other than the knowledgeable people in the Sunbeam […]

Defeated by a free-wheel for the first time in my life!  The wretched thing just wouldn't turn no matter what I did!  The hub was made in 1933 and the free-wheel could well have been fitted at around that time.  It had to come off and I tried every trick that I knew (and I […]

Today saw the launch of the Colwood Wheel Works Sturmey Archer Course. Two students undertook tuition on dismantling, rebuilding, repairing and restoring Sturmey Archer hubs. The course covered a large amount of practical hands on work. Both students were very happy with what they had learnt and the way the course was run. I am […]

A Sturmey Archer AB hub which wasn't as good as it looked I bought a Sturmey Archer AB hub dated 1974 from an eBay seller. It arrived this morning and it was clearly not going to work, so I gave it a full service this afternoon. Somebody has already tried repairing this hub The hub […]

After a lot of hard work the workshop is finally ready for students. Sturmey Archer courses can start almost immediately. The wheel building course will take a bit longer as I need to build some shelves and sort out tens of thousands of spokes. Saying a prayer before I start looking for the right spoke […]

The curriculum for the Sturmey Archer course is more or less decided. I will be running a trial day soon with two of my friends as guinea-pig students. I will then be making any adjustments to the curriculum and my teaching methods that may be necessary before launching the course. I will update the "Courses" […]

I removed an AW from an old scrap bike to use for my course demonstrations. As I was dismantling it I realised that there was no thrust ring over the clutch. Then I noticed that the clutch was sitting far too high. Somebody had dismantled the hub and reassembled it with the thrust ring underneath […]