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People come and go on forums. A couple of other places I lurk in have threads running where you can check in on folks who have seemingly dropped off the radar. This is one of the only forums I use where I don’t actually know anyone in real life. But, like many of you, I’ve been around the forum...

I can’t remember if it’s been mentioned, but you can get those struts from RS and they’re not too expensive. They’re supplied with massive pressure in them and you carefully let some of the pressure out with a grub screw until it’s got the right amount of spring. The specs are listed on the RS...

Check out the luft on the left!

You can’t really do it on a frame that has integrated cups in the headtube. The closest you can do in terms of ‘modernisation’ is to use a roadster headset. These had the same drop-in races and the same thread size as the clip headsets, but used a conventional threaded top race, tabbed washer...

The wrapover stay on the top one is just like a Carlton of that era. Is it a Raleigh product? Any frame numbers stamped in it which might help identify it?

Madness! Great idea for a thread.

Not heard of them either. Frame looks nice though. What are those vee brakes? Are they compatible with road levers then?

That user hasn’t been on since 2017. I think you’ll be lucky if you get a reply.

Don’t know if it’ll be any help identifying that part number in case you can find another one, but it looks like Shimano still have exploded views of those shifters on their website...

There was a thread on here recently about whether you could repair that generation Shimano shifters. I'm pretty sure you'll be able to strip those ones down if anything is wrong: https://www.retrobike.co.uk/threads/sti-shifter-stuck.475884/

Got to be worth putting them on eBay? Loving the paint on the Richards- that’s ace!

There was one on eBay a while back [I think]. I would have stumbled across it when looking for Japanese bits. I seem to remember the bike show story bit.

Yeah, baked enamel will be the same thing. It was common to get British 'lightweight' frames enamelled back in the 50s. Yours is a factory-built frame I think made by the Raleigh company who had bought up various brands including Rudge, Triumph and BSA. It might even have a Raleigh serial...

Hard to say for sure. Could have been cellulose or enamel paint, or it could have been stove enamelled. Bottom left of your post it should say Report Edit Delete in blue. Click on Edit, delete the bits of the post you want to get rid of and click Save.

I was going to say early 70s based on the fact that it has a band-on shifter mount. It was popular in the early 70s to have frames with no braze-ons. It’s way before my time but I literally had no idea there had been a bike shop in Sydenham, certainly not Roberts in an earlier guise. I’m...

The more I see this subject pop up, the more I think it’s down to what you’re comfortable with. Of course, if you’re taller or shorter, physiologically you’ll be more more suited to longer or shorter cranks because of the length of your limbs. But plenty of people prefer cranks outside of the...

Were these called a super bike or super aero or something? Is the tubing Tange Aero? Definitely not something else in Columbus Air?

Does it look like it originally had a derailleur hanger on the dropout? Has it been cut off or does it look like it never had one?

Excellent work! I could see you’ve got an old-style tool holder so I was going to ask you what lathe you had! I disagree about the accuracy bit. I learned on ancient Harrisons and Colchesters in the 90s and they were just fine. Everything is adjustable on those. And if there is a bit of slack...

I take it you found all of these: https://www.classiclightweights.co.uk/classic_builders/leach-marathon/ https://www.classiclightweights.co.uk/readers_bikes/leach-marathon-1951/ https://www.retrobike.co.uk/threads/leach-marathon.385787/...