Mark Stonich's Raleigh 3 Speed Recumbent
Mark showed the frame for his ride on the Three Speed Tour of Lake Pepin which starts in 9 days. A recumbent naturally, it is based on a '64 Raleigh woman's frame bike. 20" rear wheel and fender are from an old Raleigh "Twenty" and the 16" front wheel and fender are from a Raleigh built Moulton. He will use as many Raleigh bits as possible, to keep to the spirit of the ride.
It will be so compact that he expects it to be his main knocking around town bike after the tour is over.
Mark warns anyone considering a similar project that these old bikes had really awful frame tube material. He was able to re-bend the seat stays by hand! Hopefully it will get enough strength from the good tube he added as the seat mount base.
This was an extremely simple frame to make. I didn't even have to add fork rake to get the desired 1/2" of trail. However a TIG welded, woman's frame "cross bike" with larger diameter tubing would be a much better choice for a donor.
