I have a Raleigh Lenton GP from the late 1950s and it still had the Cyclo four-speed casette on it when I got it, although the Cyclo-Benelux rear derailleur has been replaced. It still has the front 'suicide' shifter, though!
I obtained an NOS Mark 7 for the bike. The range of the derailleur only covers the width of the four-speed cogs - so, interestingly, there is (effectively) only a 'stop' at one end of it's travel.
The box says it is for 1/4" or 3/8" chains (me-thinks: I'm composing this from memory) and I didn't know what this meant - but, now, I believe that when it is used with a narrower chain and a casette with more closely-spaced cogs it can handle 5 speeds?
My guess is that the Raleigh Record Ace of the 50s had the narrower chain and the appropriate five-speed casette?
Alan Lloyd
Schaumburg, Illinois, U.S.A.
Date: Tue, 21 Nov 2006 20:59:51 -0500 From: "P.C. Kohler" To: Subject: [CR]Cyclo Benelux Mark 7 Five Speed? Message-ID: <001701c70dd9$e7881cf0$6401a8c0@peter5ca78cb10> Content-Type: text/plain;charset="iso-8859-1" MIME-Version: 1.0 Precedence: list Message: 7
Now that I find myself the purchaser of a 1957 Raleigh RRA Moderne in the UK, I am 1) eager to buy stock in ParcelForce/Royal Mail whose profit model makes Exxon look like a charity and 2) in need of a Cyclo-Benelux Mark 7 derailleur.
Now a question: was this really offered as a FIVE-SPEED? I ask because a thread early this summer seemed to establish that Cyclo only made four speeds. But all of the Raleigh literature for the RRA Moderne clearly states it's a "Benelux 5-SPEED, Mark 7 with a 14-16-18-20-22 freewheel. " Yet when the Mark 7 is listed for the Lenton Grand Prix c. 1960 it's listed as 4-speed.
Peter Kohler Washington DC USA
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