Re: [CR]Cyclo Benelux Mark 7 Five Speed?

(Example: History:Ted Ernst)

In-Reply-To: <001701c70dd9$e7881cf0$6401a8c0@peter5ca78cb10>
References: <001701c70dd9$e7881cf0$6401a8c0@peter5ca78cb10>
Date: Wed, 22 Nov 2006 20:02:08 -0500
To: "P.C. Kohler" <kohl57@starpower.net>, <Classicrendezvous@bikelist.org>
From: "Sheldon Brown" <CaptBike@sheldonbrown.com>
Subject: Re: [CR]Cyclo Benelux Mark 7 Five Speed?


At 8:59 PM -0500 11/21/06, P.C. Kohler wrote:
>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.

The Mark 7 definitely came in a version for '4 speed 1/8" - 5 speed 3/32"' as well as the versions for '3 speed 1/8" - 4 speed 3/32".'

You can see a couple of 10-speed Mark VII equipped models, the Blue Streak and Sprite, in the '62 Raleigh catalogue:

http://www.retroraleighs.com/catalogs/Raleigh-Catalog-1962.pdf

Alan Lloyd wrote:
>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,

No, it had a freewheel, not a cassette.
>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.

Adjusting these is nearly a lost art. The low-gear adjustment is fairly obvious: rotate the threaded barrel of that the plunger slides through.

The high gear "adjustment" was accomplished by bending the main arm of the derailer. There used to be a special tool for this. It's quite possible that the "high gear adjustment" on yours was not correct.

It was also quite important to regularly clean and oil the outer flat-wound "spring" (actually a cover for the real spring."

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