Scored an english armstrong

Jumpa · Oct 29, 2011

Last week as my wife was driving to work she spots what she thought was just a bicycle tire just sitting kind of in the woods. So she stops to make sure no one was hit and lying in the woods. Nothing thank god . She looks at the "Tire" and calls me "it's a complete old bike" she says. Perhaps some one had a flat let me know if it is still there on your way home in the am So we forgot about it, 4 days go by last night she calls me "That bike is still there you know" So I head to the spot and check it out I drag it out of the woods made a thourough search of the area called the police. They saw the bike as well searched the area cops says finders keepers sir as far as we are concerned your just cleaning up some trash OKAY I SAY well that trash was a 1940's era Completely AWESOME ARMSTRONG bike complete in great shape . Original tire and it has the gears/transmission inside the rear HUB It consists of Hi . lo and neutral and thery all seem to function well . Not that this function will help anything on the motor side of it all.... If it even gets a motor. Seems to me it would be a shame to hack up something that has made it this far "down the road" so to speak It's Christmas in cape cod !

Bob Mac 18704 · Oct 29, 2011

Nice picture of the spokes and the nametag. How about a pic. of the whole bike

Jumpa · Oct 29, 2011

I'm working on that Bob, MY Camera wont seem to agree with me right now. I plug in the U.S.B click PC, as instructed to do so like I'm posta and nada Nothing shows up... ..

Here we go got it Battery was dead. It is pouring rain out side or I would have taken the pictures out side I love the leather black & white seat w/ springs . It has the original rear tire I'm not sure about the front. tire and I also do not have the front fender. .

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Barnfresh · Oct 29, 2011

Your "neutral" in the rear hub may be the middle (second) gear of 3 speeds. Put a little oil in the hub and try adjusting the tension each way on the pull chain/cable.

bandito · Oct 29, 2011

Cool but its a girls bike. I guess times are a changin.........chazz was on DWTS.

Intrepid Wheelwoman · Oct 29, 2011

Now that was a lucky find. I just hope the previous owner didn't have it stolen from them before it was dumped.
English bicycles are something I'm very fond of and I own far too many of them myself.

Jumpa · Oct 30, 2011

Barnfresh said:
Your "neutral" in the rear hub may be the middle (second) gear of 3 speeds. Put a little oil in the hub and try adjusting the tension each way on the pull chain/cable.

I can make out what appears to be an "H" then it says "N" then it says "L" and when I put it on "N" position the wheel just spins . Wait I will just take a photo's of it. Intrepid I called on the Coppers they said there were no reports of it stolen, I then told them I was thinking of taking it they said "thanks for removing the trash" If anyone reports it they have my number
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The rear hub says on it Sturmey Archer below that is the letters A.W. Below that is a 53 to the right of the 53 is a 5 Is this like the Schwinn badges can I assume this bike was built in May of 1953? Every thing on it points to that era

Jumpa · Oct 30, 2011

One thing I can tell for sure is the quality of this I'm guessing is a 1953 Armstrong bicycle is far superior to all 4 of my other bikes. being 2 Schwinn's a "Pre Walmart Mongoose" & a Huffy , There are oil hols for the pedals , front crank rear hub I mean how awesome is that The makers of these newer bikes do not want them to last. I spun the pedal on the Armstrong it spun for almost a minute I spun every pedal on all 4 of my other bikes not even a full revolution.
I love these pedals the rubber pads they also spin themselves like a cart on a Ferris wheel would Here is a photo of the pedal, The brake pads still say "Made in England" on them!!! How cool is that? Thanks for looking Guys and Gals enjoy
I hope I don't get in trouble for putting up to many photo's
I got reprimanded for that once before

Intrepid Wheelwoman · Oct 30, 2011

Would the 'N' be in fact a '2' ? - That Sturmey-Archer AW hub should be a three speed, but if the cable isn't adjusted correctly you won't get second gear. The '53' does indeed mean that it's a 1953 bike and by this time 'Armstrong' was a house brand belonging to Raleigh in Nottingham. The quality will indeed be very good however and if kept properly oiled those ball races will last just about forever. I own a 1947 Ladies Sports Raleigh bicycle and it is my favourite bike for local trips around town.

Jumpa · Oct 30, 2011

Intrepid WheelwomanOn the shifter I see an "H" an "N" and an "L" Can you see them in the photo I cleaned out the hub until clean oil started coming out & no more black junk was left in it now I am getting nice solid clicks when shifting and when it is on the "N" position it spins freely as if its neutraL IT SEEMS. also there are only two gears I cant find the third?. Whats up with that? Intrepid Dids you see the pictures of the shifter and the letters in the tiny hole I cleaned them up with a q-tip clearly they read H -N-L if this is indeed the case I wonder how how many were made?

Jumpa · Oct 30, 2011

I really wish I could find some photo's of what this bike looked like brand new .. Did it have one of those cool chain guards that covers the entire front sprocket then also covers the top and bottom of the chain I think those look so cool I see a mounting bracket the same as the guard I described on the bike still. I would absolutely love to restore this thing to original factory specs to the letter I'm a stickler for that kind of detail. Also the Hub does indeed say Three Speed on it

I hope these photos aren't to big Mr. Moderator but I need to show this to Mrs Intrepid so she can possible help identify the deal with this

Barnfresh · Oct 30, 2011

The "N" may have originally stood for neutral, not like a car where the drive unit is disengaged but more like a neutral gear ratio with a ratio higher (H) and 1 ratio lower (L). Just think of the N as "normal". When your cable is adjusted properly the slip or what you refer to as neutral will be between 2nd and 3rd gear.

CTripps · Oct 30, 2011

"N" for "Normal" with High and Low sounds right, Barnfresh.. I admit I know nothing about the bike in question, but it makes sense.

Jumpa · Oct 30, 2011

OK so its "H" for High gear "L" for Low gear and "N" for Normal gear ? OK good thank you very much for helping me out

thegnu · Oct 30, 2011

Ya know with a little work you could build a authentic AWSOME looking BOARD TRACKER , but I like to cut things up an so on ...just my 2 pence !

Intrepid Wheelwoman · Oct 31, 2011

I've been doing a fair bit of searching into Sturmey Archer gearhub history and it seems that the 'AW' hub was indeed a 3 speed and never a 2 speed. The earlier 1950s hubs do use the 'Low, Normal, High' designation (including the clone hubs made under licence by Hercules and others). Later on the gears were marked as being '1,2,3'. There was a way to convert an 'AW' hub into a 'fixed' (no freewheel) two speed, however this was not a factory offering, but an enthusiasts' clever conversion.
The only two speed hubs made by Sturmey Archer were the two speed 'kickback' hubs (with or without coaster brake) made in the 1960s.

If adjusting the cable doesn't make the middle gear position work you may need to open up the hub and do a little repair work. I have done this in the past myself and it's not as terrible a task as it might sound.

Something tells me that your bike should just have a simple 'hockeystick' chainguard and not a fully enclosed chainguard. The fully enclosed ones are really great though and they do keep the chain clean and make it last longer.

Jumpa · Oct 31, 2011

Thank you soo much for doing all that searching Intrepid, If you get a chance, could you direct me to a link to one of the Hub web sites so I can perhaps get a schematic of the inner hub workings etc You are right about the chain guard & I love those fully enclosed ones as well . I thought I had come across some super rare special hub + shifter when I saw the "H, L, N." Either way it really did clean up nice " High grade Stainless??"and my neutral seems to be harder and harder to find. Guess we cleaned the "Neutral" out of it :>)(/B][LEFT][/LEFT]

Jumpa · Oct 31, 2011

I wish there was a way to incorporate this 3 speed hub into the drive sprocket Chances are I could do it but I just cant bring myself to butchering this beautiful machine up It'd been around since 1953 .. Who am I to come along around 1967 and decide this bikes fate I don't feel as if I have that right. So she will stay original

killercanuck · Oct 31, 2011

Hey jumpa, found this article on Sheldon's site about servicing English 3-speeds, hope it helps: Servicing English Three Speeds

It's easy enough to fit an engine up top, like this:
http://80ccmotorboys.com/resources/Schwinn_Exhaust.JPG

then with a rag-joint sprocket you wouldn't have to "hack" anything up if a collector want's to buy it off you down the road.

Great find btw, should wait a couple weeks in case someone does come forward. You may end up rebuilding the rest of the owners collection for him, heh heh.

Intrepid Wheelwoman · Oct 31, 2011

killercanuck said:
Hey jumpa, found this article on Sheldon's site about servicing English 3-speeds, hope it helps: Servicing English Three Speeds

That's a really good webpage and I don't think I can point you to anything better than that. Sheldon Brown was the absolute expert when it came to English bicycles.

I agree by the way that it should be possible to fit a Chinese motor kit to your Armstrong without doing it any permanent harm. I did consider doing this myself with a similar frame, - only as a woman who always wears long skirts I found that the motor was frightfully in the way. I'm now fitting the motor to a Mixte frame which should be a lot more successful.

Scored an english armstrong

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