English Hercules

See those middle stays to meet up with the back of the top tube? Engineering, putting strength into an otherwise weak spot. One of the reasons why they were priced out of the market is they really didn't grasp making things cheap and nasty.
 
Ludwig II said:
As with everyone above, what you have there is an immensely durable, easily maintained, correctly engineered piece of transport. To buy that standard of workmanship now would cost an arm and a leg.

Sturmey archer epicyclic geared hubs - it helps to back pedal just a fraction of a turn to help it move between gears.
Click to expand...

Or just relaxing a bit on the pedals and soft pedalling while shifting. Sturmey's have much quicker shifting than any similar era derailleurs could ever have. Same with the Sachs Torpedo gearhubs and they have Campy quality bearing surfaces.
 
Steel is real, especially lugged steel. if you find the original 26x1-3/8 wheels to be lacking in strength, you can run mountain bike wheels on it. I have run a 26x1-3/8 wheel on my motorized cruiser before, but occasionally broke spokes. There are some guys on ratrodbikes.com that like to add mountain bike wheels to "light weight" styled frames to make a sort of vintage hybrid bike. You may need to use a more narrow mountain bike tire, like 26x1.75 to fit a light weight frame.
 
You would have to use different sized brakes. those brakes wont fit a mountain bike wheel..The ISO is bigger on 26x 1 3/8 tires ( tyres).
 
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