Tonight, that old Raleigh will be picked up by its owner, and gifted to his son. It's actually his son's bike, and the father decided to have it restored as a surprise.
Those rod actuated brakes were most definitely found on Dutch utility bikes of the 1960s and 70s; the kind of black bicycles, usually with a fully enclosed chain guard to allow people to ride to work w/o getting any grease on a skirt or trousers. The bikes were most often left outside in the Dutch weather, and the rod brakes were actually quite robust, needing little once adjusted, and standing up to all kinds of messy weather. The ones pictured in my photos were friction rim style, not drum, and perhaps the only real problem with these was the needed rim design doesn't allow for high pressure tires. 50 pounds/ 3.5 bar is it. But as the owners were not racing, the simple commutes they did were not affected by such things as that.
In all the years I worked on Raleighs, I'd never seen one--even in the 1970s--with the rod brakes. We once had a full Sturmey-Archer parts kit, with all the little gears, bearings, bushings, etc. needed to repair their broken internal hub transmissions. Like the British cars before them, this kind of hub/transmission could barely stand up to long-term use in the USA, and were frequently breaking. Interesting that Sachs--the German firm--made a similar unit but like German and Dutch bikes, never had any significant presence in the USA. I can only imagine that a Sachs 3 or 5 speed internal hub transmission was superior to the British.
I too, have two bikes. My Italian is a totally vintage road racer, updated for modern road use, not racing. How I got that was interesting. In 1971 I returned from Europe with a Peugeot PX8, and a few months later, my brother "bested me" by getting a fancy Italian bike, a Legnano, from the famous Tom Avenia cycle shop in Manhattan. I decided that I needed the same. So, on a trip to Milan in the summer of '72, I called the Legnano factory and asked, in my rudimentary Italian, "Where in Milano can I buy a Legnano Corsa bicycle?" The lady on the other end just gave me an address, and unbeknownst to the then 16 year old, it was that of the famous frame maker for the Dreher racing team, Umberto Mascheroni, also known as "Lupo". He fitted me by pulling out a bike made for Roger deVlaeminck, a famous Belgian rider on the Dreher team. Dreher had a good team in 1972, with notables such as DeVlaeminck, Ole Ritter, Patrick Sercu, and more. It was in existence for just the 1972 season, and Lupo made the bikes and maintained them; it later became the Brooklyn team. He took measurements, and told me to return in two weeks. I did, and picked up a beautiful Lupo designed for road racing. Super short wheel base, and extremely light for the time, I used the bike for commuting through college, and pleasure riding later. As I aged the short gearing needed changing, and like Cees has discovered, finding parts was a challenge. I did find a wide range Campagnolo Rally rear changer, and a wider cluster to make hills a bit easier for this aging body. When I broke a spoke, I found someone who had a whole box of the Trois Etoile stainless steel spokes in the right size and bought the entire box. Seems finding obscure parts is a skill for cars and bikes alike.
Right now my Lupo needs another round of maintenance...and the roads are a LOT better here in NC. I need to service the headset, change the grips, and remove the old black anodizing from the crankset (any ideas on that?) I don't "need" my Trek mountain bike any longer, a bike I bought some years back when the roads in Michigan got so bad that I could barely ride them with the Lupo. So not only does my body appreciate the well maintained roads here, so do both my bicycles AND my Pagoda!
While I've always ridden with toe clips, Cees, I've never advanced to cleated pedals or shoes. But I can understand the issues...
