1949 Humber town bike restoration

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911hillclimber
Nurse, I think I need some assistance
Posts: 18857
Joined: Mon Mar 10, 2008 6:26 pm
Location: West Midlands

Re: 1949 Humber town bike restoration

Post by 911hillclimber »

While work continues apace on the 1938 Royal Enfield, need to sort the gear 'security' on the Humber. The issue has been the gear of 1st and sometimes 2nd jumping out and clicking to 3rd or forth.
Got the Humber to first which is a very hard spring resisit, you feel the cable could break, and used a tie wrap to hold the trigger in the position to assist the location of the gear shift pawl to the shifter position. Rode the bike around a few times in the cul de sac and the gears would not jump out.

So, this proves the gear jump is due to a worn 1st gear location.
The pawl and body of the shifter is quite fine, less than 1 mm and with wear, corrosion etc that must now be marginal. Once it jumps out of fist position (due to road vibration and outer cable movement the spring is so pent-up to rockets past 2nd most times and stops at 4th or third.

The shifter is working like a sequential shifter.

Another stip down then to see if the parts are soft enough to file a deeper 1st location for the pawl or another shifter off ebay which could be worse than the one I have! They are expensive too, £25 cheapest.
73T 911 Coupe, road/hillclimber 3.2L
Lola t 492 / 3.2 hillclimb racer
Boxster 987 Gen II 2.9
yoeddynz
DDK Fanatic
Posts: 51
Joined: Wed Feb 01, 2023 9:02 am

Re: 1949 Humber town bike restoration

Post by yoeddynz »

I've got a very similar bike, though a Raleigh. It has the 4 speed hub - with a dynamo built in :) , rod brakes and with stainless rims which is a lovely thing considering how well rod brake rims love to rust. I picked it up cheap from Warlands cycles in Oxford while I was working at Bike Zone (all the bike shops get on pretty well in Oxford) and used it for a lot of commuting. The fully enclosed chainguard making it ideal for keeping my trousers clean.

While I'm now back in NZ the bike remains at Hannahs parents place in Oxford and I get to use it when we head over for holidays in the UK summer sunshine....
911hillclimber
Nurse, I think I need some assistance
Posts: 18857
Joined: Mon Mar 10, 2008 6:26 pm
Location: West Midlands

Re: 1949 Humber town bike restoration

Post by 911hillclimber »

I have yet to ride mine!
Too slick to use on dirty lanes and canal paths.
Have do 2 others since and they all test ride really differently dynamically.
73T 911 Coupe, road/hillclimber 3.2L
Lola t 492 / 3.2 hillclimb racer
Boxster 987 Gen II 2.9
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