I picked up a old Raleigh winner from the 80s at a garage sale the other day for £20 
ive decieded to restore it to new and maybe convert to fixie.
I was wondering has anyone done anything like this before and any advice?
pics soon 
Corbin picked up a truck full of old bikes for free from various donors.
We’ve restored about 1/2 of them to proper unicycles. The other 1/2 are beyond repair.
just restored a bike about 2 weeks ago, it was my first.
Picked up a tandem off craigslist for 50 bucks, couldn’t resist.
some things I learned:
- TAKE BEFORE PICTURES!!! you’ll want them for afterwords
- don’t skimp on cleaning supplies. If you need chrome polish. . . guess what you need to use : ) . . . not windex. CLEAN EVERYTHING!!!
- don’t be stupid and get degreaser where it shouldn’t be . . . like. . . oh lets say . . . the headset O:-)
- Clean, and re-clean the drivetran about 1000 times including the chain.
- DON’T change it into a fixed gear until you know for sure that something won’t work, you could be ruining a great find!
- check the hubs, bottom bracket and headset for wear. If they need to be serviced, do it. If you axles are slightly bent (or worse) check the dropout alignment, this can cause that, and it’s a cheap fix. bottom bracket and headset can be checked by rotating and feeling for “scratchyness.” give a little jiggle to the cranks to make sure the bottom bracket is tightened properly, same with the headset.
- don’t pay a bike shop to do anything you can do. (replacing cables and adjusting gears and brakes, EASY EASY stuff that a bike shop will charge you 10-20 bucks for)
- don’t replace parts that don’t need to be replaced. Often brakes will get clogged, or the brake cable just needs to be replaced, and not the whole brake. wd-40 or degreaser in moving parts works wonders, but it’s not oil.
- oil the chain, or get a new one.
- check rim strips, tubes, and tires, chances are they’re all done for. Bad rim strips cause tons of flats, yes, it sucks to pay 6 dollars for a strip of thick tape about 3 or 4 feet long, yes, it’s totally worth it.
- have frickin fun, it’ll be awesome when it’s done : )
no before pictures unfortunately
granted, it really depends on your budget, I spent 100 or more to fix a 50 dollar bike, but I could probably turn around and sell it for 300! On the other hand, I could have gotten it basically ridable for half that.
Sweet! is that the original rear crankset ?
I found a 12 speed SuperCycle in the garbages, I converted it i to a Fixie, but it stills looks like crap:p
it appears to be but the guy said it was a 5 speed when it was new. i think it’s odd to have both chains on the same side. . .but it seems to work. the front chain hops off every once in a while, haven’t figured out why yet.
Finally got round to uploading a picture, so far I’ve begun removing surface rust from the rims, the chrome has came up really nice . For a old bird she rides pretty sweet and solid although gear changes are not so smooth.
I heard a rumour that old raleigh bikes have chrome underneath their paintwork?
Next I plan to remove crankset, remove and polish the surface rust away.
Also the bars ideally need to be rotated round so the brakes levers are not point to the sky, any hints? I can’t seem to find a way to 
flip them so that the curves face you on top of the handlebar. you may need to undo the brakes and reattach them
In your photo, the front chain appears to have a lot of slack. You may just need to tighten up the idler wheel. If that doesn’t work, the two chainwheels are probably not in line with each other.
I don’t know about old Raleighs, but to make them that way as a policy would have been foolishly expensive. Probably a rarity.
From the photo, the handlebars and brake levers appear to be exactly the way they were built to be. Those inner levers are meant to be used with your hands on top of the bars. Are there levers on the front of the bars as well? Those should be pointing down.
I don’t think you quite understood what I was meaning there. 
John, they are exactly as the are supposed to be. I would just like to make them more usable for me, so I think by rotating the bars a few degrees will sort out my problem. 
All most a year later, I started to remove any parts no longer needed as in a few days the bike will be a fixie Going to go buy some paint stripper, primer, paint and clear coat tomorrow - depending if the local store has a age limit. I bought a rear track wheel on eBay, so no need for a dangerous cassette conversion.
I plan to have the frame black with white forks, bar tape and saddle. 
Tighten the tensioner if you can. Or remove links from the chain.
In fixed gear state, ready for paint stripping and painting. Rides great; I keep forgetting I’m on a fixed gear and try to coast. 
Fixed with flat pedals and no clips? Should be interesting 
Very, er, unique handlebar angle as well… but if that’s how you like it…
It’s not finished yet 
I’ve got some wellgo toe clipped pedals in my garage which I need to dig out
It’s finished I really enjoy riding fixed, feel more at one with the bike.
I learned a few things throughout this project:
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