1950s Hercules Windsor - Part out or keep whole?

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partsguy

partsguy

Joined
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Well, I've had this on Craigslist for about three weeks and I'm sick of looking at it. I've had $40 on it and it has not sold, the only thing I got was a dimwit from downtown Dayton who wasted my time (claims he owns a shop but I doubt that with his lack of communication skills). It looks rough, but really, the only thing left to do on it to make it road worthy is new cables and tires ($10 at an LBS). OBVIOUSLY it needs much more work to make it a show piece. I have lost interest in it so it needs to go. Heck, the Hercules seat alone is worth about what I'm asking. But should I part this one out as well? I have not yet seen another Hercules like this and the chain ring is unlike anything I've seen as well. The Hercules 3-speed hub functions and shifts very smoothly, the crank is good, the pedals are good, fenders are nice, oh what to do? I've piled up 5 bikes so far and so its only a matter of time before I go to the scrapyard and they go to the junkyard in the sky.

Parts or Give it more time? I'll give it ONE MORE WEEK if I must. BUT YOU BE THE JURY!

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Oh, here are the other pics. AGAIN YOU DECIDE! MAJORITY RULE!

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It is rough, but it's still complete :wink: I'd sell it whole...pluss it's a pain to part out :mrgreen:
 
Sell it to me when I have some spare money. :D

It looks pretty cool, it's obviously a pre-Raleigh Hercules, which may be why it looks different.
 
I do see your point. I'm clearancing everything right now and with the prices of parts, I may be better off scrapping everything. But its a couple of bucks I didn't have before and the parts live on. So I do see the pain in the part out thing.
 
mos6502 said:
Sell it to me when I have some spare money. :D

It looks pretty cool, it's obviously a pre-Raleigh Hercules, which may be why it looks different.
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I have heard about the Raleigh buy out; when did that happen anyway?

This bike would look sweet fixed up, but for me, its gotta have FINS, CHROME, TANK AND/OR A RACK! I got the bike for free from a member here but I put a little money and work into it. I'm breaking even at the price I have it at.
 
Around 1960, Raleigh acquired the other brands. Then your Hercules would be of lesser quality, but still a good bike. A Birmingham England made Hercules, like yours, are the real deal, Hercules had been around for a long time. I have a Hercules 10 speed, from the late 60's, good but not the high quality of a "real" Hercules. There should be a 2 digit date stamp on the rear hub shell. I'd buy yours if you were close by.
 
Thanks for the information, but I didn't see a date stamp on the hub when I looked? There is a number on the dropout if that helps any?
 
Oh, and another thing about these bikes; is this something hard to find or maybe a little on the rare side? I know rarity does not always mean something is valuable (like a Schwinn Krate - not rare at all and yet...)
 
It depends, in England Hercules was one of the major players in the bike industry so these things are about as common as Raleighs there. In the U.S., pre-Raleigh ones are uncommon. I don't know about rare, but lightweight bicycles in general were not big sellers during the 1950s here.
 
Your worst problem is your location. Here in the land of the dullards something like that has no appeal. If you were selling it in Wisconsin it would have sold in the first week. (search The Lake Pepin 3 spd Tour). The mountain bike is still the most popular bike around here and we have no mountains and barely any hills, what does that say about Ohio's population? Something like this would fair better on fleabay.
 
Interesting. Well, I think what I will do is finish replacing the cables, maybe pick up some tires, clean it up, put it back together, and put it up for auction on eBay. It would have been a nice bike - but I just loost interest.
 
I took in the shop yesterday and I was told that they would have to special oder a kit from Sturmey-Archer for a shifter cable. I saw that the one on the bike now has steel "crimps" on the ends. Can the cable be cut and the crimps replaced? I was told they didn't make them anymore. If I can at least get the thing to look half-decent, it may sell much better at auction.
 
partsguy said:
I took in the shop yesterday and I was told that they would have to special oder a kit from Sturmey-Archer for a shifter cable. I saw that the one on the bike now has steel "crimps" on the ends. Can the cable be cut and the crimps replaced? I was told they didn't make them anymore. If I can at least get the thing to look half-decent, it may sell much better at auction.
Click to expand...

One thing I've done in the past is to solder a brass sleeve on the cable to lengthen it, I suppose the same could be done to the ends. Hobbie stores sometimes carry brass tubes in a variety of sizes.
 
JoKeR63 said:
partsguy said:
I took in the shop yesterday and I was told that they would have to special oder a kit from Sturmey-Archer for a shifter cable. I saw that the one on the bike now has steel "crimps" on the ends. Can the cable be cut and the crimps replaced? I was told they didn't make them anymore. If I can at least get the thing to look half-decent, it may sell much better at auction.
Click to expand...

One thing I've done in the past is to solder a brass sleeve on the cable to lengthen it, I suppose the same could be done to the ends. Hobbie stores sometimes carry brass tubes in a variety of sizes.
Click to expand...


Thanks for the tip. The problem though is that it was too long - far too long.
 
if you still have that Hercules Windsor and are willing to ship it, I may be interested. Could you please e-mail me some photos. Shown below is a photo of my Hercules Windsor. As you can see my Hercules is missing both hand brakes and the correct Hercules B type 3 three speed hub. I am in California 91364

Windsor1.jpg
 
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usarnie1 said:
if you still have that Hercules Windsor and are willing to ship it, I may be interested. Could you please e-mail me some photos. Shown below is a photo of my Hercules Windsor. As you can see my Hercules is missing both hand brakes and the correct Hercules B type 3 three speed hub. I am in California 91364

View attachment 98521
Click to expand...
Guessing you might be a day late on this one.
 

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