My latest find and first Raleigh. It is a Sprite which I believe was made in England in 1975. It rides nice but the brakes don’t seem to be real great.
Maybe someone waxed the sides of the wheels? I recently put new tires on my wife's Raleigh I cleaned and waxed the rim, but tried to avoid putting wax on the sides. When I reinstalled the wheels I cleaned the sides with rubbing alcohol. gave the pads a little cleaning too. Seem to work well.
Also if your pads are old and hard as rocks they wont work well.