Hercules and Robin Hood

[voodoowagon]

Was asked to help a friend clean out her shop after her husband passed away, she said I could have anything I wanted to throw it all away.

Found this Hercules and the Robin Hood, they show to be from Nottingham England. From what I have found online they were bought out in the 60s by Raleigh, is this true?

Also found this cruiser, not really sure what it is but it was free and just needs a new coaster brake.

Definetly not bad for helping a friend out, also got a lot of knick knacks and nuts and bolts and a OLD wheel barrow.
Will save the wheel barrow for ratrodwheelbarrow.com

 

[CCR]

last bike is a jc higgins or sears. dont know about the buyout but the hercules and raleighs from that time sure look similar. i know herc made alot of bikes for hawthorne and probably more

 

[Bendix]

does the robin hood have the cool headbadge? i like those a lot.

 

[voodoowagon]

does the robin hood have the cool headbadge? i like those a lot.

Yes, both the robin hood and the hercules have very cool badges. Cool fenders to, I am more into cruisers but these two bikes I might have to hold onto and clean up

 

[TheFlyingDingo]

The last bike looks like it has a schwinn frame?

With the brake mount, the kickstand and the way the welds are...

 

[CCR]

The last bike looks like it has a schwinn frame?

With the brake mount, the kickstand and the way the welds are...

your right, it is a schwinn frame with higgins parts on it !

 

[Korporal]

My Dad had a Robin Hood in middle school. The date on the SA hub was 57? I started rebuilding/cleaning/greasing it but got busy with work and moved 2000 miles away. I liked the headbadge and the whole thing felt built. Maybe it was just heavy.

 

[Wildcat]

I have a 70's hercules 10 speed, and have had a couple hercules 3 speeds over the years. My world traveler bike was a Hercules. I also have a 1967 robin hood women's bike picked up off the trash pile. It's going to be fixed up for my daughter. Raleigh was the company behind other brands also, Phillips, Norman, BSA , and Triumph. They all are about the same bikes, except a Raleigh bike was said to have a little higher quality. Earlier though, in the 50's, the companies were separate and made their own bikes.

 

[hubgearfreak]

Found this Hercules and the Robin Hood, they show to be from Nottingham England. From what I have found online they were bought out in the 60s by Raleigh, is this true?

hercules was taken over by raleigh, but robin hood was always just a raleigh brand. it's all here

http://www.sheldonbrown.com/english-3.html

 

[No cars on mars]

Nice finds
The dates on the Sturmey-Archer hubs is an easy way to date the first two bicycles. If the Hercules has a Hercules hub then it is before the company was sold to Raleigh. Also those little round chrome pieces on the front fender looks like a Raleigh products. If the Hercules have AMF on the seat post down tube it is from the 70's. I have one of those in gold with the same rear rack but a grip shifter. Do both of them have simple scalloped shaped lugs on the top and down tube? Raleigh. If you needed to find parts to fix up one bicycle you could use parts from the other. Some early Hercules had an oval or an arrow in the lugs.
On the third bicycle has anyone ever seen that type of springer before?

 

[trailcreep]

The older pre raleigh hercules have birmingham instead of nottingham on the headbadge. The rear hub is a good way to date old english 3 speeds assuming it has the original rear wheel, most really old english bikes also have a lube port on the bottom bracket shell.

 

[voodoowagon]

The Sturmey-Archer hubs on the Robin Hood date 69 and the ones on the Hercules date 67, thank you everyone for your input.