Raleigh / Hercules Royal Imperial "trio tube", odd English bike.....

[37ccmflyte]

I just bought this bike and I am after information about it... it's got a Raleigh badge on it but is looks like a Hercules Royal Imperial from the 1959 period.... It is from the period around 1960 right after Raleigh bought Hercules and it was rebadged for export to New Zealand? Is it rare? Interesting frame anyway.... no idea what I am going to do with it.

Ideas???? regards Gavin [email protected]

 

[Wildcat]

That's right, made by Raleigh right around the takeover, I had the Hercules version of your bike, same frame. Sold through Montgomery Wards when it was new. There have been a few like that built here at Ratrodbikes over the years.
Since the frame is narrow, 26 x 1 3/8ths is probably the best way to go with a classic type build. Like a Pashley Guvnor, only with your frame would look more like a vintage racer. looks like your fork is straight and nothing is bent.

 

[Wildcat]

There was also a version without the cantilever bar. This is a 1959 bike:

Here's one like I had, the fork is the older style and it's a Hawthorne, Montgomery Wards brand name, made by Raleigh.

Later the Hercules "H" chain wheel was replaced by the generic style.
Yours, badged as a Raleigh and having a different chain wheel (maybe it's original made for export to New Zealand) is somewhat rare. Also has a different fork. I see some green paint, maybe originally that color? That would show on the inside of the fork if it's original.

Yours has a one speed coaster hub, and I don't see any marks from brakes or a shifter on the handlebars so it may be a single speed version. I don't see any remnants of where the three speed cables would have been mounted either. The rear handbrake looks added on. Most of these bikes were three speeds, a one speed would be rarer. The hub looks like a Sturmey Archer; you may see a 2 digit date code on the hub shell.

 

[RustyGold]

I have a Hercules twin top tube version... without the intermediate bar. The only 'fun fact' I have to add to Wildcat's post is concerning the intermediate bar. The twin top tube was the Hercules design...when Raleigh took it over they wouldn't sell it as is and added the intermediate bar due to 'safety concerns' . I prefer the Hercules version, I think the are a really nice looking frame...but, the Raleigh revision is cool as well.

 

[MattiThundrrr]

It's like a cantilever frame, but with a stiff upper lip!

 

[37ccmflyte]

It's like a cantilever frame, but with a stiff upper lip!

Well, I will just have to brew a nice strong pot of tea then!

 

[37ccmflyte]

Probably not the "done thing" on such a rare bike...... BUT I can see a funky set of forks that would look GREAT on this frame.... come back from where the forks leave the stem at the bottom, parallel with the frame to where it would meet a line carried on from the curved tube down to axle level... ending behind the axle... and making a leading link spring fork.....

 

[37ccmflyte]

Crap drawing, but this idea.....

 

[pebblewurm]

Fill in between the truss and the top tubes with a flat tank? There was some obscure Colson ballooner with a tank like that. Dress it up with some chrome "sweepspear" trim off of a car? A frame that weird deserves some additional weirdness!

 

[37ccmflyte]

Fill in between the truss and the top tubes with a flat tank? There was some obscure Colson ballooner with a tank like that. Dress it up with some chrome "sweepspear" trim off of a car? A frame that weird deserves some additional weirdness!

Tank..... ummmmm..... tannnnk..... ok.... thinking.... GAS TANK! This could be my chance to try and

buy a BSA Winged Wheel!!

 

[pebblewurm]

oooh....

 

[37ccmflyte]

Thinking about a Garelli Mosquito engine now.... they are light and small and ITALIAN which I like as I have had Italian motorcycles since 1988.

 

[37ccmflyte]

Well after all these months I have finally got to see the bike in the flesh.... interesting to note that the Raleigh head "badge" appears to be a stick on! Not even every well centred on the head stock.... It's off to the left and too low..... With two neat holes either side of it that look like mounts for an original badge... but the Hercules badges I have seen in pictures have mounting holes top and bottom, not side to side... thoughts???

 

[Wildcat]

Possibly a Hawthorne.

 

[37ccmflyte]

Possibly a Hawthorne.
View attachment 168677

could be, but might be more likely to be one of Raileigh's British brands that was well known in New Zealand... so Hercules itself would have been good here I would have thought??

 

[Rustinkerer]

In the early '50s, English lightweights became the hip thing for older kids, ballooner sales tanked! American bike companies created middleweights, while stores started importing bikes. European companies countered with their own "lightmiddleweights" like the first pic. Sears sold these too. ~Adam