Show us your Vintage Raleighs!

[Hsean]

heres some new ones and some updated.

My sprite I recently got, i'm removing the gears and putting internal sturmey archer 3 speed, apparently it was a option for sprites yet i never seen one so i'll make my own! lol

The colt I got last year, all cleaned greased and shiney, waiting for a new home now.

A project i'm working on.. lol

Another brown one

Another ugly gray one.

A like new brown one

The DL-1. It's a big bike yet i can still ride it perfect i'm 5'8 and thats a big 24" frame on the biggest 28" wheels.

Example of size diffornce

 

[cashman]

Does this count?

I don't have a vintage Raleigh bike, but do have vintage Raleigh parts catalog from the late 1960's. Thanks!!!

Cashman, would you be interested in parting with this book?

Not really. It's got a lot of little notes written in it by my late mom. I'll try to get some more pics of some info in it soon. I'm almost ashamed to admit that about 25 years ago, I scrapped a whole bunch of Raleigh bikes including some nearly new Choppers and Sports and Tourist. And I think I know where the guy lives that bought the Professional Mk. iv from me about 30 years ago. It would be interesting to see if he still has it?

 

[Hsean]

I want one of those choppers lol That must of been a sad day for Raleighs.

 

[cashman]

Well there wasn't any internet back then and used bike stuff was hard to sell. It was almost as bad as when my dad sold all the NOS Schwinn parts we had to some guy for $50 when I was gone one day! One of the few times I ever had any cross words with my dad!

 

[johnp.smith]

I think we have all parted out or thrown away bikes and parts that we now wish we had not done. Oh, the bikes I have had over the years, and gotten tired of for a bit and sold off or traded away. I have some regrets for sure. You are right about the internet, In the early 90's, I used to restore vintage Honda motorcycles. finding parts was by newspaper or club magazines and was time consuming. If I were doing the same motorcycles today, I would be able to find almost everything in 1 day.

 

[Baron von Zach]

I think we have all parted out or thrown away bikes and parts that we now wish we had not done. Oh, the bikes I have had over the years, and gotten tired of for a bit and sold off or traded away. I have some regrets for sure. You are right about the internet, In the early 90's, I used to restore vintage Honda motorcycles. finding parts was by newspaper or club magazines and was time consuming. If I were doing the same motorcycles today, I would be able to find almost everything in 1 day.

I collected model kits and restored American cars before the internet days and therefore know exactly what you are talking about!
Yes, it took time and you had to be resourceful if you wanted something special. But there was a very rewarding feeling of achievement
when you finally tracked it down.
I miss this a bit in our one-mouseclick-instant-gratification-takes-too-long world.

 

[cashman]

I used to get a quarterly newsletter. It was the "Antique and Classic Bicycle Newsletter". I think it was put out by a guy in Chicago? It was about 4 pages type written with a for sale/wanted section. It was always interesting with stories about old bikes and people who were around way before me. I remember buying a set of S-2 rims from a guy in Indiana that had them listed in it. Probably the first time I ever bought any vintage stuff for a bicycle. Thanks!!!

 

[johnp.smith]

Yesterday, I picked up a new 2010 Raleigh Roadster that was part of a blowout sale. Rides really nice and looks at home with all the vintage Raleighs' in the garage.

Hsean, that is a nice collection, I am also 5'8" and love riding my Tourist, very smooth one of a kind ride.

Cashman, your book is even more special, Dont ever part with it, nothing can replace handwritten stuff like that.

Kingfish254, Im diggin the Rudge, Some day I'll find one.

 

[Hsean]

i want one of those modern raleighs lol theres potential.

I seen the worst thing today, I can't believe this person stripped a lenton sports, a neat gold colored one that looks in awesome condition and left it crank fork frame and put modern fixie stuff on it, I swear fixies are wreaking so many nice old bikes now. it's when you see someone do that to a very high end old road bike that also cheeses you off lol. Sure i made my lenton sports a 3 speed but I have all the correct parts hidden away in a box that will always be with it.

 

[johnp.smith]

I cant stand to see the fixie conversions either, rip off the brakes and all the gears and throw them away. Then when their knees hurt, they cant ride it any more.

Just thought you might enjoy this situation that happened to me recently and in no way am I making fun of or saying anything bad about gays and lesbians. But I recently came out of a restaraunt and there were some fixie kids out front, one was on a beautiful Gitane with the nicest lugs and paintwork I had ever seen. I asked the kid how could he make a fixie out of such a nice bike. His replay was, because it looked gay. His friend on the other hand had one of the fixies with one color on the frame, each wheel was a different color from that and the crankset and chain were also different. So I replied to the young kid and said I think he ruined a beatiful piece of bicycle history, and as far as gay goes, this bike here is gay, it contains every color of the freedom flag. They all looked at each other in shock thinking about that one.

I wish these kids were at least smart enough to save the drivetrains they are removing but they just throw them away. The vintage road bike enthusiasts are going to have a difficult time restoring the bikes they find in the years to come because of a fad and thats really a shame.

Here in Denver CO, there are big cruiser clubs and all the New Belgium stuff going on here thus making the English roadster 3 speed bikes disposable. I am the only one in all the bike circles collecting English bikes, not to fix and resell but to preserve them all from the trash. Some are in good shape, some are not and will be used for parts. The English builders really put a lot of labor, passion, and commitment into their work, I love every bike I find.

 

[Baron von Zach]

I cant stand to see the fixie conversions either, rip off the brakes and all the gears and throw them away. Then when their knees hurt, they cant ride it any more.

Just thought you might enjoy this situation that happened to me recently and in no way am I making fun of or saying anything bad about gays and lesbians. But I recently came out of a restaraunt and there were some fixie kids out front, one was on a beautiful Gitane with the nicest lugs and paintwork I had ever seen. I asked the kid how could he make a fixie out of such a nice bike. His replay was, because it looked gay. His friend on the other hand had one of the fixies with one color on the frame, each wheel was a different color from that and the crankset and chain were also different. So I replied to the young kid and said I think he ruined a beatiful piece of bicycle history, and as far as gay goes, this bike here is gay, it contains every color of the freedom flag. They all looked at each other in shock thinking about that one.

I wish these kids were at least smart enough to save the drivetrains they are removing but they just throw them away. The vintage road bike enthusiasts are going to have a difficult time restoring the bikes they find in the years to come because of a fad and thats really a shame.

Here in Denver CO, there are big cruiser clubs and all the New Belgium stuff going on here thus making the English roadster 3 speed bikes disposable. I am the only one in all the bike circles collecting English bikes, not to fix and resell but to preserve them all from the trash. Some are in good shape, some are not and will be used for parts. The English builders really put a lot of labor, passion, and commitment into their work, I love every bike I find.

It's been a long time since I had to agree to such a degree.

I built one fixie in my life. And I did it simply on the grounds that what I started with was rubbish to begin with and making it into a fixie would give me some much needed doh.

This is what I started with, a Falcon Panther:

Minus the wheels that is, I only stuck them on for the photo. The frame doesn't have any braze-ons, that gave me the fixie idea.
This is what I made out of it:

So I didn't ruin anything, since there was nothing there to ruin from the onset. OK, that's just an excuse. I did it, so I'm guilty as charged and meanwhile I regret it.

I rode that thing once down the street and back and couldn't believe what rubbish it is to ride and why so many people make such a fuzz about those fixies. I think they think they are hip and different but in reality they just follow yet another trend. The only thing I hold in their favour is that they stoically put themselves through an atrocious ordeal they all will regret later in life, and we all will have to pay for their treatment and early retirement (read Lincoln Town Car with a wheelchair on the number plate here).
Let alone all the nice bikes that get irreversibly ruined in the process.

Entirely btw., I like the freedom colours bit...

 

[Hsean]

Yeah them multi colored fixies are the worst lol but yeah preserve the history! The Humble Raleigh sports is a hard working bike though theres alot of them I've seen them in such bad shape but still work fine, the gray one in my yard is a good example dispite how bad it looks it still rides perfect!

 

[cashman]

More images from inside the Raleigh parts manual. This is some scans of a 1965 Raleigh sales brochure. It was too big to scan complete and it had holes punched in it to be mounted in a binder and it didn't scan that great, but thought I'd share it with you guys. Also there is a Raleigh spoke length chart.

I once crashed on a Record and received a double compound fracture to my left arm riding in all things, a MD bike-a-thon. The bike didn't fare any better as well. It pretzeled the front wheel and fork and bent the down tube of the frame. It was nearly a new bike.

And here is the spoke length chart.

Thanks!!!

 

[johnp.smith]

1966 Raleigh RSW-16 Deluxe, Bike is all originial except for the seat, the Dynamo hub and gripshift work flawlessly. This is the non folding model.

 

[kingfish254]

That is a sweet RSW. Someday I will find one of those and an old Moulton.

 

[Hsean]

I know where theres a RSW same as that but blue, they are neat little bikes

 

[johnp.smith]

From the info I have seen,, they came in Bronze Green or Red but that might have been just for that year, Blue would be nice to see.

 

[NekroGuitar]

Picked up another yesterday, Could be a Raleigh I guess.. not sure yet. But still not a bad bike for £5!!!

When I got it:

How it looks after a a wipe with an oily rag, a spare light and straightening up the rear rack:

Another bargain bike!

 

[NekroGuitar]

And then there's the rest.. :lol:

 

[Aluyasha]

Here is my new Raleigh I picked up today.
A 69' Sports all gold edition: