Kent’s Old Raleigh Sports

Posted

More Englishness today, and it just keeps getting better. I’m not sure how it is where you all live, but I would never in a million years stumble upon a unadulterated $2 Golden Goddess like this around here.  In Chicago this gem would have been snatched up in the blink of an eye; promptly striped of its sweetspeededness, and be sitting on craiglist right now brakeless, sporting gold deep-Vs, gold anadized dildo bars, and a $400 price tag.  Thanks to Kent this baby was spared, and will continue to live out its days as God intended!
Raleigh Sports
Dyno HubAllvit RDI have that exact same T.V. in my garage!Huret FD and some cottered sweetness.
Raleigh Sports Backside

Just picked this up at a garage sale for $2 and took it for a ride. Can anyone tell me about this? From the research i’ve done it must be from the 1950’s or 60’s. Has the old dyno hub up front and ten speeds. Thanks for the help. Serial # is X6819 and located on the bottom bracket.

Thanks Kent

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  • http://www.wrn.com Bob H.

    Awesome. Get a light to hook up to that dyno and a Brooks saddle and you’ve got a killer classic.

  • Pop Richmond

    I love the giant shift levers, the seat stays that wrap around, and the nearly-the-same-size chainrings. Just turn the seat post around and you’re good to go!

  • Joe B.

    $2.00??? I want to meet the fool who sold you this. 🙂

  • http://OTSG Dave M

    I have an old Hercules, made in the Raleigh factory, with the same chainring set up. 49 teeth on the outer ring and 46 on the inner. Does anyone know why they did this?

  • Pfaff

    Dave M, it’s an older form of half-step gearing.

    From Sheldon Brown:
    In the days of 4- and 5-speed freewheels, 8- and 10-speed bikes were commonly set up with chainwheels that were very close in size, for instance, 46/49, or 47/50. When used with typical freewheels of the era, the difference between the two front gears was about half as large as the difference between adjacent gears on the freewheel. (One reason for this was that early front derailers couldn’t handle much more than a 3-tooth difference reliably!)
    With half-step gearing, the larger shifts are made with the rear derailer, and the front is for fine tuning. This allows an 8- or 10-speed set up to have a reasonable range with fairly close spacing of the gears. One downside of half-step is that it uses all possible combinations, including those that run the chain at a fairly severe angle. This is not a big deal in an 8-speed rig, but is kind of marginal for 10-speeds. Another serious disadvantage is that every other shift in the normal sequence is a double shift (front and rear derailers simultaneously).

    Half-step gearing is most suitable for riding in flat terrain, where shifting is rare. For bicycles with few speeds, it does allow finer gradations to get as close to the “ideal” gear for the particular wind conditions as possible.

    Modern shift patterns use larger jumps on the chainwheels to select general ranges of gears, and fairly closely-spaced 7-or-more-speed clusters for the fine tuning. This greatly simplifies the shifting pattern, allowing constant adjustment to different grades in rolling terrain, with only occasional need for double shift.

  • Pfaff

    Oh, and nice bike. You gotta get up early to find a deal like that.

  • Mark

    That is a beauty! I’ll give you $5.00 right now! ;>)

  • James

    The headlamp bracket bolts onto the right fork. If you can’t find one, grab one off a Raleigh Sports or Raleigh Superbe. The Superbe came with the dyno hub, head lamp, head lamp bracket & tail light. That makes it “one stop” shopping for lighting. A set of SKS (or ESGE or Bluemels) fenders would be nice, too! The fork mount is a clue that it is probably from the 1960s. By the way, you could be arrested for getting deals like this! Incredibly nice catch!

  • Hannah

    I just picked up one like this–10 speed, lights, same paint job–and my dyno hub number suggests it’s a 1968.

  • Hannah
    • http://oldtenspeedgallery.com The Ten-Speed Dreamer

      BEAUTY!

  • Tomshiba

    I like the indoor picture best; The gold and chrome really stand out. Take good care of it.

  • Renee

    The bicycle you have showing is from the 1960’s. My dad got the same bike in Germany in 1965.