My name is Virgil F.

This is recent purchase at a second hand store.  It cost somewhere in the 0-25 dollar range  (a gentleman never discusses specifics on price).  The pictures show it just as I found it, with all the dust, grime and neglect.  When I picked it they pumped up the tires; they had been flat when I first saw it.  I would have thought that they would never hold air, but they still have air in them a couple weeks later.  The shifters, front derailer both have “Raleigh” on their mounting bracketry.  This is something that must have been a seventies thing, as the eighties bikes that I previously owned did not have this touch.  The rear derailer should also say “Raleigh”, but it had been replaced with a Falcon one somewhere in it’s past.  My plans are to rip it apart and clean/repack everything, replace the cables and shoes, put some alloy rims on it, and some cyclocross knobbies on it (for now, I’m going to keep the hard earned nicks and cuts, aka the patina).

Thanks Virgil