I took quite a road trip with my wife this past weekend. We live near Edwardsville, Illinois, outside St. Louis. We drove almost four hours up to Hamilton, Illinois, near Keokuk, Iowa to see a couple of old Raleigh bicycles for sale by a local teacher there named Chad. I “rescued” two bikes: a 1952 Raleigh Sport three-speed in complete condition, including owner’s manual and tools, and a 1961 Raleigh Sport. Both will make fun projects, depending upon how far I want to go with them.
So I have much to consider regarding whether to just do a good cleanup and get them in riding shape, or do a restore of some sort, or what? The 1952 has a full chaincase, which I've always wanted. But it's also a 21" frame, and I think the 23" frame on the 1961 would be a better choice for a "keeper."
Along the way we also saw an eagle, lots of hawks, deer and other critters. We also did a very quick run up to drive through and see the Nauvoo historic area and the temple. It was a fascinating area, and another real surprise was the beautiful river road between Hamilton and Nauvoo. The road is just feet away from the Mississippi River, which along this whole route is frozen solid. Volunteers at the Nauvoo Visitor’s Center told us that the river has around 12 inches of ice this year. It was odd seeing logs and brush lying on top of the ice all over the river.
Hi there I love you bicycles and notice that yours dont have rod brakes.Do by any chance know when Raleigh stopped using rod brakes ?I live in Ireland and would love to age my bike that has rod brakes
ReplyDeleteRegards Diarmuid
Thanks for your inquiry, Diarmuid. My understanding is that rod brakes were generally used on the larger Roadster bikes, such as the Raleigh Tourist DL-1. The lighter bikes, such as these Raleigh Sports, were commonly referred to as "Sportsters," and they generally have cable actuated brakes like these. Also see my blog posting about my Tourist DL-1. It's a 1974 and still has the rod brakes, and I believe they continued into the early 1980s. The usual way to determine age on the Raleigh bikes is to look for the number code on the rear Sturmey-Archer hub: my 1974 has the code "74 1" meaning January 1974.
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