Classic & Vintage - "James" by Raleigh?

http://minneapolis.craigslist.org/bik/80296602.html


Tell me what this is......

http://minneapolis.craigslist.org/bik/80296602.html


Tell me what this is......



Thats a hyperlink ;D

seriously, though... The bike looks like one of the many 3-speeds Raleigh built for other makers, including Huffy, higgens, Robin Hood, etc who wanted in on the 3-speed british market.

Its not got the cache that the Raleigh name has, but its the same good looking quality bike they built at that time. I have a Huffy Sportster and a JC Higgins of about the same vintage.

I have heard that if you could buy 100 bicycles, Raleigh would call them whatever you wanted.

I think that's one of the marques that Raleigh took over. The James or "Famous James" line went back to 1885 (Birmingham). They built a variety of bikes. I'd love to find a late '40s or early '50s track racer. My dad has a '47 James motorcycle in about a million pieces that would be fun to build back up as a pacer cycle.

Bob Hufford
Springfield, MO

So how much does he want for it?

You can see from this link that James was building their own bikes *way* before Raleigh took over the name (and I'm assuminging Raleigh did that -- they did just about everyone else's). Also, the date was 1880 -- I was off a bit.:

http://www.users.globalnet.co.uk/~pattle/nacc/arc0225.htm

I wonder if that '47 Autocycle is what my Dad's is supposed to look like. I haven't see it in 20 years or more and then it was in several boxes and just a lot of oily parts and primered parts.

Bob

http://home.mchsi.com/~lhufford/james2.jpg

$65 I think...sorry, long weekend. A Sports came onto the market, too. I might pick that up.

in 1953 James was owned by the B.C.C. (Phillips) this is way before the B.C.C. bought Raleigh and let them take over their other brands of bikes.