Classic & Vintage - Greetings all. Check out what I found...

Hi gang.
Stumbled across this site while trying to research a nice find...lots of cool stuff going on here, I'm definately going to come back to ogle all these nice bikes and maybe learn something.
I'm 35 years old and am mostly into vintage BMX (which is the bicycle site is usually frequent). I ran across this classy little BSA in a garbage pile and took it home and cleaned it up. I was figuring I'd sell it for a few bucks on eBay, but I fell in love with it. It looks really mint and it functions every bit as good as they day it was made, I imagine.
Just out of curiousity, I wonder what ya'll can tell me about this specimen. I'm really wondering when it was produced, specifically. Any information would be appreciated.
The frame has the #2797595 stamped on the toptube gusset near the seatclamp. The chrome on the wheels is in terrific condition. The hoops have *STURMEY ARCHER ENGLAND EA23026x1 3/8*, and the rear 3speed hub is SA as well, with "AA -1 5" stamped under the logo. The only things that are not original are the rear innertube and the bar-clamping nut/bolt in the stem. The stem has an impression on it that looks like a guy with a clover for a hand and a shield in front of him, the shield has an "R" and an "I" overlapping on the front of it.
Any questions you have about it I'll answer as best as I can.
The most coincidental thing is, that I found a BSA just like this about six months ago. It's headtube badge had been removed and the whole thing had been spraybombed black...it was really beat and I had no idea what it even was, but it had plenty of salvageable parts, so I'm lucky I've been too lazy to chunk it. I picked it up mainly for a nice bolt-on cablestop I was going to use on a BMX bike. It is only slightly different than this one that I've noticed (I haven't really studied the differences, though). The frame is the same, but has chrome-plated chaingaurd mounts, different routing for the 3speed cable, and so on.

I'll supply you with some pic-hosting links so you can see full-size. The image will fit to screen, but if you save and re-open image you can see at optimum resolution. Anyway, here are some pics of it:

http://images.vintagebmx.com/web_pages/Axlepeg/BSAright.JPG

http://images.vintagebmx.com/web_pages/Axlepeg/BSAleft.JPG

http://images.vintagebmx.com/web_pages/Axlepeg/BSAcloseup.JPG

Thanks for your help,
Axlepeg

Man, nice clean ride. And the winged decals remind me of the emblems from my '69 Rocket 650. Can't tell you much about the non-motorized variety, though. Enjoy it.

I can see why you fell in love with it.Nice looking bike.It's definately a Raleigh product They built bikes under different brand names(Dunelt,BSA,RobinHood,Triumph,SuperCycle...).Raleigh bought the BSA name in the late 50s I believe.Are there any other nos. stamped into the hub?The ones you quoted don't seem to help in finding the year.Because Sturmey Archer date stamped their hubs.But I've seen ones from 74 and up that don't have any date on them.So, I'm gonna take a guess at 1973-75.You have yourself a true English 3speed.Good solid bikes.Good score,enjoy it.Here's a pic of my 71 Raleigh Sport.It's all original and is one of the ones I ride.It's not a very good picture but you can see the similarities between the 2.
http://i151.photobucket.com/albums/s148/thebikeguyCCM/1971RaleighSport.jpg

Thanks for having me re-inspect the stamp on the hub, BikeGuy. Upon closer examination, the stamp reads "71 5", not "-1 5"; so I'm going to infer the bike itself is probably a mid-1971 model, unless someone can tell me otherwise. I appreciate the info.

I saw vintagebmx in the photo link, and almost decided not to take a peek - thinking I'd see a BMX bike.

The bike looks like it's in marvelous condition.

Found in trash? Wow, I thought I drew fortunate at times. :beer:

Man what some people wont toss out.that is a beautiful example of a classy classic english 3 speed.