sykerocker 

Finally! I haven't seen a Sports in that color since the one I owned back in 1973. Thank you. I was beginning to think it was a flashback from all the acid, and not grounded in reality.

Sixty Fiver

Get some decent spokes... DT or Wheelsmith double butted will make for a nicer wheel and order up spoke washers (nominal cost) for the rear as the SA steel flange is thinner than a modern alloy flange and this will also make for a better wheel build.

Onegin

I noted the remarkable similarity when I was there as well.

ahson

I see an ad on my local market and it's a grey color Raleigh. I've never seen one in grey and just curious is that a custom paint by someone or it's the original color?

Amesja

I have a silver step-through Sports that I'm working on right now. from '78



The paint isn't very durable, or at least not this example. Looks like it was poorly done with over-spray on the headtube all over the lugs and the silver-gray is runny and milky-see-through on the rear triangle something horrible. Perhaps the paint quality at the Nottingham factory was really suffering by that later date.

clubman 

Original...typical Canadian market Sports with mattress saddle and self adjusting levers. You'll see Supercycle branded Raleighs in the same colour.

gna

Are you riding the DL1 this year? My wife and I will be there.
A friend has a grey one. It's a mid '70s model. He'll be at Lake Pepin, too.

I fixed up a late '70s silver Sports for one of my wife's friends. The paint was awful, with several areas peeling. The silver seems to be especially bad, but the paint quality on the late '70s little blue Sports I got from Khatful is pretty bad, too.

Amesja

The frame isn't very well built either. It's straight and doesn't seem to have been in a crash but the lugs seem to have been beat on pretty bad when it was put together like the guy who was building it was having a very bad day after a rough night out drinking. It looks like he beat on it with a rubber hammer and this is below the paint so I'm pretty sure it happened on assembly. Nothing that your average person would notice unless they were looking for it and I'm sure it'll still be a fine bike for whoever ends up with it -just that the quality control at the end times for Nottingham must have been a bit spotty and stuff like this was more common and was allowed to pass out the door.

It must have been a sad time indeed for a once-proud company which used to be on top of the world building higher-end bikes.

noglider 

Yes, I think 1975 through 1978 was the worst period of workmanship from Raleigh. Those dates are approximate. Someone else can fine-tune them. Sturmey Archer was also down in those years, though not nearly as bad.

Sixty Fiver

Those 70's Raleighs were still pretty decent bikes... SA hubs started to suffer from a lack of QC in the sixties and when Sun race took them over none of their tooling was up to acceptable standards and pretty much had to be rebuilt from the ground up.

In some respects those 70's Raleighs got better when they started using Suntour drive parts in 76-77.

noglider 

They worked fine and rode fine. I'm talking about the brazing workmanship, with all the gaps and blobs. My 1971 Super Course is clean, so the bad period seems to have come later. Aaron has a Raleigh International with a fender eyelet on one rear dropout and nothing on the other dropout. D'oh!

And I agree that Japanese parts which came in 1976 were an improvement.

Sixty Fiver

Some of the workmanship on the frames left a little to be desired... something about drunken Welshman working on the assembly line.



Seems to have affected the higher end models rather than the lower end ones... and on 20's.

Take a look at the welds on your bottom bracket and you will know what I mean... the British models seem to have been finished a little better than the export models.

Onegin

Planning on it! Got to get some better brake pads first. I'm holding up my end on the waitlist at this point, so no guarantees yet.

JohnDThompson 

I'll be there with my Superbe. I'm not sure if my wife can make it this year (May is always busy in the public schools), but I may be able to persuade my daughter to come in her stead.

gna

Us too. We melted some today, though.

What did you use for the cranks and spindle? Was it hard to find something that fit?

24fps

It's an original color. A friend of mine has a bike that looks just like that (but his isn't blurry), except in a womens' frame.

Onegin

First rainy day of the year, that's got to be worth something, right?

Schwinnsta

Is the rear rack original? If not what kind is it. It looks good.

Schwinnsta

On the original Raleigh Sprort, the saddle bag has a leather patch with the two slots, located on the bottom of the bag. What is it forr?

rhm

A third strap, much like the two that secure it to the seat loops, goes through that and around the seat post. Keeps the whole thing from flopping around. You can do without (but I don't).

ColonelJLloyd 

Here's mine. 1973 Sports in Ivory Glaze. The women's frame was available in this color for a few years, I believe. As was the 21" men's model. However, I think the 23" model was only available in this color in 1973, making it somewhat rare (as much as the ubiquitous Sports can be, I suppose).

Unfortunately I'm going to have to part with it. There's no Sports in my future. A 23" is just too small.






Panaracer Col de la Vie tires rule.

Sixty Fiver

Guess you need a full size roadster then...

That is a pretty bike... have never seen one in that colour in the wild and I live in Raleigh rich territory.

ColonelJLloyd 

Yeah, a 24" DL-1 would do, but I'm not crazy about a 40+ lb bike with rod brakes. It's just not something I need (as if that's the criterion I use with any bike purchase). I will probably build an approximation around a sport-touring road frame at some point.

Sixty Fiver

My Rudge only weighed 38 pounds... a veritable lightweight.

wahoonc

Here is a picture of the latest acquisition...

1973 Raleigh Colt step through for my bride, along with my 1972 Superbe.

Aaron