First off, perhaps I should introduce myself. The name's Harry and I am fairly new to cycling. Of course I had a bike or two as a child but didn't ride a whole lot. Then I got into motorcycles back in college and it wasn't until a couple years ago that I started riding bicycles again. Someone gave me a hand-me-down department store mountain bike and I enjoyed it for short hops around town but it was brutally uncomfortable and the chain loved to fall off at the most annoying times. This taught me to despise derailers and I intend to never own another bike that has them.

So, last year I bought a brand new fat-tire beach cruiser. Single speed coaster brake. I did add a front brake for redundancy. It's perfect for New Orleans which is flat enough not to require gears. At some point I discovered the existance of the internal geared hub and was fascinated. This summer I have a job in Baltimore for a few months and rather than bring a car I decided to buy a bicycle first thing after I arrived.

After cruising craigslist for a couple days I had two candidates: a vintage Raleigh Sports for $140 and a "100th Anniversary" Columbia 3-speed (unknown model but looked very similar to the Raleigh geometery wise) for $150. I went with the Raleigh purely because the seller agreed to deliver it. It turned out to be a 1967ish, nearly all original, and I've been riding it all over for the last few weeks. She's not nearly as comfy as my cruiser back home of course, but the handling is much sharper and the IGH is everything I hoped for. Don't get me wrong, I love the Raleigh and am very happy with it, but now I am wondering about "the one that got away."

Comparing the two, in hindsight my one complaint about the Raleigh is the Whitworth fasteners. The Columbia's standard fasteners would be much easier to work with and replace if needed. Also the Raleigh seems fairly "common" for a vintage bike whereas the Columbia is apparently less common. Information on them is quite scarse on the web and even here there is nary a mention of them. Anyone care to clue me in on what I'm missing out on? Did Columbia use the same Sturmey-Archer hub? Which would you have chosen?