Originally Posted by
Mofoco1
Ok so I got the numbers off the Strumey Archer rear hub, supposed to be a 2 spd. Bike is a Girls Tourist. # is on the top of what would be the seat post clamp area. Says A71139A can't figure it out or is it a repro? The hub says 76-2-AW. The kick stand is alloy ESGE says R-B West Germany. All the decals say made in England and the fenders and HB says Nottingham. I say a 70's model made to look like the older raleighs? Your opinion....Mo
The AW hub is a 3-speed and is the most common of all vintage Sturmey-Archer 3-speed hubs. 76-2 means it was made in February of 1976. Just because the hub was made in 1976 doesn't mean the bike was made then -many people would replace a wheel because of an issue with a hub or the wheel itself if there was damage to the rim/spokes.
I don't know what you are talking about "repro" as pretty much nobody made "repro" Raleighs as they are NOT THAT VALUABLE because there are gazillion of them out there. Nottingham churned these things out and sold them for many years throughout the 20th century and changed it very little up into the 70's. It's not a "repro" -it's just the same model made for 3/4 of a century year after year. The bikes made in the 70's looked very much like the ones made right after WW2. Sort of like Harley Davidson but without the "fad" modern popularity.
Many other companies built licensed copies but under different names and without the Made in England sticker or the headbadge that says Nottinghame on it. Nobody was making "repro" Raliegh bikes.
The actual serial number isn't as important as where exactly it is and how it was stamped. The fact that is on the front of the seat lug pretty much dates it as a
70's bike Kurt has done a lot of work on the serial number database but it's not really at the point where you can punch in a number and get a year. Raleigh didn't really keep this info over the years and they are gone now so the only way we'll ever be able to figure them out is to get a lot of people helping with giving info to kurt to zero in on the many different systems they used.
If you look
here you can zero in on the age by the stickers and other visual details. If you look
here you can try and match the equipment details of this bike with the slight year-over-year changes over time.
In the end your friend isn't going to get "ripped off" because a 1953 bike and a 1970's bike really don't have that much difference in value IMHO. These bikes are not rare or all that hard to find -even the 50's models. Condition is the most important part but there are many out there in good condition.