On Friday evening forum member ecnewell posted a link in the eBay/Craigslist thread about a Hercules in Philly that was up for sale. Upon seeing it and realizing that this was the week that both my wife and I get paid(!), I sent a message to the owner of the bike. Within about 15 minutes, he called me and the rest is history. Despite the inclement weather in the area, I made the trip without incident and am happy to have a new addition to the collection.
About the bike: This Hercules Lion is a Pre-Raleigh bike and appears to be entirely original with the exception of the the Shimano shifter and the inner tubes. The bike has Dunlop tires on it with virtually no wear or dry-rotting on them. The cables are those strange one-piece things that have the ends soldered on or whatever it was they did way back then to make them one piece. There is no rust to be found anywhere on the bike, not on the frame, nor the wheels, nor the handlebar or any other part of the bike. The only flaw that I can see is that the paint has some fading and is flaking on various parts of the bike. It seems to be worse on one side than the other, so I'm guessing it may have been sitting in a spot where it was exposed to the sun on one side. So without any further ado, I present to the C&V crowd my new Hercules Lion.
Drive side.
Hercules Lion - 2 by
Sallad Rialb, on Flickr
Cream coloured panel on rear mudguard.
Hercules Lion - 4 by
Sallad Rialb, on Flickr
Headbadge.
Hercules Lion - 5 by
Sallad Rialb, on Flickr
Front mudguard tip. Notice the cream colour on the leading edge of the fender. I don't think that was a common practice on most English bikes, at least not that I'm aware of.
Hercules Lion - 6 by
Sallad Rialb, on Flickr
Chainguard.
Hercules Lion - 9 by
Sallad Rialb, on Flickr
Right side seat cluster. Note the peeling paint in places. The pinstriping is intact and nearly perfect on the entire bike.
Hercules Lion - 10 by
Sallad Rialb, on Flickr
Right side headtube. The zip tie is a nice touch.
Hercules Lion - 11 by
Sallad Rialb, on Flickr
Cockpit view. See how pretty the mudguard looks with the leading edge painted in the cream colour?
Hercules Lion - 18 by
Sallad Rialb, on Flickr
Yup, it still has a Hercules hub and it works perfectly. I did a ride of 3 or so miles today on it to confirm my suspicions.
Hercules Lion - 34 by
Sallad Rialb, on Flickr