I'd go for the Raleigh Sports, the older the better, anything pre-'65 are garanteed to be excellent, the later models are of varying quality, but none are bad. These are British machines, and expect to be oiled (for bottom brackets, avoid dealing with cotters by adding oil down the seat tube, or a Bottom Bracket oiling port if available).

The Schwinns are more or less the same story, good quality. With the hub gear versions, look for Sturmey Archer or Bendix hubs, Shimano 3 speed hubs were crap until the 80s(Taiwanese built Schwinn 3-speeds are from the 80s, and are fitted with the better hubs). The derailer models are 1X5 affairs, the Huret derailers are not known for being terribly reliable, so feel free to swap for any other derailer.

The one thing the light roadsters do have as an issue is that they all have steel rims that don't brake all that well, replacement aluminium rims are available (Schwinn uses on occasion oddball rim sizes, but these are close enough to Raleigh's 590 ISO rim size that swapping to this size is not an issue).

Lovely Bicycle has a much through article on this: http://lovelybike.blogspot.com/2010/...intage-vs.html I do comment that Raleigh rims with the center ridge (the so called Westrick or Raleigh pattern) are a 1 to 1 swap for CR-18 rims, and the same spokes can be reused.

You could ask, answering craigslist ads for other bikes, if the seller has 3-speeds hanging around as well, you could strike a bargain, either just the 3-speed, or as a 2 for 1 deal.