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Old 02-08-13, 11:04 AM
  #4049  
jrecoi
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Join Date: Jan 2011
Location: Armenia, Colombia
Posts: 295

Bikes: 1961 Raleigh Sports

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Originally Posted by slowtostart
I am still frustrated in my lack of skill to name or date this one. I've tried to show the color, now complete chaincase, evidence of mud flap on front fender, and lack of white tail at rear. The serial # is 681325 T, the wheels are stainless 1 x 3/8, and the hub has only a "1" visible. There is a fork lock, but no key. It has a hefty "cafe" lock at the rear and I do have the keys for it. Shifter has been replaced, so no clue there. Everything, including the seat post has a Raleigh stamp in evidence. None of the nuts show the red "R" seen on my Sports.


Sadly, my husband has no interest in keeping this. I could salvage the wheels, rack, and lock to use on one of my Sports and simply pass along the frame. I have only $75 invested so far.


Thoughts?

According to Kurt, the serial is Convention #1, of which there is a list published by Raleigh online some ten years ago. Sheldon Brown has the start serials for each year. According to Sheldon, 681325 T corresponds to a 1954 bike, probably made in the latter part of the year.


Now that I'm looking through your older posts, what happened to the Dunelt? I'm assuming that your husband is currently riding the Dunlet. This '54 Raleigh is a big step up in quality, and I would canibalize the Dunlet to swap parts with this Raleigh. I would suspect that the trouble is in the somewhat low handlebars and saddle not being as comfortable as the setup the Dunlet has, and perhaps the rod brakes not working as well as the caliper setups the other Sports have.


The wheels on the Raleigh are Westrick, so you can transfer over the caliper brakes as well as the saddle and stem/handlebars from the Dunlet and use them on the Raleigh without trouble. Alternatively, Kool Stop salmon pads for rod brakes are now available, so if you want to keep the rod brakes, that is a good way of improving the braking.




Quality in Raleighs started to deteriorate in the early 60s, so anything pre-1962ish is quite a treat. Greywolf wrote on this a while ago, but the pre-60s Raleighs have oilers everywhere, so that both hubs and the bottom bracket can be maintained by simply opening the various oil ports, and adding a few drops of motor oil, no need to grab the wrenches to disassemble and lubricate the moving parts. The only tools for day to day maintence are the air pump for the tires, an oiling can for the moving parts, and an adjustable wrench to tighten anything that might be loose.
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