I'm usually not a negative person, and I hate to rain on others' parade, but why are old Raleighs so revered?
I worked in a Raleigh store in 1974, and the quality of the bikes was abysmal! Remember, that was a dark era for England with the brown-outs and multiple strikes. Almost every Raleigh we assembled had some sort of issue. The common ones were having to shim the seat post to get it tight or having to add a spacer behind the freewheel because of frame misalignment. So today, even though I love looking at old Raleighs, my past experience with them colors my opinion of them. Has anyone else noticed many flaws with mid 70s Raleighs?