Originally Posted by
Iron Horse
Well, I found this at a local swap meet. I have always wanted a rod braked bike, now I have one. Hub says '74 AW. I haven't ridden it until I get the bearings checked out, but everything seems to work. One question though. The person I purchased it from has 700c tires on it. They seem to fit, but they don't look right. What is this supposed to have? Oh, I paid $120 for it if you are interested. Hope I did ok at that.
Good score!
I'm impressed that Raleigh continued to make these bikes for as long as they did.
I have a 1978.
The labour to assemble the various brake components on the DL-1 has to be 2-3 times
more than caliper brakes yet, priced lower than a Superbe.
I can only imagine that the tooling had already paid for itself years ago and there
were a few "older" workers that could assemble them quickly.
The placement and relationship of these little parts is quite a challenge..(for me)
$91.95 in 1973 works out to $542.00 (CDN) in today's money or
$410.00 (US)
Your saddle looks to be in good shape as well.