This was part of the deal for several bikes including the Burgers ENR I posted about above. A 5 speed Sprite ladies model.
I took this bike as part of the lot not realizing it was a 5 speed, I never looked at it close enough to see its a Sprite not a Sports model.
I was after a clean set of rims for Raleigh Sports I've got, and this was going to give me a better wheelset and mainly the rear rack.
The problem is that after pumping up the tires if find it rides perfect. It needs a good cleaning but I'm guessing that under all that dust and grease
is a pretty clean old bike Its hard to tell in the pic but under the 50 or so years of dirt and dust it don't look bad.
Someone replaced the levers for a pair of trigger shifters and its got a really old set of Schwinn grips on it but otherwise it looks pretty much all original.
The oversized seat will also have to go. Its too wide and hard as a rock. It has no padding, just vinyl over a steel pan with two springs in the rear, my guess is that whatever padding it used to have dry rotted and either turned to dust or fell out.
The bike rides extremely tall, I'm 6ft 3in tall and the way its pictured, it fits me well. My Sports, a 24in model, doesn't sit nearly as high as this bike.
After riding it, ladies model or not, I'm having second thoughts about parting it out. The old black rubber John Bull brakes though leave a lot to be desired. It stops, but only with a ton of hand pressure on both brakes. I cannot lock up either wheel. Although I was a lot lighter back in the day, my old BSA that I rode in high school never seemed a problem when it came to stopping, but then again it wasn't 50+ years old back then.
