Originally Posted by
BigChief
A question about 1950s Raleigh handlebar grips. They seem to be very rare. For some reason they didn't seem to survive long. Even bikes like this beautiful late 50s short frame Sports where everything else down to the cable housings looks original, the grips got changed at some point. These appear to be the usual American made Hunt Wilde grips that were for sale at places like Western Auto back in the 60s. It's hard to see much detail in old catalog scans. If anybody here has any old originals, I would like to ask if you would take the time to post some close up picks of them for me. Thanks, BC
https://www.ebay.com/itm/RALEIGH-Spo...sAAOSw37BagEy2
I am, once again, late to a thread. But I started a refurbishment of my ‘51 Superbe in past couple of months and only now am getting immersed in Raleigh culture. I have the original handgrips—pictured below—which are pretty tired...worn and dry-rotted, but still intact. I didn’t find any other photos of original grips in the thread, so I hope that this helps even if it is late. For that matter, I don’t think I’ve seen any closeup photos anywhere of the original grips from early ‘50’s. And certainly it seems impossible to find authentic-looking replacements. So, I have a choice of either going with these (pretty well worn, and using them will accelerate their demise, though they may look cool on this refurb with all typical signs of wear and tear), or to go with something that is not period correct or original like the “bullet” grips (which would be more functional but not really look right). Dilemma.
Anyway, I hope the photo helps for the record. (And I did show both the top and side/profile views. Also, the angle makes the scale on tape measure look a little off, but the grips are 5” long.)
