1963 Carlton International
Carlton was one of those mid-sized British bike manufacturers back in the day. They were known for making some high quality and good looking bikes. Raleigh ended up buying them, but still keeping them as a somewhat separate brand and manufacturing group (as I understand it). Here in the USA in the 70's, the better Raleighs had a "Carlton" decal. In fact, Raleigh kept a number of the model names, including "International".

For example, here are the Carlton decals on my 1974 Raleigh International:





The 1970's Internationals had chromed Nervex lugs, which was pretty fancy for the day. However, it appears that Carlton would do much fancier work at times. Today's "Bike of Interest" is an example of that!

This bike dates back to 1963, and was built at the request of someone in the movie business. The lugs are rather extravagant, and described as "English Baroque". It seems to be entering the realm usually assigned to Hetchins.

The use of contrasting head tube and seat panels is another detail usually associated with British bikes, and this International certainly does follow that pattern. The seat tube panels go a bit further in the use of two shades of blue, one of which looks like it might be Carlton's trademark "lagoon blue" color.






Just to give a little more indication of what Carlton could do in the middle of the last century, let me offer one more example of their work. At one of the last Classic Rendezvous gatherings, Jim Cunningham of Cycle Art displayed a gorgeous 1956 Carlton International Longfellow. I assume he refinished it, so I don't know whether it originally looked like this. Presumably it is fairly representative of the most elaborate Carlton frames of that era. Regrettably, the bikes were packed fairly tight, so no shot of the whole bike. These shots of the details ought to give an idea of what the bike was like.







Suddenly my lovely '74 Raleigh International is looking pretty drab!

Steve in Peoria