I'm hoping you guys might be able to help me identify the Raleigh my dad bought sometime in the 80s or 90s. I have a vague idea of what it was but I saw it last 10 years ago after it had been hit by a snowplow.

I don't have any pictures but I'm hoping a description might yield something of use.

-Likely later 80s or early 90s.
-mens diamond shaped frame
-Black paint
-Upright handlebars
-Lower end
-Rear derailleur, 5 or 6 speed. I'm pretty sure it didn't have a front derailleur.
-Sprung saddle
-It had a Raleigh decal and a little flag symbol made of yellow, red, black or orange lines.
-Mostly steel parts
-Steel silver fenders (maybe an add-on)
-Foam handgrips

I know it isn't much to go on. I'm more well versed in Raleighs before the 1980s and don't know much about the later incarnations.

Sounds like a Sprite. They look nice in black
This one has been tarted up nicely.

Here's another in stock form, still nice.



You don't see a lot of black ones, I don't think the US brought many in although we got them here, north of the border

Were they still making the Sprite by that time period? If so, it would have been in Taiwan.

I can't think of any other 5/6 speeds other a Sprite. They made some burgundy/gold Lentons in the late 80's with EA3s but black was a rare colour for low end around that time.

Here are a couple of Sprite-like bikes from the 1990 Raleigh catalog on the Veteran-Cycle Club Online Library site:

Screen Shot 2016-12-30 at 5.07.03 PM, Dec 30, 2016

Screen Shot 2016-12-30 at 5.06.49 PM, Dec 30, 2016

The thing about catalogs from this era is that I've never seen any of these models in the "flesh," so maybe they were only released in the UK or maybe never sold or something.