Raleigh Made? Popular Special
04-18-17, 04:56 AM
#2
multimodal commuter
Join Date: Nov 2006
Location: NJ, NYC, LI
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Bikes: 1940s Fothergill, 1959 Allegro Special, 1963? Claud Butler Olympic Sprint, Lambert 'Clubman', 1974 Fuji "the Ace", 1976 Holdsworth 650b conversion rando bike, 1983 Trek 720 tourer, 1984 Counterpoint Opus II, 1993 Basso Gap, 2010 Downtube 8h, and...
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That's a nice one! Yup, definitely a Raleigh product. I found one of these in the NYC trash some years ago, also from 1960. The curious feature is the aluminum brakes, which look very much like Weinmann product, but not labeled as such. Much better brakes than other Raleigh three speed bikes got.
I have seen (photos on the internet) of older "Popular Special" bikes that appeared to be Hercules product. I suspect the 'brand' belonged to an American distributor such as a department store and when Hercules was folded into Raleigh, Raleigh took over the contract. Something similar happened with AMF (Norman bikes until 1960, Hercules-branded Raleighs after that).
I have seen (photos on the internet) of older "Popular Special" bikes that appeared to be Hercules product. I suspect the 'brand' belonged to an American distributor such as a department store and when Hercules was folded into Raleigh, Raleigh took over the contract. Something similar happened with AMF (Norman bikes until 1960, Hercules-branded Raleighs after that).
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04-18-17, 11:16 AM
#3
Senior Member
Strange, the lever covers are still on but the grips have been hijacked.
Nice colour. I thought if it was a Raleigh bike, the forks would have had the thimbles. Maybe Raleigh sub contracted these SPs out.
Nice colour. I thought if it was a Raleigh bike, the forks would have had the thimbles. Maybe Raleigh sub contracted these SPs out.
