A friend wants me to refurbish his bike that he bought at a garage sale back in 1980. It was his main bike for 14 years before he upgraded, and this bike has since led many lives. Most of the components, as well as the paint and fork, are not original. Can anyone tell what model Raleigh this may have been originally? He remembers it was originally gold and with drop bars. The serial number is 3485210 which I believe dates it between 1963-69. It has what appear to be pump pegs on each end of the top tube that have been cut off, but doesn’t appear to have had the cable stops normally seen under the top tube of Raleighs. I’m leaning towards an early 60s Gran Sport. Any help would be appreciated.

The best candidates are 1961/62 Gran Sport or Sprite. While I’ve never seen a Sprite up close, those two bikes look to be nearly the same. If it’s later 1960s than that, it could only be a Record. I doubt very much that it’s a Record, I believe those had different lugs and I don’t think they came in Gold. I think Gran Sport is correct though, the frame features and crankset look much like the one sitting on my porch. Fork is a replacement, which I’m sure you know already.

Agreed on the Gran Sport, I have one hanging in my groj, always kinda liked the wrapover seatlug, stay but its obviously a lower level trait so.......

I also say Gran Sport.

Thanks for the verification. Now I need to locate the missing parts. Fortunately it still has the unique crankset.

Can you post a photo of fork and a close up of the crown. I’d like to find one if possible.

Did Gran Sport ever have a pump peg under the toptube? I think that's what that "zit" is just behind the TT/HT lug. If it was a pump peg, it was cut off and painted over, but we don't think this is original paint, do we?
I'm looking at the 62 catalog (UK edition) and both Gran Sport and Sprite have the pump on the seat tube, and I think the pegs are bolt-on not braze-on (hard to tell).
The '59 catalog shows the Lenton Grand Prix and the Lenton Marque III with punmps under the toptube. Same with the '58. I think those are higher-end bikes than the mystery Raleigh; for one thing they have 531 tubes. Neither of the Lentons have the wrapover seatstay. Example:



So, some model lower than a Lenton but with the TT pump peg? That does look like a '60s Raleigh crankset on the mystery bike.


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It will be a minute, this one is buried but I will get to it.

The cut off pump pegs has been the one thing bothering me about the identity. Well, that and the missing cable stops on the TT. Thanks for the Lenton link. That gives me somewhere else to look.

You're right that the lack of housing stops for the rear brake is a problem.
When were Raleighs made by Gazelle in Holland, who remembers? Some of their models didn't match up 100% with the Nottingham equivalent. I have a feeling that was later than the '60s which the crankset seems to indicate, but I really don't know when the Gazelle/Raleighs were made.

Bike has been through many iterations per the opening post. The person who cut off the pump peg(s) (if any) was probably the same person who installed the coaster-brake wheel. Might have cut off the housing stops at the same time, assuming that cable clips weren't originally used.

According to the result of a quick search, Raleigh bought Gazelle in 1971 and continued producing Raleigh-labeled bikes there into the 1980s..

The crankset shown on the subject bike is the exact crankset used on the 61/62 Gran Sport. It also appeared on the Lenton Grand Prix of the late 50s and early 60s. Here’s a fine example of a 62 Grand Sport from another forum members thread. It uses clamp on cable guides instead of brazed on stops.

It’s possible that the stops were removed at some point but there’s no indication in the thread this pic came from that this ever happened…..and considering the fine condition this just doesn’t look like a frame someone would mess with. It may instead be evidence these frames just varied in minor ways from time to time.

My 60/61 Lenton Grand Prix with the same Crankset.

Here is another example of Grand Sport with clamp on cable guides being used, though the NDS pic can’t show us if the rear brake cable stops were removed, bypassed, or if they never existed.



Edit: As I look around the internet I’m finding more examples without cable stops.

Mine is a later one, 70's probably, I'll still get a pic when I can if you want.

Don’t bother. The one on Ebay is the same year but a smaller frame size. I now know what a correct fork looks like.

This was my '62 as a data point, with braze-ons.

Here's a closer shot. You'll notice there's no pump pegs so I'd vote GS.