1961 Raleigh Superbe
 

I bought this the other day and posted a picture of it on another thread. But I thought I'd like to show you a few more pictures in a thread of it's own. If anyone else has one of these I'd love to see theirs too.

I wasn't planning to restore it - it's 50 year old tyres decided that, apart from the chrome which might get re done at some point as it is very bad.

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great bike. Lovely saddle bag too, really ads the finishing touch to a bike like this. They make great daily commuters.

Great picture, even at rest it's got the Raleigh rattle.

Nice bike! I love the saddlebag too! I see that the lamp is toast, chrome wise, but the handlebars look like they could come up nicely - have you tried cleaning it off? Aluminium foil and windex as suggested on this board has done wonders for me!

I wouldn't give up on the lamp.
While it's true that the chrome on the housing is toast, you can de-rust the other parts and just rattle-can the shell black.

Pretty cool. What's that auxiliary canister mounted on the seat tube? battery holder?

Battery holder.

Beautiful bike! Love the bag and everything about it. As mine gets closer to completion I find I miss the patina of a well-worn original.

Love it. It has a lot of character

Thank you! When I won it on ebay I thought I had a real bargain as things always look better on photos. Then I picked it up I wondered what on earth I had bought! But after living with it for a week now, I realise that despite it being a bit rough in places it is totally original - with all it's fittings, lights, mud flap, saddle, saddlebag etc, even it's original 50 year old tyres. So the plan is to "conserve" it rather than restore it. The battery tube unfortunately is totally ruined as it had two batteries corroded inside it hence the holes. I have just won a replacement on ebay with slightly less patina! That is the only thing I plan to replace. The lamp will get re chromed at some point, or painted green as some of them were. It is perfectly ridable and I have been for a few short rides, but the tyres being so old I think it would be a shame to put too much strain on them. I love the fact that the gear cable and wiring is all dark green to match too! I have a few more pictures which I will add as soon as I've uploaded them.

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That rear hub with the dyno is a rare bird, too.

FG or AG? I have both and how rare? Currently using the AG on my Raleigh Twenty. FG is going to get built into a pseudo club racer.

Aaron :)

I think the one on my bike is a FG but it only says F.... I assume some of the stampings "missed" as the "0" of 60 is only half there too. Dating the frame it is a 61 bike, but the hubs etc would have come off a shelf and could have been older? I didn't realise that was rare, I thought all the Superbes had dyno hubs? I bet it's not as rare as the SW hub on my 1959 BSA Star rider!

AG = 3-speed w/Dyno
FG = 4-speed w/Dyno

-Kurt

The newer Superbe's had front dyno hubs, at least the ones that were sold in the US.

I don't think the FG and AG are rare, but they aren't as common as the AW hubs with the GH6 dyno hubs in the front. I checked my culch pile and there are 3 AG hubs in there and a FW that has bad internals, along with quite a few AW's and parts for more. Most of my stuff is 1970-1980, except for the FG hub it is older.

Aaron :)

This is my old account. I don't have access to this account any more as it used an Orange email address and Orange email is now defunct. I forgot the password and can"t re set it. I would rather use my old account if possible if any of the admins are reading this and could transfer my new
email address to the old account?

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Well I can use it to up my posts so I can put some photos on perhaps.

I'm glad you found your way back. This thread goes back before my time here. Looking forward to seeing your bikes.