A friend of mine has a very nice Raleigh Sports he purchased used in '73 or '74. I was over at his house last night took some pictures and assumed I could date it by the hub. I have seen several threads here with pictures of the hubs, but all the pictured hubs seem to have a set of numbers usually two numbers each.

This hub has the two numbers but they are single digits stamped 90 degrees to the SA logo. The number near the drive side is a 4 and the other number is a 2. Sadly I did not think to snap a picture of the hub, but I suppose I could ask my buddy if need be.

I just spent some time at Sheldon Brown's SA page and now I am even more confused.

Here is a couple of snapshots of the old girl.

My bike has date stamps like that--it's a '72 or so. Do you have pictures of the bike? Kurt's site will help you sort it.

Hmm. When I look at my post I can see the pictures I added, aren't the pictures showing up for anybody else?

I can see the pictures. Based on the chainring and the self adjusting brake levers I think it is probably a 1972. If you look at the hub picture you can just barely see a mark to the left of the 2 where it looks like the top bar of a 7. Nice bike BTW and in the 23" size. those are less common than the 21".

Aaron

I agree with Aaron, I think that's a badly stamped 72 4. Though the 7 is virtually invisible, the location of Sturmey Archer hub stampings changed a lot over the years, and the location of these numbers narrows it down to that era.

By the way, Brooks saddles of that era also have date stamps, at least sometimes. I'm pretty sure if you look at the underside of the cantle plate you'll find two numbers and a letter, something like 72 B.

Yep, looks like my 72. In the hub picture I think I can see the upper right corner of the 7 preceding the 2. The herons on the chain ring have no eyes, same as my 72 while the same herons on my wife's 71 do have eyes, so I think that is probably when they changed that.

Nice bike, wish mine was green.

Before reading the other responses, I was going to say that's a poorly stamped 72 4. It is clearly later than the late 60s since the script on the chain guard is italicized; they started doing that just before 1970. On my hub it is 65 12 so assuming they didn't change the format in the meantime (and I don't think they did), yours would be in the Year Month format. I think the couple of marks to the left of the 2 could be parts of a poorly stamped 7 as larwyn suggests.

I also think it's a '72 as those crappy self-adjusting brake levers didn't appear on the Sports until the following year, iirc.

Thanks everyone for the help. I actually thought the line before the 2 was a hyphen! Maybe it's time for a new set of trifocals eh?

My budddy wants to sell this since his ex will not let him store it at her house anymore, don't ask...but it is a funny story. I will repost in the "Whats' it Worth" section. I can easily say it is in excellent condition.