# A curiosity for you Raleigh fans



## 37fleetwood

I got this in a 1948 Firestone Catalog I just got.


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## kingskid

Pretty cool article...of interest to me because I have several English bikes...2 raleighs (uk) 1 raleigh usa, a Robinhood, a Royal Enfield, and a hercules.

I find it interesting that some of the vintage sears, k mart, etc. 3 speeds were by appearance built very similar to Raleighs and other English bikes. Rebuildable pedals, removable crank arms, etc.

Robert


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## Miguello

Some of them looked like Raleighs, and some of them WERE Raleighs only rebadged, hehe. I have a 62 Huffy Sportsman with a TCW SA hub. Also has a Raleigh serial, three piece cottered cranks, the whole deal. John Bull brakes.


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## videoranger

Very Nice!


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## musclebikes

I know alot of bikes have resemblance to raleigh. I have a Heideman Sprinter.
Its a 5 speed stickshift and looks identical to a Raleigh except the frame by the crank and headset narrows 1/4 inch. It was mde in Germany. Ive never seen another one of these. Have you?


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## thebikeguy

*Heideman Sprinter*



musclebikes said:


> I know alot of bikes have resemblance to raleigh. I have a Heideman Sprinter.
> Its a 5 speed stickshift and looks identical to a Raleigh except the frame by the crank and headset narrows 1/4 inch. It was mde in Germany. Ive never seen another one of these. Have you?




Post a pic of this rare bird. We all like to see new bikes. It might be a Gazelle(Raleigh) based bike exported to Germany. Or a Ross Apollo?Are there any other markings on it? What kind of derailler? Pics please.


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## saxman

When I was a kid, my friend, Jum Yuspa had a Hercules. Except for the hand chain wheel and color and badge, it was exactly the same as my Raleigh Rudge Sports. His bike had painted fenders, and mine were chromed, and I remember one weekend we took the fenders off of both bikes, then made a balance scale hanging from his garage rafter. We put my bike on one end, and his bike on the other, and they weighed the same thing. When we put the fenders back on, my bike was slightly heavier than Jim's.


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## Doohickie

Another Raleigh curiousity-

My Raleigh DL-1 has a 65 12 date code on the AW hub.  The serial number on the bottom bracket, though, is the curiosity.  According Sheldon Brown, a Raleigh of this age would have a serial number consisting of 5 numbers followed by two letters.  On the bottom bracket on my DL-1 in simply says "427".  Does anyone have a clue what that means?


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## crank

You're mixing the hub date code with the frame date code.


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## Doohickie

What do you mean by that?  The 65 12 is on the hub.

On the bottom bracket, where the SN would be expected, it says 427.


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## crank

Sorry, I misread your post. With all due respect to Sheldon, I've found out that Raleigh frame codes are inconsistent at best. It's why we almost always use the SA hub codes to ballpark the age the age of the bike.


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## Doohickie

I agree that the ol' SA hub code is the most reliable indicator.


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## John D. Williams

is this supposed to have a chainguard?


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## sailorbenjamin

Yeah, I think it would have been red to match the frame.


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## sam

Hurcules was imported by Wards till the 60s when AMF took over and then they were asimbled in Little Rock Ar.and badged AMF
Huffy did import the Raleigh built Soprtmans.D.P.Harris was an importer of Phillips built bikes.
All sears bikes have a manufacturier code on them.In fact all sears products have a sears code.


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