Old Hercules information

[ReVo]

I'm here at my friends house and we found this amongst other old bikes. Just wondering the year and possibly value of it. It has a sturmey archer three speed and looks to be a 26 inch? Not sure on wheel size actually. I can't seem to find a vin number anywhere either. looked on head stem, bottom of frame and on the rear end. Seems to all be here though, pretty complete. thanks for any help in advance!

-Ron-

 

[OldRider]

That looks to be an early 70s 3 speed.......if I remember right Hercules was a line of bikes that Raleigh built. Look on your Sturmey Archer hub, you will see a two digit number, that number is the year the hub was built and if the hub is original to the bike you'll know the year. One more thing, next to the two digit number on the hub you will see another number, that signifies the month. In my neck of the woods that's a 75-100 dollar bike. Good luck with it.

 

[ReVo]

Thanks for the information! I will take a look at the hub next time I'm there or I will have my friend check it out and shoot me the numbers. They have a lot of old bikes out there and I would like to see some of them go out to loving homes to be ridden again. They even have an old lotus grand prix road bike out there that was used as a police bike. I guess they only made those for two years.
As for the Hercules, I thought the way the frame was built looked familiar. Just couldn't put my finger on it.

-Ron-

 

[sam]

That's an AMF Hercules. In the 60s AMF had a factory in Little Rock Ar. that assembled these bikes.

 

[sailorbenjamin]

I'll wager that's a Nottingham built bike. You may find a serial number on the seat lug or seat tube.
Raleigh serial numbers are sometimes hard to pin down but this is my favorite resource;
http://www.kurtkaminer.com/TH_raleigh_serials.html

 

[ReVo]

Well according to the vin (which was located on the top tube next to the seat post 1938582) its a 1970. Further substantiated by the sturmey archer numbers which read 70 then 10. Thanks for that link! Very helpful! =)

-Ron-

 

[sam]

I'll wager that's a Nottingham built bike. You may find a serial number on the seat lug or seat tube.
Raleigh serial numbers are sometimes hard to pin down but this is my favorite resource;
http://www.kurtkaminer.com/TH_raleigh_serials.html

They were built in Nottingham only some at least were assembled in Little Rock by AMF---it's a lot cheaper to brake the bikes down to parts for shipping.
Anytime you see those three bands on the seat tube it's am AMF--they put them right over the original decals too.

 

[ReVo]

Cool, good information to know! I'm happy to be a part of the CABE. You guys are all very knowledgeable and I appreciate all the help you give to novices like myself.
I do hope to turn this into a hobby. My uncle just gave me a late 70s- early 80s Columbia Lenox 10 speed that I can't find anymore info on. I will post pics of it before I clean it up.

-Ron-

 

[ReVo]

Also, I've never shipped a bike before... About how much does that usually run to do???

-Ron-