Recent Raleigh rescue.

[FICHT 150]

Recently pulled these two out of the Reinlander area of Wisconsin. Ladies 1973 DL1L 22” Roadster, and a Men’s post 1980 DL1 24” Roadster. The ladies is as it left Nottingham in 1973, the men’s bike has had the seat and wheel replaced with earlier components. These were advertised on the CABE and anywhere the former owner could think of, with no takers. I was the last option before the scrapper.
Thinking deep service to both, and, perhaps converting the AW hub in the men’s to S5 configuration, allowing me to use it on the Lake Pepin 3 speed tour. Try to get the missus to try the woman’s bike, after it is cleaned up.
4 Roadsters in use around the place as of now. The 1981 pictured next to my covered up old car should be in a museum. The second bike pictured is the 8” crank version with a 48 tooth sprocket, built for about 5 years, that my son uses. It is a 1969.
Nice bikes.
Ted

 

[SirMike1983]

The 24 inch frame on 28 inch wheels hurts them to the extent you have to be pretty tall to ride the tall frame. I have two of the DL-1 style bikes, both with a 22 inch frame on 28 inch wheels, and that's pretty good for me. I'd never be able to ride the 24 inch frame. If you've already got a stock one, an S5 isn't going to hurt the one you just got. It's a lot of weight to haul up hill. I have mine geared pretty low. They both have AW hubs.

 

[FICHT 150]

24” Frame size is OK for me, and perfect, at this point, for the boy, who is 6 ft and wearing a size 13 shoe at age 14. I’m uncomfortable on a Sports if it is smaller than 23”. My Sports Tourist is a 20” frame, but, I would never ride it very far because it is an alloy AM medium ratio hub, not much difference between the gears. All the Raleigh’s get 20-23 tooth rear sprockets, makes them friendlier to ride.

That hill, at Bay City, on Wisconsin 35, about an hour into the 3 speed tour, is killer. Not terribly steep, but 3 miles of it.

Ted

 

[SirMike1983]

The 23 inch frame on 26 inch wheels is really a nice balance. I think the 21 inch Sports is a little too short as well, but the 23 really is great.

Once you're at 6ft+ , the 24 inch DL-1 makes a lot of sense. The frame and wheels eat up a lot of the bumps.

I'm partial to the FW Four-Speed for some reason. I guess I'm just used to the FW. I don't miss the top gear too much because I kind of just let the bike coast down the bigger hills. But I can see where if you were pushing, the top gear would be a nice asset. I sold my S5 Sprite when I moved. Just not enough space on the moving racks. I had an AM hub at one point but I didn't have much use for it. I like having the wider ratio in case I really have to drop down to lower gear.

They should have marketed the 5-speed much sooner though. It sat as an untapped resource for many years. And they never really pursued the wide-ratio 6-speed William Brown developed in 1954. Hub gears have a lot going for them, but Sturmey just got so fixated on cost-cutting because of parent company pressures. Kind of a sad route it took.

It's good to save those DL-1s. They're too good for the scrapper.

 

[FICHT 150]

I’ve converted a bunch of FWs to S5. Once those delicate shift rods and the equally delicate shifter are gone, that is about all you can do with them, except lay out big coin on the ‘bay for more hard to find, delicate parts. Never found them to have the reliability of either an AW or an S5.
Raleigh spent too much time, money and effort chasing pennies. Look at how many different pedal designs they messed with in the late 60s, each a bit crummier then what came before it.
That had to cost a bundle. For what? The old design had been in use forever and would work forever.
I hate to see good bikes scrapped.

Ted