For Sale: Restored Raleigh Sports Tweed Runner

The Craigslist Ad is here.

This isn't a clunker or needing any work by the buyer other than adding lights or other personal touches like racks, baskets, or a high-end saddle or pedals although the way the bike is now is it is perfectly serviceable during daylight hours.

I've already restored a number of these Vintage Raleigh Light Roadsters and related variants and sold them on CL as well as the Chainlink  They are what I specialize in and I ride one myself.  I believe in their practicality as well as durability.   I believe they are every bit the equal of a modern, new, bike-shop  sold bike -if not better.  You can't get the kind of quality and detail on a modern bike without spending over $1000 on a Dutch bike.  

This bike is in as close to 100% shape as is possible for a vintage English bike produced 40 years ago, and is ready to be put back into service as either a weekend tweed-runner or even an every day commuter with the capable and lightweight upgrade alloy wheelset.  The only major issue with these old Raleighs was a tad bit of excessive weight, and braking with the stock steel rims-especially in wet conditions.  But this bike has been upgraded to alloy rims which drops POUNDS off the bike in rolling weight and makes it ride very nicely as well as brake like a champ even in the pouring rain.  

I've put a few miles on this bike to test it and to make sure there aren't any issues or any surprises for the next owner. I have even hunted down and slain 99% of the annoying creaks and rattles that these bikes tend to get after a few years of use.  This bike is quiet and smooth like a well set up bike should be.

I don't restore these for a huge profit flipping them -but because I love old English 3-Speed Steel and believe in these bikes as the ultimate city ride. Every bike I restore has had many hours of OCD detail work put in it -This one is no different.  I try to make all the bikes I sell as close to a like-new condition that can be accomplished without a full-on repaint or replacing every single little part with New Old-Stock items .  Mechanically it is as sound and close to new as possible and fully tuned/regreased.  Cosmetically it is as clean as dozens of hours of scrubbing and soaking every individual part before being reassembled can make it.  I know there are much cheaper examples of these bikes out there if you want to do all this painstaking detail work yourself.  

I also have a smaller-framed 19" step-through framed Flying Jet (Dutch-made Licensed Copy of the Raleigh Design) that is nearing the completion of  restoration work and undergoing testing right now.  It will soon be listed as well.  It is possible that the wheelsets could be swapped between these bikes.  The price difference between the two bikes is about $!20 due to my costs building the alloy wheel upgrade. I'm not making any money on these wheels  but it was necessary to replace the steel rims on the 21" bike as they didn't pass my rigorous standards for resale and had to be rebuilt.

If anyone is interested in either of these bikes just contact me here on the chainlink or the phone number listed on the Craigslist ad to set up a viewing.  These two will probably be the last bikes I restore this year. While I love working on vintage Raleigh bicycles, the time involved restoring these is really eating into my personal life and the work averages out to under $3/hour for me in the best of cases.  Black Heron Restorations is going into hibernation until next winter at least.  I want to have time to ride and work on my own bikes this summer.