Raleigh Superbe 1971 — The Bike of my Dreams

Introduction

On 20 April 2004 I successfully defended my doctorate, and as a present Spike, Vicka, and Shoshana teamed up to buy me the bike of my dreams: a 1971 Raleigh Superbe three-speed cruiser with ''all original'' components (except cables, bearings, and cotter pins) that was sitting in storage in an old bike store for 30 years before it was picked up by Tyler of Paramount Bikes in Somerville (just off of Powderhouse circle) and restored to beautiful ridable condition.

Not only is the bike an amazing piece of transportation engineering dating from a time and place in which bicycles were a transportation necessity, it was also fabricated on or about my birthday; The Sturmey-Archer 3-speed hub is stamped "71 7", or July 1971 (my birthday is July 16, 1971).

Even cooler, it is all in working condition — even the dynohub and light!

Technical Information

Serial/Date Stamp Numbers

Sturmey Archer 3-speed hub date: 71 7
Sturmey Archer Dynohub date: 71 5

frame serial number: 2908028

Make/Model

Raleigh Superbe, dark green, assembled in July of 1971 or shortly thereafter.

Features Sturmey-Archer dynamo hub and light, Sturmey-Archer three-speed hub, famous Raleigh "all steel" construction with integrated steel fenders and chain guard. All components are Raleigh original, made in-house at the Raleigh factory in England.

The bike also includes a steering lock security mechanism, for which at least one key exists (Tyler, of Paramount cycles, has a key that fits this lock).

Tyler restored the bike after getting it with some others of similar vintage when another bike store went out of business. The bike was apparently sitting in storage for something like 30 years.

This is a classic Raleigh bike with all-original components except for cables, bearings, and cotter pins for the cranks. One of the chrome cable clips was missing, and was replaced by a non-chrome clip from a Raleigh of similar vintage. The paint and chrome are in good condition, but could stand some more cleaning and detailing.

Related Resources:

Sheldon Brown's home page:
http://sheldonbrown.com/home.html

Sheldon Brown's guide to the care and feeding of English three-speeds:
http://www.sheldonbrown.com/english-3.html

The Paramount Bicycle page:
http://paramountbicycle.com/home.html

Bike Photos

Photos taken on 20 May 2004

I took some more pictures of the bike, mostly to document gearing down the Sturmy-Archer hub from an 18- to a 24-tooth ring. These will go up on a seperate page. But first, I took a couple of nice photos of the bike that are better lit than those I took on 22 April.

This is the bike before the gearing-down operation (it looks much the same afterwards).

And here is another view of the Superbe pre-geardown.

Photos taken on 22 April 2004

Here are some quick photos taken of the bike on April 22nd, shortly after it was given to me. (Camera Nikon e4500, handheld, natural lighting) I want to replace these with some better-lit, better framed shots once I spend a bit more time cleaning and restoring the bike.

Side view of the bike, with handlebars turned slightly toward the viewer. Note the light, the dynohub, the shiny chrome (which is washed out due to white background, grr), the sprung leather seat.

View from the other side. Note the decals, most of which are in good shape.

A rear view, showing the white-blazoned rear fender and the Sturmey-Archer three speed hub (which is better seen in the full-resolution version of this image).

Here is a front detail, clearly showing the old heron logo and the chrome light housing.

Also note the cylindrical top of the front fork, which contains the locking mechanism (the lock cylinder is in the end turned away from the camera). When set, the lock extends a bolt into the metal flange on the front tube, thus locking the steering as a bike theft deterrent. (wow, is this an outdated threat model). In any case, I can imagine that there were many a bike crash after this innovation was introduced with bike thieves jumping on a stolen bike, only to discover that they were incapable of steering...

Detail of the rack, showing spring-loaded chrome cargo trap.

Detail of the chain ring — note the heron spokes in the chain ring and the "sir walter" logo stamped on the cranks.

Detail of the rear.