1970 Sun Shopper Help?

[nellycycles]

Hi All,
First post, so I might be in the wrong area for this, as it's a shopping bike.

I recently purchased this lovely little Sun bike, which I believe pre-dates the Raleigh Twenty. It's got 1970 on the rear Sturmey Archer hub, but I can't find any on-line anywhere? I think it was from Sun's Worksop factory, but that's it. It does have Raleigh logo'd nuts.

Any help would be appreciated.

Cheers,
Nelly

 

[jim haseltine]

The first Raleigh Twenty models were sold in the late 1960s. During that era Raleigh owned a fair chunk of British bike marques, including Sun, Hercules, Triumph etc and released badge engineered versions of the Twenty under most, if not all of those names. Sometimes the model was given a different name, seem to remember the folding version (Stowaway?) under the Triumph name was called a Traffic Master.

 

[PeterPerfect]

Raleigh had involvement in lots of other brands so it's a bit of an endless journey tbh.
These shoppers are all pretty much a muchness.

Just concentrate on the bb as the shell is usually the first thing to go.
.

 

[PeterPerfect]

They're a hoot to bimble around on though. Make great city bikes.

 

[allenh]

That's just crying out to be painted in Chris Barber Sun team colours.

 

[Spokesmann]

Sun was by the early 70s one of the bargain basement brands used in outlets where the Raleigh brand was deemed too expensive/exclusive. The fact that Sun had been reduced to stuff like this only shows that the marketing bods at Raleigh had no idea what this marque used to be and what it stood for. This is just a badge engineered Raleigh 20. I know a lot of enthusiasts who will never forgive what TI/Raleigh did to some of our great cycling marques. OK its interesting. but supremely depressing at the same time. Sorry.

 

[Spokesmann]

Hi All,
First post, so I might be in the wrong area for this, as it's a shopping bike.

I recently purchased this lovely little Sun bike, which I believe pre-dates the Raleigh Twenty. It's got 1970 on the rear Sturmey Archer hub, but I can't find any on-line anywhere? I think it was from Sun's Worksop factory, but that's it. It does have Raleigh logo'd nuts.

Any help would be appreciated.

Cheers,
Nelly

Not even Worksop would put its name to this, nor Nottingham for that matter.

 

[nellycycles]

Re:

Hi Guys,
Thanks for the info on the bike.

I paid £60 for the bike and have sold the Brooks B66 already for that, so it's free!

I've started the refurbishment, but not keeping it original. It's going to be my little city bike for popping in town on for a paper, etc.

It's going to be painted in Spray Bike's "Whitechapel" and some new tyres, chain, etc.

Check out my FB page Kurb Krawla Bikes for the refurb photos.