Mark Manley
Raleigh Fan
I have just finished this Raleigh Sports which has been something of a labour of love. I bought the new old stock frameset a few years ago on Ebay with the idea of building it up with the best second hand parts I could find, the frame number is from 1950 and it still had the delivery label from the factory to a dealer in Southampton and as the seller described showed no signs of having ever being built up.
A search for parts on Ebay showed that due to its long production with very little change, from what I can gather around 1920 to 1980 there were still many nos parts available so I set about building a "new" bike. I have only used parts from the original suppliers including Sturmey Archer spokes and a Reynolds chain, I have had to get them from as far as Greece, Indonesia and the US.
I already had an unused 3 speed drum brake hub dated '56 and after finding out that the Singapore and Southeast Asia model had drum brakes that is what I have used, the front hub is from '54, I do have the Singapore decals but have left it at the standard 1950 set. I have found that some components such as which chainguard and colour of cables and grips varied from one market to another so have gone with what I could get.
A search for parts on Ebay showed that due to its long production with very little change, from what I can gather around 1920 to 1980 there were still many nos parts available so I set about building a "new" bike. I have only used parts from the original suppliers including Sturmey Archer spokes and a Reynolds chain, I have had to get them from as far as Greece, Indonesia and the US.
I already had an unused 3 speed drum brake hub dated '56 and after finding out that the Singapore and Southeast Asia model had drum brakes that is what I have used, the front hub is from '54, I do have the Singapore decals but have left it at the standard 1950 set. I have found that some components such as which chainguard and colour of cables and grips varied from one market to another so have gone with what I could get.
