RRA "special"

[3wheeler7]

For the first one my second and probably better bet is that it's an RRA Moderne 1957, as the pump pegs were moved to under the top tube and mudguard mounting positions moved off the rear stays onto the rear drop outs. Sturmey Archer hub gears were still an option on this year, so the brazed on boss for the pully wheel at the rear of the top tube would be correct. Rare frame. I'll study the second one now!

 

[vcballbat]

Looks like he was a bit of a RRA fan by his collection of spares..! Both bikes and yours have gone cotterless..!

 

[3wheeler7]

The second one I would say is a 57-58 RRA Moderne frameset. It was Raleighs best at that time.
As I said in the opening lines of this thread, If you worked at Raleigh.....................................

Look at all those lovely wheels! mmmmmm

And just noticed the 2 RRA chain rings and drive crank, not so sure about the stabilizer wheels though.

 

[vcballbat]

The owner worked in the design office at Raleigh... can you guess who it is yet..

 

[3wheeler7]

We can only guess at what Raleigh had in "dead" stock, just waiting for enterprising employees to scoop up - even decades later. There must have been some dark holes on a 30 acre site.

Did the owner have anything to do with drawing funny bikes on a fag packet whilst flying back from the US?
If so my mates older brother worked for him in design - and even had a Chopper prototype in his garden shed!

 

[vcballbat]

Bingo..i was going to give you another clue..

 

[3wheeler7]

Nice one! Takes me back (a long way) to my youth.

 

[3wheeler7]

Everyone knows AO for his design work on the abomination, apparently though in his early years he was involved in the design of the RRA so perhaps he had fond memories of them.

 

[vcballbat]

Everyone knows AO for his design work on the abomination, apparently though in his early years he was involved in the design of the RRA so perhaps he had fond memories of them.

Bit of a longshot but when I saw your bottom bracket could the C be a miss or badly stamped O.. giving us AO 0573..

 

[3wheeler7]

I thought (hoped) the same but looking closely at the pics the stamping is (unfortunately) definitely a C.