Tips/advice: Just bought a 1947 Raleigh Lenton Sports

[Big Block]

Re: Re:

Left hand side could be export, Europe or anywhere.

Simon

I can understand that there was export drive for bikes as well as everything else, and the artwork may have been for the North American market and the costs were too much to commission new artwork for the British market, BUT SantaHul's bike was sold on the British market, and had the front lamp bracket on the left hand side.

 

[keithglos]

Re:

Raleigh put the lamp bracket on the left so that the lamp would show the near side kerb rather than the shadow of the front wheel.

Please don't believe all the catalogue nonsense about this being sold to club cyclists, its just a copywriters illusion. I have managed to get Peter Kohler to revise his site and remove this. It was a schoolboy/teenager bike.

Keith

 

[SantaHul]

Re:

Well after Keith's comment maybe I should just throw it in a hedge.

Then go and kill myself.

 

[Ideale]

If you throw it in a hedge let me know where and I'll rescue it!Don't be put off by careless comments.It must be much better quality than a lot of modern bikes and just the job for L'Eroica

 

[keithglos]

Re:

People jumping to conclusions here. Calling a bike a Schoolboy/teenage bike is in no way derogatory. It was where the market was. I was a retailer in the 50 / 60s, originally mainly commuter, later specialist racing/club bikes and components.

In the mid 1950s it was clear that commuting by cycle and the market for traditional bikes was ending. I was in an area of about one million people, the active recreational cyclists numbered about 200, and I knew most of them because I had the stock of accessories they used. Nationally that would make about 10,000, not nearly enough to keep a single factory like Carlton or Sun going even if they each bought a bike every year.

In fact most of the racing /lightweight classy components went to schoolboys and teenagers, who would frequently sell these to the club cyclists when they tired of them.

In the early 60s a top class bike gave a schoolboy some status. Some did small part time jobs, paper rounds etc. So many had the top end Campagnolo equipment, hand built frames, many on tubulars for daily use. This is how I was able to buy tubulars perhaps 300 at a time, crate lots of rims and spokes 100 gross at a time.

Some of these became racers, some turned to motoring as soon as able.

Keith

 

[SullyW5]

Re:

Hi Santahull

You can use a pearlescent green in a rattle can from an automotive paint shop - has a bit more depth to it than an ordinary metallic.

I just picked up a '54 Lenton sports which I'm going to restore to the original carmine red using a gold base followed by a red ink. All using rattle cans.

Keith - very interesting comments! So the mid 50's cycle industry was basically propped up by the modern equivalent of hoodies! Gangsta newspaper boys.

So if I wanted to get into basic club rides in the 50's what sort of bike maker would I have gone to?

 

[keithglos]

Sully, Shows how far we have gone. The boys I used to supply were unfailingly polite, and some collected payments for papers. The cycle was the main method of transport, used every day in any weather, so you will see mudguard eyes on bikes from the 50s, apart from pure track bikes.
Most areas had one or 2 favourite frame builders. Skill required but very little equipment needed, most did not use jigs of any kind, just a few simple tools.
Original Holdworth and Claud Butler ahd Viking were popular, being sold to the trade widened the supply. In the 50s I sold a number of Hetchins and Armstrong silver brazed by Bill Gameson to individual spec, under Dave Duffield.

It should be understood how small the market was.

Keith

 

[pigman]

Can I ask a really silly question...... Why is the lamp bracket on the left hand fork? Are the pictures from the US market?

Thanks

Shaun

I wondered that too. I'm guessing, but I think the emphasis was on seeing where you were going, so a nearside lamp let you see the kerb. Motor traffic was few, so it wasn't about being seen or having lights conform to other vehicle standards

 

[531brazed]

must have been some well-heeled schloolboys in your part of the world.

 

[Midlife]

Can I ask a really silly question...... Why is the lamp bracket on the left hand fork? Are the pictures from the US market?

Thanks

Shaun

I wondered that too. I'm guessing, but I think the emphasis was on seeing where you were going, so a nearside lamp let you see the kerb. Motor traffic was few, so it wasn't about being seen or having lights conform to other vehicle standards

Just thinking back to the late 60's we played cricket in the street for hours using the grid in the middle of the road to hold three sticks which were the stumps . I guess back then the light projecting on the kerb might be what was wanted.

Even more nostalgia...... It was my job to go to the car when it was dark to put the parking light on the car, hooked over the driver window. Red behind and white in front, I remember the deep joy when that stopped

Shaun