Nataku

Hello all. I come seeking some advice on a bike I found today while thrifting. I came across what looked to be a 50's Phillips bicycle for $10 at the local Salvation Army. Original seat was in good condition. Had what looked to be a newer bottle holder on it. It was black and was a women's bike, by the slanted bars. It was a 3 speed and was pretty clean. Still had air in the tires. There was some wear and tear, like wear on the word Phillips on the chain-guard and such. I was wondering, is this worth picking up? It's a woman's bike, but I'd like to rescue it and clean it up....then sell it to someone who will enjoy it. Would this be worth re-selling? I'm not looking for something that I can clean up and then it will just take up space in my garage waiting for a buyer. Any information will be much appreciated!

raleighrider75

Hi I'm new to this site and so far I like what I'm seeing.A 1950s Phillips for $10!You can't go wrong at that price.It would be nice to rescue as many as possible because I know they built literally millions of them.But they are getting harder to find(especially at that price)
If you can't find anyone to buy the bike,you can always sell the components.People are always looking for SturmeyArcher stuff,you could easily make your money back(and then some).
Good find,I'd say go for it.Nothing ventured nothing gained.

clipped

https://www.sheldonbrown.com/english-3.html#phillips

looks like you have a nice commuter/grocery getter.

SouthernGothic

Definitely grab that bike for $10. That's a great deal for it. You can get the exact year from the two digit year stamp on the rear Sturmey Archer hub. Great find and good luck with it.

alancw3

accurate descripton by sheldon. i had an original phillips like 1956. not the quality of a raliegh. don't know your purpoe for buying but if it is to think you are going to make money off the bike forget it. these bikes were a dime a dozen. perhaps the components are worth more than the bke if original.

Sixty Fiver

Phillips bikes are often quite decent and although they may have been at the lower end of Raleigh's line-up they are still very good bikes.

g-funk

Phillips are sweet and the idea of them always being lower quality than the raleighs is total bs. Your 1950's Phillips wasn't even made by Raleigh and should have the super cool chainring with Phillips cut into it. If its 50's. I would say that a Phillips of that age might be better than a Raleigh due to the Phillips brakes. A total rebuild would cost about $100 for tires tubes cables and brake pads. To turn a decent profit this way would be tough.

Sixty Fiver

Vintage Phillip's made Phillip's bikes are totally sweet...

graywolf

Ah???? A '50's Phillips would not be made by Raleigh. It should be every bit as good as a Raleigh. Phillips it is my understanding was Raleigh's main competitor. When Raleigh took them over they turned it into a 3rd line bike, but before that they were top quality bicycles. If I remember correctly in the '50's almost all the British mass production bicycles were made by BSA, Phillips, and Raleigh; by 1970 raleigh had taken over the other two. If you go back before WWII there were hundreds of distinct makes.

I would like to point out the most university libraries have quite a lot on the history of bicycles for some reason or another, even the local Liberal Arts University here.

Sixty Fiver

You seem to have missed this comment...

"Vintage Phillip's made Phillip's bikes are totally sweet..."

Raleigh built Phillip's bikes are still pretty decent...I know because I have worked on a lot of them and even Raleigh's "low end" Phillip's bikes were still pretty good and think Raleigh's thought on this was that a poor product offering at a lower level would have reflected poorly on Raleigh.

These Raleigh built Phillip's bikes are still far nicer than many of Raleigh's modern entry level offerings and despite being much older still seem to hold up very well... I know this as I have worked on many of them.

Raleigh seems to have bought out most of their competitors... Carlton also serves as a great example as Raleigh could not compete with Carlton when it came to building high end road bikes so bought them out and turned the Carlton holdings into their performance division.

Pre-Raleigh Carltons are like pre-Raleigh Phillip's bikes... their build quality is awesome and they fall into the group of being among the most desirable of vintage bikes.

g-funk

This is right on. My 1964 Phillips 3-speeds are essentially Raleigh Sports with a mattress saddle instead of a brooks, the lighter non rod brake compatible wheels (how can lighter wheels be bad.) and better brakes. 1/2 of the parts have the Raleigh stamp on them, the frames are identical. Did Raleigh make Phillips branded road bikes or something else to get them the stigma of being of inferior quality? Because it just isn't true on the basic 3-speeds. I also own a 66 sports and they are the same. Sheldon Brown's 1 sentance explanation of these bikes is wrong and doesn't hold up to the quality of the rest of his site. see for yourself.

https://cgi.ebay.com/Vintage-Pair-Phi...QQcmdZViewItem

raleighrider75

Raleigh(TI) bought Phillips in the late 40s(along with Triumph,BSA,Norman).It is true that Phillips was a competitor of Raleigh and you can find Phillips built bikes prior to that.By the 80s the Phillips line was dropped completely from Raleigh's offerings.

Coreyk

BCCI, a subsidiary of TI, bought Phillips in 1946, and later also owned Hercules, Armstrong, Triumph, and a few others. (They briefly owned the US Indian Motorcycle company, too.)
TI bought Raleigh in 1960, bringing in their brands under Raleigh's manufacturing umbrella.

Here's TI's web page on the subject: https://www.fundinguniverse.com/compa...y-History.html

It's pretty complicated. But Phillips was the Chrysler of the British bike industry for decades, and made some very good products.

CK

Road Fan

If you like three-speed bikes, this is good traditional example. $10 is a great bargain.

mickey85

I picked up a Phillips that I'm guessing, from the white cable covers, Brooks mattress saddle (the specific design), and other sundry parts, that it's 1965-1973 (the SA hub has a weird, non-date stamp). I've also got a step-through '73 Raleigh Sports. Same size (well, off by 2"), 3 speed, Sturmey, etc. For all intents and purposes, it's as close as possible to the Sports. Differences?

Raleigh has Westwood rims, as opposed to the Endricks on the Phillips.
Raleigh has different lugs (better, more uniform looking)
Raleigh has black, nylon-ish cable covers, Phillips has fluted white (both original covers)
Raleigh has Brooks B-72, Phillips has Brooks smooth Mattress (with the spring undercarriage)
Raleigh has the swan chainring, Phillips has a generic one
Raleigh has "R" ended nuts on everything - Phillips has open ended nuts
Raleigh has frame pump braze-ons, Phillips doesn't
Raleigh has stamped fender stays, Phillips has wire

You can see that there are quite a few things on the Phillips that would make it cheaper up front as a new bike, but in the end, honestly doesn't affect its ride characteristics. Honestly, the only thing I'd change about this thing as-is would be to gear it a bit lower (maybe 22 vs. 19 - I almost never use 3rd) and to swap out for a B68 or VO model 8 saddle.

derailled

I hate thesde peoplewho initiate a thread and never come back to it....( :

As you have not mentioned PHILLIPS in the chainwheel I might assume it is a Raleigh framed Phillips.
They have a distinct design architecture so they can use the same frame across the multitude of brands they bought out..so their genes would survive ( : They also used a concentric ringed chainwheel across brands they marketed using the old brand names and other minor differences to retain consumer loyalty .

Has your ladies Phillips got angular finishing on rear fork stays at the top of the seat post [ ovoid shaped flats where it is brazed on?

derailled

Major Dude...Did you buy it at $10.00?

Can you supply picture?

The Sturmey Archer Hub merely has the date 'it' was manufactured and it may have been changed since the Philliops bike was manufactured and new.

Modorange

Just found a Men's Phillips Manhattan bike that has a dyno hub on the back indicating (the hub) produced in 1957. The chain guard on it covers the entire chain and chainwheel so I can't tell whether it has a phillips brand cutout on it. Yet. Unfortunately the bike is very rusty. Pondering a trip with it to the local bike shop and get some advice about restoring it. Also the seat has the springs under it but the seat cover is deteriorated, leaving mostly the cushioning in view. Interestingly the pedals are in decent shape and the recessed reflectors on the pedals are still somewhat shiny. I think I may try to restore it and turn it into my leisurely bike for in-town.

rhm

Cool, that's even older than this thread! but don't mind my snarkiness.

Seriously, that sounds like a good old bike. Whether your local bike shop agrees or not will tell you more about the shop than about the bike.

Modorange

The owner of the store is a friend of mine and is known to restore bikes, (Norman, OK, Buchanan Bikes) so even if he thinks it is a terrible idea, it would probably not be out of motivation to try to sell me a bike, probably. I also have a friend who was for a while a Schwinn fanatic and who restored several of them, and gave me some pointers about rust removal (bronze wool) and even loaned me some bike tools, and a bike repair manual from the 70s.

However the only "successful" restore job I've done so far was on a circa 1960 Schwinn single speed coaster brake Speedster.. I've never tried any hub rebuilding on a S/A hub although the process is outlined in that book..

nlerner

I had a Phillips Manhattan for a while. It was an eBay find that looked better in the auction pics than it did once it arrived. Kind of a heavy, rusted beast. Sadly, this is what it looked like when I sold it:





The college kid who bought it described it as "cute."

Modorange

The front forks look identical on mine but mine doesn't have that cool decal, it has an art deco looking one. Also mine has a dynothree hub in back and a full chain case, which I'm trying to figure out how to remove to get to the chainring. I took it to the shop, he said for a daily rider to leave the paint alone, and dissasemble it and put new brake cables and oil in the back hub, and new tires. The paint is rusted but he said the patina would look better and the decals look better by leaving alone. Overall suggested a very conservative restoring approach.

threespeedhub

With a full chaincase you should have a circular plate that Will just pry off and a sliding plate in the circular plate which slides out. It needs to be out in order to get the circular plate over the crank arm.

David Newton

It would be cool if your name was Phillip, and you had a Phillips.
No end to the jokes about whose bike it was.

Modorange

I got the plate off has the Phillips lettering cut out of it. I've had the hubs overhauled. Need new chain, that was rusty as heck. Looking for a source for lights for the Dynahub generator. Front light is 6v, .25a and the back is 6v .04a.