Looks like a his 'n' hers Hercules pair with 23" frames for $150 in PA.

https://www.facebook.com/marketplace...56399763219665

https://scontent.fric1-1.fna.fbcdn.n...IA&oe=63E9F5DF

Well, now it looks that the seller did drop the price to $100. Hmm.

https://boston.craigslist.org/bmw/bi...586716132.html

Around here, that pair might sell for $100, probably not for much more. I live in a fairly rural, hilly area and 3-speeds are not popular here. People seem to like how they look, but most of the bikes I see are mountain or road bikes with 10+ speeds, or more recently, e-bikes. I'd pay more for an old 3 speed around here than most people would, but I'm one of the few people who specifically looks for them. I'm surprised at how quickly e-bikes are proliferating here. I now see 1 brand new e-bike on the road for every 2 regular bikes I see. I bet within the next two years it will be 50/50.

If you want his & hers 3-speeds as a Valentine's Day present, I'd say they're worth $200, given that $200 doesn't actually buy much any more. And there is $200 worth of parts there if you are the less romantic type. The bigger issue is the space to store them and the time and parts to fix them. I know I couldn't add two more bikes - I'm out of space to store them and probably won't have time to fix them. As it is, I need to downsize a bit.

Thanks, Mike. I did reach out to the seller last night, and they reported someone was coming by this morning to purchase the bikes. The seller did confirm that the price was $100 for both. I wouldn't have bought them to keep; instead, I would likely sell off the saddles to finance the operation, overhaul them, and then give them away to colleagues (grad students seem to be the most keen group to get a free bike). Getting more people on bikes is my goal!

Visited a LBS looking for some brake cables for the Triumph (finished a parts-bin drop bar conversion - the semi-upright bar set up wasn't working). The owner had his 1958 Raleigh Superbe within, including a B-72 refinished by Brooks some years ago. I didn't grab any photos since we were speaking, but it looks like the bicycle below, same blue colour, but in a much better condition. His came with an SW hub, which he put aside as it wasn't working, and now runs a '54 dated AW. Fun to see one in such a nice state of preservation. In these parts, I see old Raleighs and their Canadian made brands of the 60s and 70s really often during warm months, and rarely a '50s type. I usually don't run into people with deep Sturmey Archer and old Brit bike obsessions like myself, so it was fun to chat with him.

https://cimg9.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...29eb4088de.jpg

I am not sure that this is allowed but, I just posted my Raleigh Tourist in the "For Sale" section.

Ged117 : love that superb....same colour as my Humber....

His and hers Superbes. Minty fresh. Different secondary colours, I believe these were '61s

https://cimg0.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...c5b20aa76a.jpg

clubman : I must have been sleeping but when did Raleigh 3 speeds get chrome socks? Lovely bikes but I expect very expensive if they are even for sale.

The men's model is exactly the same condition as the fellow I spoke with, only his has the darker, somewhat gold secondary colour, and running a very nicely redone leather B-72 in aged honey colour. Fun to run into one of these in the wild. I almost made him an offer!

There was a period in the late 50s/early '60s where Raleigh Canada used either paint or chrome for their sox. I had a very nice 57 women frame in the bold red with white sox and a couple of the chrome versions as well. These bikes usually had starbursts around the headtube lugs.


https://cimg3.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...9069773739.gif

Sportsette for $40 here in town. Looks like it needs a gear cable.

https://www.facebook.com/marketplace...47900769903488

https://scontent.fric1-1.fna.fbcdn.n...aA&oe=63F25ECF

'33 Sunbeam Golden (not my bike)
https://cimg1.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...4674d9f453.jpg

Turista bones still languishing outside the now-closed co-op. New place is not open yet but they evidently moved everything they wanted there over there and the stuff left behind has been disappearing piece by piece.
https://cimg3.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...885c54ef78.jpg

I like Tourists but don't need/want one and don't want to hassle with another one (this would be about #5 if that were to happen) but if someone really, really, really wants it, contact me and I'll try to help you out. Missing the front wheel and part of the chaincase; fighting my instincts, I really have not looked that closely.

Don't need a Tourist, but a neighbor of mine does need a replacement rear (IIRC) rim for his Tourist, if you come across one in your travels.

-Kurt

I think the rears are all 40H but you might want to verify with your neighbor what he needs. If he's desperate I can fetch the carcass, remove the wheel and cut out the spokes in order to ship the rim, then keep the hub for myself and junk the rest but that's way more work than I want to do in the middle of the house remodel (kitchen and living room coming along nicely, thanks). I don't even have time--and more importantly, the energy-- to play with my own bike stuff. I'm sure your neighbor can find a rim more easily than that. Or maybe not. Perhaps by the time he decides, this one will have vanished.

P.S. I'd hate to junk the remains. Tourists are just too neat for that kind of treatment. If the thing disappears I'd wonder where it went but would at least be certain that I was not the one who sent it to its demise.

Even the later DL-1s with 36h front rims run 40h in the back, IIRC. I'd feel safe in assuming his follows that pattern.

From the looks of it, the rim looks pretty rusty anyway; was really just fishing to see if anyone had a spare hoop they'd part with.

If it wasn't for your remodeling, your time and effort, and the fact that these things are the size of the QE2, I'd just say plop the whole thing in a box and we'll tear it apart here. I know both my neighbor and I could both probably make use of the bits ;)

-Kurt

I might just go grab it anyway. This is the essence of C&V, after all, and what reasonable practitioner of the art can refuse?
------------------------------------

Meanwhile, a men's 24" Turista and a ladies' Sports for $300 in NJ.

https://www.facebook.com/marketplace...42855893226963

https://scontent.fric1-1.fna.fbcdn.n...eA&oe=63F46703

https://scontent.fric1-1.fna.fbcdn.n...Mw&oe=63F3DBF3

So long as your War Department doesn't object to it, it'll be in much better hands sitting around your place gathering rust slowly with a potential future (assuming you have no other place to store it than outside), than sitting in that dirt pit rusting quickly for inevitable scrapping.

Face it, even if someone else does pick it up with the intent of putting it back together, the chances that said person is familiar with rod brakes, 28" wheels, and 90mm dropout spacing is unlikely.

-Kurt

War Department is no problem. She's a fabric junkie and we have an "arrangement," one of those don't ask, don't tell things. Storage is an issue. Eventually I'll run out of space for bikes or tools or lumber or something, or else the garage will simply split open and spill everything down the hillside behind it. Problem then solved.

I'll try to go by tomorrow, hoping the thing is still there. Hate to lose it now that there's interest.

Best of luck. Storage shouldn't be an issue for a parts junker if you don't mind leaving it outside for a few weeks - it won't hurt that DL-1 any more than it already has been.

-Kurt

Welp, sad news for you Tourist tourists. I swung by late today to get it if I could, and I could so I did, but it is not the bike--or the bike bones--that we expected/hoped/wanted it to be. Something happened to the left fork blade.
https://cimg2.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...e2a8b8819d.jpg

Aside from that heartbreaking detail, the frame and its finish are in pretty decent shape. Paint looks good-ish for the most part.
https://cimg8.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...1713a9aca5.jpg

Hub date is January of '81, so one of the later bikes I've come across. Note the corrosion on the spokes, of which one is bent and pulled the nipple through the rim. Despite this, the rear wheel is astonishingly straight although there are rust patches on the rim.
https://cimg9.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...1dd19330d8.jpg

Never seen a chaincase rusted through like this.
https://cimg1.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...30adf25cfd.jpg

So that's the bike of our collective dreams and speculation. It's in my garage. I don't want it but there are many useful pieces on it for someone in need. Fenders are okay but stays are all bent up, rod brake hardware is mostly there but missing the front pads and a couple of small fasteners, bars and levers are decent. No idea if the Sturmey hub is good but you don't find many bad ones, so I'll need to put an indicator chain on it and see if it shifts.

There you have it. Let me know what the next steps should be. I'd like to see it go to a devotee or, barring that, to a different crazy person. I won't miss it and I think I already have a 40H hub rattling around here somewhere so I don't really need anything on this poor old bike. Thanks for following along.

You can see it dangling on the ground. May just need to be attached.

I suspect the trigger end of the cable is broken off, in which case the little ferrule might be missing, but someone might get lucky.

I have a number of NOS 28" replacement forks albeit with standard threading. They are white, easily painted and available for you or anyone else for the price of shipping. Long steerers too.

Thanks, that's good to know. I won't be needing one but anyone interested in this bike would almost certainly want one.

It looks as if the chaincase and one fork blade spent way too much time in mud and rotted out (unless the fork was cut - didn't look at the pic that close, to be honest - taking care of a million things here at the moment).

If it's an '81, does it have the larger 10mm axle slots instead of 8mm? If so, one of clubman's forks plus a pair of 700C rims and a coaster brake ought to make that a usable Raleigh Tourist again.

Question - that spoke that pulled through, was that from the rim breaking through or the spoke nipple splitting?

Question #2, but a stupid one: Any chance you'd have the time to get a rough shipping quote to Florida and possibly throw the carcass in a box (even skipping most of the usual box protection?) I really can't justify another project myself, but seeing as I'm the one who goaded you into it, and also seeing as @clubman has the fork, I'm open to volunteering to be the one who gets this back together into a usable form (unless, of course, there's someone local to you willing to pick it up).

I have one spare high-polish front 700C rim from an Electra Loft 7i that would be a perfect fit; it would just need another for the rear. I have a spare coaster hub and enough spokes kicking about that I should have the right size on hand to build the rear wheel from that.

Would make for a fun Box of Crap build. Honestly, it'll probably wind up being the best riding Tourist I've ever been on, seeing as it won't be dependent on rod brakes and questionably round rims :lol:

-Kurt

I'll take a closer look tomorrow and get back to you. I'm being expelled from the house for a few days next week while they sand and refinish the floors, so I guess I'll just have to be in the garage. Might actually get something done out there.

Here’s a story you might enjoy. I had an afternoon to kill in Eugene OR in August, so i rented a share bike and took a ride up the river trail. On the way back, i came across a woman on a trike who appeared to significantly exceed my meager seventy years. I rode along a while and we had a nice chat.

It turns out that she recently got the trike, because her balance had degraded. I asked her what she had been riding, and it was only one previous bike: a Hercules three speed, which she’d been riding since it was new.

I was delighted to tell her that my first geared bike was a Hercules three speed.