One can never say, but it is a very good specimen. I would expect that bike to fetch $300 or so. But timing is everything. All the seller needed was one buyer who was sentimental about the bike who hasn't shopped for long and doesn't have the patience of a spider. Better, of course, if there are two or three such people.

And there are so many factors in timing, such as holidays, time of day at end of auction, weather, and so on.

The Brooks mattress style seems wrong. One would expect a B72 with a saddlebag rather than the Pletchor rack. The line of the front fender seemed slightly bent. Otherwise it is clean.

Maybe because men's frames are more often beat, scratched and missing parts, and this one was in very nice shape, it got a higher price? But those black Dare handgrips, wow; as clearly seen in some of the photos, they're split and rotting off the bars!

The cotters are put together wrong -both from the same side. Notice the cranks are not 180-degrees apart. I wonder what else is done wrong on that bike?

$520 plus $100 shipping is crazy for a Raleigh Sports. With a little patience you can find five or ten of them for that price, and one of them will be in as nice shape as this. I suspect there's been a mistake, and we'll see it relisted by the same seller.

Wow! I could see maybe a 23" Sports turning that kinda money but there was absolutley nothing special about that one.

Mine:

http://gallery.me.com/ilynne/100080/IMG_0475/web.jpg

I really love this bicycle. The Peugeot may go to a new home, but this one is a keeper.

What are those square white areas on the front forks? I saw similar reflective(?) areas on the forks of a 1965 Sports/Colt frame I had.

http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5307/...9288a66c40.jpg
'65 Sports "Colt" type frame by w1gfh, on Flickr

I finished another project so I need to find another one.

http://bikeforums.net/attachment.php...hmentid=196844http://bikeforums.net/attachment.php...hmentid=196845

I think it is a square of very old and hardened reflective tape. My 1972 DL-1 is festooned with these tapes on the forks and chain stays. I think it is some effort to make it street legal since there are no front or wheel reflectors. That is just a hunch though. I am in the process of scraping mine off.

More wrong on further examination of the eBay Sports. The rims appear not to be westwood and wrong tires. I think the front fender is bowed because of dented right fender stay. They also did not reuse the R nuts on the cotters when they misaligned the pedals.

Judging from the bids, there were a few who were willing to pay top dollar for the bike.

The R-nuts don't fit most all the cotters you can buy today except for some custom-milled ones.

That is actually correct for that bike. If you notice is has Endrick pattern rims and no pump pegs. That makes it the Sports Standard which was a lower end model of the Sports, and it was most likely made in Malaysia, you can just see the little yellow sticker on the front of the seat tube just above the BB. It will have been made around 1971-72.

I have one of these, but not in nearly as nice a condition.

Aaron :)

The early 80's "Sport" (no S, really -that's what the decal says) I just did, and posted a pic of above, has a mattress saddle that isn't quite a Brooks. Nowhere on it does it say Brooks so I imagine that the saddle, like everything else on the bike is a licensed copy built entirely in Asia. Even the hub is a Shimano that plainly says "Made in Japan," and the rims are not Raleigh-patter although the BB and headset are Raleigh-type-ish. The cranks are cottered but the spindle is few thousandths larger in diameter and the BB shell is normal width but still 26tpi.

Weird bike.

The "R" mark is actually a little disc press-fitted into the open end of the nut. You could conceivably pop them out of the Whitworth thread nut and press them into a more standard nut to use them with new production cotters. Most new cotters have threads that project beyond the end of the nut, so you'd likely need to trim the threaded section first.

I'm about to buy a cone wrench set to make an adjustment to the back hub on the old Raleigh Sports (crank turns while the bike walks). Are they standard size, or do I need a special vintage Raleigh size?

15mm and 17mm if I recall correctly.

Those look like they may have been added by a PO. There was a "kit" that was put out at some point to add a piece of white reflective tape to each side of the front fork on all Raleigh bikes to meet some standard. I have a copy of the directions somewhere.

Aaron :)

Are you sure? I thought the front hub cone takes a 15mm and the SA hub takes a 16mm...I'll have to go look.

That's when my DL-1 was built. It has a 65 12 date code on the AW hub.

http://i42.photobucket.com/albums/e3...1/DSC00040.jpg

I just checked and I was wrong above. The wrenches needed are 15mm and 16mm.

I know I did a bike very recently with a 15/17 combo though because I remember being surprised about it because 17mm isn't that common. Perhaps it was the Shimano 3S I did the other week. I must have gotten the two mixed up.

The Park cone wrenches come 13-14 and 15-16 which is an issue unless you also have the 15-16 combination as you can't use both sides of the wrench at both times. It is nice that they have this selection so you don't have to buy a whole second set of the Park 13-14 & 15-16 wrenches

You really do not need the 17-18mm wrench as those are pretty darn rare in my experience. When you do run into the rare 17mm it is usually on the outside anyhow and you can mostly get away with using a regular wrench on the outside unless you are must adjust the cone while on the bike. Even so, you can buy all four of the wrenches on Amazon for under $30 shipped via that link I gave above.

if you buy cone wrenches stay away from the Avenir set. They seem like a great deal for 2 matching multi-wrenches but I've got a set of those and they are almost totally worthless. If a cone is even remotely tight the wrenches will strip getting it loose. I never over-tighten them when assembling so they are fine for that IMHO but you can't use them to take off old cones that have been on a long time or have been over-tightened from the factory. That afore-mentioned Shimano 3S was so tight that I almost killed my 15mm and was using a standard 17mm on the outside. That Avenir combo cone system wouldn't have lasted a second.

It is properly called a spanner and the rear hub cone tool looks like this... and is 16mm.

http://budgetbicyclectr.com/media/ca...file_78_16.jpg

Silly Brits ;)

Spanner:

https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/_Y...12/Spanner.JPG

16mm Cone Wrench:

https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/_Y..._tzc/DCW-2.jpg

I'm going to try to find one of those. FWIW, the thinner, the better on an SA Hub--can be tough to get it in and out.

The PCW-2 cone wrenches from park are plenty thin. I've never had an issue with them.

Although I wouldn't turn down the antique wrench if it were a gift. I appreciate antiques and curiosities. I might even use it -but is not necessary.