I picked up a pile of cheap bikes off CL the other day for $30. Out of 11 bikes, there were 7 that were complete and basically rideable if you really wanted to, but nothing but cheap old bikes, (Ross Eurosport 5 speed, 2 Murray cruisers, one late model Huffy ladies cruiser, two newer Kent BMX bikes, one Sears Free Spirit three speed, one Huffy Sportsman 3 speed, I listed those right away and every one of them was gone in three days except the Huffy ladies cruiser, which I ended up selling the wheels off it to someone in NM.
The rest were all missing parts or junk.
Among the parts pile there's a Raleigh Sprite 27.
Its a brown frame with brown round top fenders. The chrome is decent but the paint is rough. Both hubs have loose flanges, the front left flange has broken, come unpressed from the hub and slid to the middle of the hub, the rear flange is off completely. Basically both wheels have collapsed. Both rims are rusted where they sat on the ground for ages.
The saddle is good.
Also in the pile is a pair of minty clean steel Araya wheels that could pass for new, but they're laced to 135mm/100mm wide steel nutted Shimano hubs.
There's an Electra comfort bike with a cracked aluminum frame that had 700x42C tires and a Nexus three speed hub. But someone cut out the front hub with wire cutters. The bike has a battery pack so maybe someone stole a generator hub out of that wheel.
There's also a brown Raleigh hockey stick chainguard that matches the Sprite 27 and several Raleigh sports cranksets.
I rid myself of the junk pretty quick but I saved the Sprite 27 and the alloy 700C rims and tires..
The big question is what to do with the Sprite 27? I hate to just toss it, and I know it won't bring anything as a bare frame with rough paint.
I have enough parts to build it up with either the steel Araya wheels or the wider 700C Electra wheels. I'd lace in an AW hub though.
The fenders are the worst part, they're badly bubbled up with rust and will have to be either completely stripped and preserved or I need to find another set.
There is a pair of Wald 27" fenders in the pile of parts along with several later pair of Raleigh Sprite fenders, one set in red, one in yellow. Both were from ladies frames that weren't worth saving due to rust or crash damage.
Would anyone bother putting a Sprite 27 back together? It likely won't cost me more than maybe a set of spokes but spoke these days are likely worth more than the bike would be all done.
I could just use any old set of 27" wheels and leave it with derailleurs but I have zero interest in it as a derailleur bike.
Another no cost option would be to lace in a newer Shimano three speed which shares the same diameter hub flange size with the current large flange hubs in those chrome Araya wheels.
I also thought about just lacing it up with a coaster brake in the back too.
The requirements for a bike here are that it has fenders, black wall 1 3/8" or wider tires, and upright bars. All else gets sold off or junked for parts.