Rak1240

I just picked this up at the local Goodwill for $21. I noticed the fancy Lug work and realized it wasn't just some 60's Raleigh. The saddle is Wittkop. I have googled it but haven't found any substantial info on it. Here are some pics.

Rak1240

I forgot a few things: It has internal cabling on the chainstays for the three speed hub. Also, here is the model - Ascona de luxe

David Newton

Don't know what it is, but it must have just finished a hard work-out, it is sweating real bad around the head (tube).

Neat bike, I wonder if it's Eastern Germany, or Polish. What rear hub is it? Brakes have a double circle, any name on the parts? What's the seat name? Higher end bike for that brand, I'll bet.

I like the little seat guards, but just behind it's all tore up, good try.

melonbar123

Stamped drop-outs, cottered cranks, probably really heavy? Don't know particularly about this model but it seems low end; I suggest you just ride it

big chainring 

In June I got a Rickert road bike on ebay. The seller also had a Rabenieck frame he was selling. It was a higher end model with Campy dropouts and 531 tubing. The seller was in Poland, but I think your bike is German. Very few German bikes made it to the states. Yours is very nice.

Oldpeddaller

Brake callipers look identical to the 1960's GB alloy ones I salvaged from a derelict (frame cut up) Phillips 3 - speed women's bike on my friend's farm dump. Mine are actually an early type of dual-pivot side pull, with a single spring on one side and interlocking arms. The circles would have originally been red if they are the same, with tiny white maker's name & model in them. Maybe these are similar!

Rak1240

actually it's not heavy at all.

johnlyons53

Very nice bike. The rear hub is a Sachs Torpedo 3 speed and notice the rubber plug on the lower head tube lug. That's for wiring the frame for a light set although I didn't see a lug for attaching the bottle generator. The chainguard is missing and the brake levers are not correct but the aluminum fenders and rack are there and it looks to be in pretty nice shape. I'd guess a '50s -60s German standard bike. Clean it up and enjoy and it'll go another half century or so.

rch427

Yes, this thread is 12 years old, but since I just found it in 2021 while Googling for examples of Rabeneick cycles, and there seemed to be a sort of unresolved question that the OP asked, I thought I would weigh-in.

I'm not an expert on Rabeneick cycles, but I have learned a few things about them over the years. They produced a fairly broad range of road and city bikes -- few if any in the high-end of the market, but none at the bottom. If I had to place them in the international quality bicycle-makers' hierarchy, I'd say just above Raleigh.

The Germans in the 3 postwar decades seemed to have mostly been interested in making cars and motorcycles, and the few bicycle companies that there were (Rabeneick, Dürkopp, Opel, Adler, Bismarck, Stollenwerk, et al) seemed to turn out good-quality but not particularly exciting or competitive bikes, with colorful paint jobs, flashy decals, and accessories. A good example of this is in their lugs: yes, they look fancy, with the cut-outs, contrasting paint, and hand-lining. But look how thick they are at the trailing edges! A British, Italian or French maker would have devoted the hand-work to filing those down, instead of to lining them. Not so much for saving a few grams of weight, but because the further one gets from the stress-risers (where the tube ends are), the less important thickness is, and the thinner the lug, the better the brazing. Thinned lugs simply braze more thoroughly than thick ones. IMO, one can tell more about the quality of a bike from the way lugs are handled on a steel frame, than from perhaps any other element.

And one other fairly reliable telltale: there is no mention of tubing on the frame. Rabeneick, like most makers, would have used "gaspipe" -- seamed tubing of uniform wall thickness -- which was heavy and not particularly strong. Better makers bought their tubing from specialist tubing makers like Columbus, Reynolds, Vitus, Tange, et al, and announced that fact on the frame, since it helped sell them and justify higher prices. I can think of very few makers above mediocre, who did *not* proclaim who made their tubing, with a decal on the frame. So unless the frame has been repainted or stripped: if no tubing-maker is listed, it is a good indicator of it being a mediocre frame.

randyjawa 

I won't say that I know much about the OP's bike other than it is nothing exotic or high end. I recently restored a Rabeneick 120d, a top of the line racing/touring bike of German origin. The OP's bike is also from Germany and probably late fifties or early sixties. Mine is of 1958 vintage...



Though well made, Rabeneick is a relatively unknown brand in collector's circles. In all my years of collecting and restoring, I have now seen three and two of those three include the OP's. That said, the OP's bike appears to be very original right down to more than presentable paint and art. It is the sort of bike I would like to restore myself, restoring in this instance means clean, polish and lubricate. Replace the consumables (tires, brake pads, cables and cable casings) and ride the bike. I should win the approval and capture the interest of anyone who sees it except my wife.

Nice find

martl

The Calipers on the Rabeneick are 99% Altenburger Synchron or some Weinmann. Germany had a huge bicycle industry and utilitarian bikes like this would have been equipped with domestically available bits from Sachs etc.

martl

Small correction: bicycle manufacture was *huge* in Germany and there were hundreds of producers on a larger scale, especially between ww1 and 2.

You are correct there were pretty few high end bike makers who went beyond local reach, the focus was on mass transport. There simply wasn't a market for "nicer" bikes after ww2, with the economy slowly recovering, people wanted some transport. My grandpa went from bicycle to used motorbike, motorbike with a sidecar (transport for a family of 4), microcar... Each was a step up in terms of mobility and status. This influenced of course the "German" style bikes were made.

You compare Rabeneick to Raleigh and I agree. This is true also in terms of size (well almost - it was a factory doing serial production, not a small Manufaktur.

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repechage

Altenberger- German