RoadWearier

Please no snark or negativity. Just a yes or no on the price and some advice on what it might need. To save time I will disclose that I enjoy buying and trying different bikes, I don't do it to make money , god forbid, I just like buying and selling bikes so no need for anyone to screenshot my post history.


https://www.facebook.com/marketplace/item/630205202304386/?mibextid=dXMIcH

cyclophilia 

Yes, if it is your size.

Might need new tires and tubes, though I doubt from the photos that the mounted rubber is original
to the bicycle.

RB1-luvr

seems reasonable for my area (Connecticut).

Sedgemop 

That's a fair price if the saddle and bag are in good shape. From the single photo, bike looks to be in overall good condition.

RoadWearier

He said they were. But who knows. This is an IGH, yes? I thought I read somewhere it's harder to change a tire on an IGH but I don't know why

cyclophilia 

If by "IGH" you mean "internal gear hub"

then yes, the readjustment of the wheel in the dropouts and the reattachment
of the internal gear cable is slightly more fiddly than a derailleur-equipped
hub.

Nothing to worry about: with practice you'll be fine.

3alarmer 

.
...they only made and sold these in two frame sizes that I've ever seen in the US. That's the smaller 21" frame. There's also a 23" version.
I can (and did for my college years) make the 23" frame work for me. But the smaller ones feel a little cramped.

You might have trouble finding anyone who knows how to work on them, at this point in time. If that's an issue for you.
The rear flat change is not a big deal. The pull cable to the indicator rod on the hub needs to be disconnected at the end of the pull chain.

Then with the tube fixed and the wheel in place, you reconnect it by screwing the fitting back on. There's a little serrated ring nut on the rod, that tells you where it was adjusted to before.
The front wheel bearings on most of these need to be adjusted with the wheel in place, because they lack cone lock nuts. Again, not a big deal once you know about it.

A very durable city bike, that has all the stuff you need on it for wet weather riding.

LifeNovice1

Thanks for the info. I'm guessing at 5'10 the 21 inch version is going to be too small? He wasn't very forthcoming about the size. Same goes for a "I think 1985" vintage Schwinn Super leTour. People never seem to know the size of these bikes and are too lazy to measure it, it seems. If it meant $120-140 for me, I think I'd make the effort to know the size.

3alarmer 

...the 21" frame might be doable for someone 5' 10". It's an upright riding position, so that's a little more forgiving. Your best bet on something like this is to ask the guy, politely, to take a tape measure, stand the bike up straight on both wheels, and to measure the height of the top tube (AKA standover). Then compare that standover measurement against some other level top tubed diamond frame bike you know works for you. I', 6'2", so all the Raleigh Sports I've ridden and enjoyed over the years have been 23" frames. Which are harder to find.

The other thing on these is the gearing. Mostly you find them with AW hubs, which is about set up for what you need in cruising around the city, unless it's very hilly where you live. You can adjust the gearing up or down easily, by replacing the cog on the rear hub with either more or fewer teeth. But you're still stuck with the same range jumps between the three gears. There's probably a lot of stuff on Sturmey Archer 3 speed hubs on the internet now. I learned about them just because nobody wanted them any more when I was in college, so the Raleigh 3 speeds showed up in thrift stores a lot. Derailleurs were all the rage at that point in time.

3alarmer 

.
...there's this whole long thread on these, over in the C+V. Lot's of pretty good information there, if you have the time to scan through it. For the love of English 3 speeds...

nlerner

“High Sports”? No such thing.

In my market, that’s twice the price of what these are listed for on CL:

https://boston.craigslist.org/nos/bi...612139577.html
https://boston.craigslist.org/gbs/bi...610980425.html

3alarmer 

...I assumed it was just the remains of a decal that originally read "Raleigh Sports", with the "Rale" missing.
It's pretty impossible to assign a value to these, just from pictures. Most of them are pretty old at this point, and mechanical condition varies.

I just gave a recently overhauled Raleigh Superbe (the deluxe Sports model, in the BRG colorway) to the bike co-op here, because I didn't want to deal with selling it via CL.
It was not nearly as pristine, cosmetically, because it actually got used. But without being in the same room with one, I couldn't set a value to save my life.

LifeNovice1

Yah. I was going by the picture. Supposedly those are the original tires...so +$60 for tires and tubes at the very least. I was reading a guys blog on these and I'm not sure it's going to work for me. I have a lot of steep hills and apparently 1) These bikes are heavy AF...40 lbs or so. Plus the brakes squeal and together with the steel rims are just too risky and if I'm going to replace all that stuff I could get a Linus or Priority for that much

3alarmer 

...it's not something you want to buy if you have a lot of hills. I have one where I spent the time and money to rebuild the wheels, with alloy rims that have hooked beads and will take a better tire at higher pressure. I still wouldn't ride it around if I had a lot of hills, because of the gearing limitations. It kinda looks like one of those bikes that sat in the corner of someone's garage its whole life. That means that all the bearings probably need cleaning and servicing, and the pedals suck. Here's what one that gets used regularly looks like, for comparison.
.
.

Chuck M 

That almost describes my old bike interest except I don't really sell any of them. I just like finding them, fixing them and riding them. Right now I'm working on a '54 Hercules that is not in nearly as good of shape and I will sink more money into it than it will ever be worth. To that end, if I thought that Raleigh would scratch an itch I would probably offer something like $175, because that is about as itchy as I am. If I didn't have the Hercules,I would probably seriously consider the sellers asking price and offer something closer to $200 because all they can do is decline it. It looks like it has a lot of panache.

Expect to replace tires, tubes, cables, etc, and do a tear down of all bearings and an adjustment of the shifting.

LifeNovice1

Thanks all! I love these older bikes. I love old tech, antennae tvs, etc. But it sounds like these may be miserable to ride on hills so maybe I should pass