Slightspeed

1978 Raleigh Super Course, bought as a frame, BB, fork and bars for $20. Original paint and decals. Fun bike.

1973 Raleigh Super Course, rebuilt and restored from a scrapped and abandoned bare frame. My first ever build, still love riding it after 4 years.

surveyor6

USAZorro and Merziac married well.

merziac

Nah, just lucky.

decotriumph 

This one is en route to me. 1955 Indian Scout, made by Phillips for Indian motorcycle dealers.

Steel Charlie

In the early 80's one of the other shop owners I rode with had a Gilmour tandem. Beautiful blue and gold and just primo workmanship.

decotriumph 

Well, I just bought another one! LOL 1984 Raleigh Marathon. I've been reading a book about the Raleigh company, so this one caught my eye. It's in great shape.

fleslider 

Heres another Raleigh!

1974 Pro

rjhammett

Mine and my daughter's.

Stevensb 

67 Condor

76 Condor




75 MKM Metcalfe BAR

80’s Holdsworth Special

80’s Cougar



80’s Harry Hall


74 international

80’s Harry Hall

Dylansbob 

As found pics of the Falcon I bought this fall.

peashooter

Shame about the Falcon! Nice bike but will take a lot of work to bring it back.

Big Block

1946 Hobbs of Barbican Raceweight
Build thread


1952 EA Boult
Build thread

pcb 

I've seen your Holdsworth before and drooled, but just noticed the bottle cage on the reflector bracket. Simple and clever, and something that never occurred to my feeble brain!

pcb 

My Harry Quinn is a '74 Tourist, with a single rear shifter boss, so maybe built for an internal rear. Perfect for a 1x build. I stripped it down intending to go vintage with the Quinn, but it's been untouched on a hook for awhile. Need to move it up the queue. Tire clearance is surprisingly generous, can get 40mm actual in there without getting too snug.

There's a kind of matching black track Harry Quinn listed on UK ebay for a few months now. I've resisted so far. Fork is drilled for a brake, but tire clearance looks mega-tight. It's a track frame, not a path racer. Would probably need to 650b to ride it in the streets.

pcb 

....and speaking of tight track frames that are a little comfier with 650b, this '71 Carlton/Raleigh Pro Track. 700c clearance wasn't terrible, 25mm actual was doable, but it's not a forgiving frame, and the bb is track-high, so the 34mm-ish 650b Grand Bois Cypres Extra Leger tires smooth things out nicely.

650b:








700c:

southpawboston

Here's my 1971 Mercian, which the previous owner found in a dumpster with a rattle-can paint job, dented frame and a cracked BB that had been rethreaded Italian. He did his research and discovered that the S/N was consistent with that of a vintage Mercian. After some back and forth with Mercian they confirmed its origin. He shipped it back to the Mercian shop for a full shop resto-- new BB shell, filled some dents, and a full respray. They blessed the new BB shell with the same S/N, so the provenance is maintained. I have all the papers from that resto work as well as the BB shell that they replaced. It's now a pencil holder on my workbench.



And my 1982 Jack Taylor Tour of Britain. The previous owner bought the NOS frameset from the Taylor shop around when they closed up shop around 2000 and held onto it for 12 years after it had spent 18 years in the Taylors' attic. I built it up with mostly French parts.

John E

"A Falcon is a good English bike"
-- Charlie Harding of C. Harding's For Bikes, Westwood Bl., Los Angeles, 1970s

pcb 

'72 Hetchins Italia, with just a little bit o' "drool" at the fork crown. I had an even plainer Italia some years back, so this is a bonus, but I wouldn't mind just a bit more. Outside surface of the seat stay at the stay tops and rear brake bridge would do nicely. I've posted this here before, most recent work in 2020 was salvaging the Campy high-flange hubs from the FedEx-trashed wheels and having them rebuilt with Pacenti Brevet rims.

That's it for Brit bikes for me, which is kinda sad because I have a soft spot for them. Wouldn't mind a Mercian, and over the past 20yrs I somehow have let 7 Raleigh SBDU Team Pro frames pass through my hands without keeping a single one, which I now regret. But I can't keep 'em all and stay married, so whaddya gonna do? Fuggeddaboutit.

1simplexnut

How about a blue falcon ?

LucasHartong

That is a seriously beautiful bike! Man, those colours rock. And the geometry. Where does Boult originate from? Any story here...?

LucasHartong

This, by the way, is my Pashley workbike. It stood outside a cafe, but the friendly owner stopped and I could buy it. Here I was fixing some minor details, couple of months back. It's not easy to ride, rather wobbly when going over bumps in the road, but I really do like it.

steelbikeguy

dang, we need a button labeled "Like all of the posts". It would save a lot of time in this thread!

Well, I was seduced by the Raleigh catalogs of the mid 70's, and my first good bike was a Raleigh Gran Sport. After 14 years, it was replaced by a frame from a semi-local custom builder, but I didn't lose my attachment to the Raleighs.
Somewhere along the way, I also got interested in other British bikes such as Mercians or Hetchins. Somehow I missed getting interested in the sexy Italian and French bikes, which is hard to explain.

My first Brit bike that I picked up after they were popular was a '74 Raleigh International that was effectively still in the box. I've kept it as stock as possible, down to the original bar tape and other odds and ends. The grease is fresh, though.







The second vintage Raleigh is even sexier than the International, although in a different way. The Raleigh 753 Team bike was the high tech bike of its era, using heat treated tubing and built by a small specialty shop with Raleigh. The quality is (probably) higher than any conventional production bike. The Reynolds 753 tubing was very lightweight for the time, and I think Raleigh drilled the dropout faces just to emphasize that point.










The last of my British bikes came up for sale on the Classic Rendezvous site. It was my size and the price was fair, so I couldn't say no. Crazy lugs, lots of contrasting panels on the seat tube, and the lovely curly stays, so it's just a very fun bike. Plus, the 531C tubing seems to be flexy enough to make the bike fun to ride, so I've been very happy with it.










Steve in Peoria

Big Block

I have updated my post with the link to the build thread The thread for the EA Boult is here. It is a long thread as it contains the original owner's wonderful recollections. The paint replicated the original colours and design. Whilst most were trying to accentuate the lugwork, this was a radical departure, and from my research was confined to a few builders. The accent colour, pure magenta, is also at odds with the traditional large output bike manufacturers.
EA Boult was transitioning into Witcomb Cycles when this frame was built.
I hope you enjoy reading the back story.
Philip

LucasHartong

Thoroughly enjoyed reading it. What a project! Tip my hat to you!

Prowler 

Great thread and it seems that I cannot get enough of fine old British steel. I'll admit that I especially like the classic machines with computers and bottle cages. I know, not period correct but, to me, a clear indication that those bikes, like mine, are in steady rotation. On the road, in the wild, in harms way every week.

"Ships are safe in port but that's not what ships are made for."