So Tuesday after work, I'm going to ride over to the nearby bike shop, Brave New Wheel and see if they have anything I can use. They do a lot of resto/repair work on vintage bikes, so hopefully they'll have some parts or at least some guidance for me.
I knew there was a fair bit of rust on this bike, when I bought it, but yikes it's really bad. I'm going to be spending a lot of time cleaning & polishing parts.
I'm also trying to gather more info about this bike, but some of the things I'm discovering don't make a lot of sense in the overall context of Raleigh bikes.
In 1982, the Huffy Corporation began building bikes for USA distribution, under license by Raleigh of England. The new Raleigh Cycle Company of America bikes were sold in the US, and the rest of the world received Raleigh of England bikes.
As of 1984, all USA Raleigh's, except the Team Professional and the Prestige road bikes were being manufactured in Japan.
From the very little information I can find on the internet, I believe my bike is circa 1981. Too early to have been officially made in Japan. Other weirdness is the serial number location and format.
According to Kurt Kaminer's website, Raleigh serial numbers between 1973 and 1982+ all follow a standardized location and format. Serials were stamped on the rear of the seat tube, near the top of the tube. Mine is on the non-drive side of the seat tube, located near the bottom bracket. It was also obviously stamped after the frame was painted, but every photo I've seen of a Raleigh serial number clearly shows they were stamped before painting.
My serial number, S1A1748, cannot be accurately decoded using the standard for the era. The problem here is, the serial for my bike only partly matches this format. My serial is S1A1748. To match the format correctly it would have to be SA1748.
So. I have no accurate idea of when or where my bike was built. It's not a huge issue, it would be nice to know though.
That's it for today, I think.
Hi Tim,
ReplyDeleteinteresting stuff to me. Thanks for posting the story.
Date of the bicycle. Several Japanese frame manufacturers follow a "standard" format for serial numbers. The first letter identifies the frame manufacturer, the next number is the manufacture year, the next letter is the manufacture month, the last numbers are sequential with each frame.
Your frame was manufactured in 1=1981 and A=January. I do not know who "S" was that manufactured the frame, although I have seen "S" serial numbers in this location before.
The Tange fork has a date code: 0L. The 0=1980 and the L=month December. This matches quite well with the frame date.
Hummer, Thanks for the comments.
DeleteYou've given a fair bit more information than I've been able to find anywhere else..
Thanks!