Another barn find

[Gunk]

Looks like a pile of sh*te to me! Everyone to there own. Surely it would cost more to clean up than what it's worth.

I can completely understand your views, and obviously you’re not really a vintage and classic bike enthusiast.

However for me personally there is a real pleasure in giving a bike like this a second chance, taking time and care to carefully restore and preserve these lovely, well engineered bikes so they last another 60 years.

I’ve done loads where I’ve made absolutely no profit, but for me the satisfaction of bringing them back from the dead is worth it. I completely understand people not getting it, but life is not always about profit or money.

 

[Chris S]

@stalagmike this is the one I was on about


View: https://www.facebook.com/marketplace/item/315494296219120/

You would be lucky to get £200 for it when it's fully restored. Another one for the 'Your having a giraffe' thread.

 

[stalagmike]

I agree. £200 AFTER restoration would be slightly closer to reality but he's having a giraffe with that as it is. Unless it belonged to Lawrence of Arabia or someone and he's got provenance to prove it.

 

[oldkit]

About forty years ago, my Insurance salesman reckoned he had a Motorbike previously owned by Lawrence of Arabia. with the logbook for confirmation. I think he said it was a Sunbeam. (good local make)

 

[stalagmike]

About forty years ago, my Insurance salesman reckoned he had a Motorbike previously owned by Lawrence of Arabia. with the logbook for confirmation. I think he said it was a Sunbeam. (good local make)

Lawrence of Arabia had 8 x Brough Superiors (well he died after crashing number 7 while number 8 was on order). So he was definitely a fan of motorbikes.

 

[SkipdiverJohn]

I’d also say early fifties and it looks like it could be the “Sports” model due to the cable brakes and alloy rim on the rear.

The frame is the one used on the Raleigh Sports model, a relatively short wheelbase design and fitted with 26" wheels. My 1974 Rod-braked Dawn Tourist uses the same basic frame. Raleigh kept the frame design in production for several decades. They ride very well and don't feel cumbersome at all. The fork lock can probably be picked easily enough using improvised tools in the unlikely event it is actually locked. The keys can still be obtained anyway.

The All-Steel refers to the frame. Some of Raleigh's competitors used cast iron bottom bracket tubes!

Believe it or not, in it's day the Raleigh Sports was a fairly lightweight bike! Compare the Sports frame on 26" x 1 3/8" wheels to a heavy roadster with super-slack geometry and 28" x 1 1/2" wheels and there's a big difference.

 

[Gunk]

Picked this up today for £20, which is really all they are worth.

 

[SkipdiverJohn]

Bit too big for me ideally, but a good bargain nonetheless. My Raleigh Royal had no saddle either, which is why I think I got it so cheaply!
Any idea of the age of the Eclipse? I'm guessing early 90's because of the unicrown forks, and is that a 501 sticker on the downtube? I think the Reynolds 501 frames are underrated personally and ride two of them regularly. People look down on it, forgetting that some very high end Columbus tubesets were also cro-moly. The weight penalty compared to 531 isn't very big at all