Dating A vintage Raleigh

[shadaboot27]

I have bought a 1930's Raleigh sport. I can tell Its defiantly from the 30's because of the components on the bike but I'm trying to work out the exact age. The rear hub says it's 1939 but the rear wheel may not be original as the front and rear wheels do not match. I have found the serial number at the top of the seat tube but I can't find any websites with a decent dating chart. Can anyone help me?

 

[Spokesmann]

Pictures are worth a thousand words...

 

[shadaboot27]

Pictures of the bike or the serial number?

 

[shadaboot27]

Here's what it looked like when I bought it:



Then I took all the junk off it and flipped the bars to give an idea of what it will look like when it's done:





And this is the serial number:



I make the number out to be B6145 E

I should really go over the number with a bit of sand paper to make it clearer though.

 

[stevevw]

This may be of some help.

http://www.oldbike.eu/museum/frame-number-bicycle-dating-guide/

 

[stevevw]

or this

http://oldroads.com/ra_sn.asp

 

[shadaboot27]

Thanks for the links but I have already tried these sites. They seem to miss out the year 1939 and My serial number is nowhere to be found on either sites.

 

[stevevw]

Have you not considered 1925 on?

Loads of research material here
http://veterancycleclublibrary.org.uk/library/?action=search&searchtext=raleigh&items=96

Not relevent to yours but a good read
http://www.ipernity.com/blog/286349/599985

 

[Tony Raynor]

Sorry @shadaboot27 but every time I see the title of this thread I get a very pythonesque image of someone in a small Italian restaurant with a bicycle as their partner making small talk and giving the bicycle amorous looks whilst being served by John Cleese.

Must be to much sun for me lol.