About your very Paramount-looking , Raleigh Professional , I meant to mention , I know that there's no doubt about it being a Raleigh Professional Track - but , check the holes in the head tube , for the headbadge !
A Paramount , of course , would have two holes . The two holes would be fairly close together . They would form a straight line going side to side . A Paramount headbadge is round .
A Raleigh , of course , would have three holes . The three holes would form a very tall and narrow triangle . A Raleigh headbadge has the tall Raleigh Heron , standing above the Raleigh name .
And , the Schwinn Paramount headbadges are held in place with the very tiniest self-tapping sheet-metal screws you have ever seen . Raleigh headbadges , even from way back in the 1950's , are held in place by small rivets .
I couldn't quite remember about the details of the rivets . So I just went and checked . My two Raleighs with Sturmey Archer rear hubs ( one is a 3-Speed , but the other is a 4-Speed ! ) are from about 1951 . Both headbadges are held in place with 3 tiny rivets . I would bet that the rivets are aluminum ( or aluminium , and they say in Nottingham , England ) . My circa 1970 Grand Prix , and my circa 1973 Professional Track have badges held in place by slightly larger , hollow , brass rivets . Myself , I'd call them "pop-rivets" . And all four of those badges have areas of both bright color ( probably enamel ) , and shiny-bright polished brass , all safely preserved under a protective coat of clear lacquer ( might be varnish I suppose ) .
( and when all of the protective clear coat is gone , and all of the color has been lost , and all that's left is the embossed solid brass plate , well , that's beautiful too ! Ann Phillips has a really spectacular old example of a fancier style ! And of course , the last of the brass ones were cheaper , not embossed at all , just plain smooth brass . . . )
Hmmmmm , those rivets , solid aluminum , or hollow brass - did they change at a certain year ? Or is it a , 3-Speed upright-handlebar , versus dropped-handlebar , sort of a difference ? I checked my circa 1970 Gran Sport frame set . It has the hollow brass rivets , just as the other dropped-handlebar bicycles have . All right , I do have the remains of what I'm pretty sure is a late 1970's Raleigh Sports 3-Speed . . . It has the solid aluminum rivets , just as the Raleigh Superbe Sports from an earlier generation have !
Hey ! I learned something ! Raleighs with upright handlebars , at least in my house anyway , have different rivets holding the headbadges , different from the dropped-handlebar Raleighs !
And , when you think about how many of the cheaper , late-1970's , unwanted Raleigh 3-Speeds there are out there , changing hands at garage sales ( or not selling at all ) , well , $ 15.00 for a headbadge seems a bit steep .
But , when you look closely at that finely made , beautiful , solid brass , headbadge . . . $ 15.00 seems cheap .
Cheers , Raoul Kansas
Sent: Wednesday, July 09, 2003 12:36 PM Subject: Serial Numbers For Old Raleigh Frames
Since you asked about serial numbers on older Raleigh frames ,
The very best information I have EVER seen about Raleigh serial numbers , is to be found here :
http://retroraleighs.com/
http://retroraleighs.com/
And by the way , Carlton Cycles ( C.C. ) was an independent business , until Raleigh bought them , approximately 1959 - 1960 . The Carlton workshop ( factory ) was located in the town of Worksop , England . Raleigh left Carlton fairly independent , for some time . Gradually they became more and more "just another factory" . Slowly , over the years , the Carlton name on a frame came to mean less than it once had . But still , the old Carlton shop , in Worksop , England , was where Raleigh made the real racing models for quite a few years !
Cheers , Raoul Kansas
Raoul Delmare
Marysville Kansas