Wednesday, November 20, 2013

Plaid Ride and Lumber Jack Games

Last weekend The BicycleSPACE located in Washington DC organized the first Plaid Ride and Lumber Jack Games ride.  I took the 1953 Raleigh Sports Tourist with its new bag support (see the earlier "DIY Bag Support for the Carradice Barley" post) the Barley bag was loaded with tools, tires, Clif Bars, windbreaker, etc.  The support worked well and stayed in place.


1953 Raleigh with DIY bag support.
Several hundred Plaid riders left from Franklin Square and rode to Kingman's Island for the Lumber Jack Smash lunch (hot cakes, eggs and bacon, hot chocolate and cider) and the Lumber Jack Games.  Much fun, here is a great Video of all the action.




8 comments:

  1. I also have a 1953 Raleigh Sports (and I also live in the DC area). I wonder if you could answer an authenticity question. My Raleigh is very original, but I see that your bracket attaching the chain guard to the chainstay is unpainted metal. Mine is painted black. Do you happen to know which is correct?

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    1. The original bracket on mine is chrome. I've seen pictures of other early 1950's Sports Tourist on eBay, and in catalogs at the threespeedhub site and they also appear to be plated. However, I have an extra bracket in some misc. parts I acquired and it is painted Black. Do you ever ride the Washington and Old Dominion bike trail? If so, I would love to see you bike, I live only a couple of miles from the terminus in Purcellville.

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    2. Thanks, that's helpful. Maybe I'll remove mine and remove the paint to get it right; I'll look for some of those pictures, too.

      I haven't ridden that bike trail; I live pretty close in to DC and haven't been out that far.

      Thanks again for the tip.

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  2. Looking at the '54 catalog, which is as close as the threepseedhub.com website has, it looks like the bracket on the Superbe Sports Tourist (Model #24) is unpainted, while the bracket on the Sports Tourist (Model #23) looks to be painted black. (Although it's not entirely clear from the drawing, I suppose. I'm curious if you look at it as I do.) Mine is a Sports Tourist, #23. Catalog here: http://threespeedhub.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/Raleigh-Catalog-1954-US.pdf

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    1. Check out this pix of two 1951 Sports. Both appear to be plated.

      http://www.flickr.com/photos/31289168@N03/11076338344/

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    2. True. On the other hand, both were restored, and by the same person, so we don't know with certainty that they were originally like that. I'll keep looking, though, thanks.

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    3. I ended up removing the bracket, and it was professionally painted black on all sides and showed no signs of having been bare metal. So I decided to leave it that way, at least for now. Thanks for the exchange, and happy riding!

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    4. I would do the same, I don't think you could go wrong either way, it appears Raleigh used both types.

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