Queen of Fleet Street (well my street!)

I had long wanted a Raleigh Superbe in my size. Tall framed Raleigh bikes are hard to come by, especially in the Walmart infested part of the country I live in. We had a small Raleigh dealership here for a few years back in the early to mid 70's, but they were expensive bikes in comparison to the ones available at the department stores, so not many were sold in this area. I listed it as one of my dream bikes on a thread at Bike Forums. A generous member contacted me and offered one he had just picked up for what he paid for it along with the cost of shipping. The rest is history, I have my dream bike and ride it every chance I get. I am loath to leave it parked anywhere I can't keep an eye on it...it took over 20 years to find it!

The bike that started it all (not really)

I like to think that this was the bike that started it all. It was in the fall of 1982, I was walking home from somewhere, because the car was broken down...again. It was an MG, but then again they alway were breaking down. LOL

I had to get to work or I was going to be fired for not showing up. Happened to pass a pawnshop, and this beauty (it was then ;-)) was sitting in the rack out front. They had a $50 price tag on it, I got it for $25, good thing because that was about all the money I had in the world at that point. I had not owned a bicycle in several years so it took a bit of time to reacquaint myself, but what they say it true. Once you learn to ride you never forget. This bike became my only local transportation for the next 4 years. It was ridden in street clothes in whatever the weather of the day that was provided.

It spent a couple of years with my brother as a campus bike, then came back home and was ridden by me until 1990 when it went into semi retirement. I dug it back out a few months ago, put air in the tires a few squirts of oil in the hub, cleaned the chain and off to the grocery store we went. I have since added new tires, seeing how the old were dry rotted.

Sharp eyed purists will notice that it has the wrong fork on it...my brother was standing on the pedals late one night when it went neutral on him, he hit a parked car, broke the forks and dented the head tube. Forks were replaced, the head tube is still dented. And dear brother got stitches in his shin and chin ;-)

Aaron