Now that this bike is ours, I've been doing a lot of Googling, trying to learn as much as I can about the bike and what to do with it. Lots and lots of information out there, but there are lots and lots of bikes in this world and info specific to the early 1970's Raleigh Sport III is not complete enough to make this easy!
The first letter and number on the serial number are either rusted up or gunked up (guess we'll find out which in time) but it appears to start with P8 or P9, which, going by Mr. Columbia's excellent site would seem to make it after 1972.
The Old Roads website here has a picture of the same bike:
| from OldRoads.com |
Basically, it had to have been sometime after 1971 when we moved to the location where we bought the bike, sometime before 1975 when my little brother was born, and most likely some time when I was still small enough to fit in the little tartan child seat that I distinctly remember sitting in on the back of that bike--most likely by 1973 or earlier in 1974. I was never a tall kid, but still I'm pretty sure I was out of the child seat by the time I hit kindergarten.
Just today I read that the Sturmey-Archer hubs used on these bikes (see how much I learned--laugh if you must, but when we first dug the bike out of the garage was the first time I noticed that the bike didn't have visible gears and it was a distinctly "what the heck?" moment), but anyway, the hubs used on these bikes may have their own stamp indicating the date--not able to go take a look now, but my inner Nancy Drew is itching!
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