BSA/Raleigh

[TriGirl32]

Hi

Hoping someone will be able to give me some info on this bike. I picked it up from a lady who had it for years.
It’s still got the old child’s seat on the back. Has got a basket on the front too.
It has got a BSA sticker and also Raleigh sticker on. There is a code on the seat tube what I can read is ND411 663 not sure if that means anything. Was going to give her a bit if TLC but would love to know what bike it is and history possibly!


Thanks you

 

[SkipdiverJohn]

What you've got is a BSA-badged clone of a Raleigh roadster dating from 1974. It's somewhat unusual in having a fully enclosed chaincase combined with cable brakes, but manufacturers mixed and matched all sorts of features to appeal to particular customers.
It's really a Raleigh in disguise, so is a good quality bike and with the Sturmey Archer 3-speed gears should be utterly reliable so long as it gets an initial going over and a squirt of oil to the moving parts now and again.
I have a rod-braked gents 3-speed Raleigh made in the same year and I fully expect it to outlast me. When I got it I regreased it's bearings, oiled the hub gear and chain, and fitted new tyres. These things are basically bomb-proof and will run for decades with just minimal maintenance.

 

[midlife]

They were still making these into the 80's.! I wonder with the fluted seat stay caps and the cable guides on the frame it's not 1984?

The curved frame downtube Roadster with rod brakes sold in my day as a Superbe Royal.

 

[SkipdiverJohn]

They were still making these into the 80's.! I wonder with the fluted seat stay caps and the cable guides on the frame it's not 1984?

It's conceivable it could be 1984, but the reason I went for '74 was the style of the Raleigh hi-tensile tubing sticker on the seat tube. It's absolutely identical to my roadster's sticker, and I have a late '73 dated SA hub gear. I wonder if the fluted seatstays were a cosmetic feature to differentiate the BSA from a Raleigh-badged bike? They are different to the ones on my Raleigh, which have the quite abrupt bevel. The OP could check the gear bub date on hers and confirm, but my money is still on 1974.

 

[TriGirl32]

Thanks..

Does the number on the seat tube mean anything?

 

[SkipdiverJohn]

Does the number on the seat tube mean anything?

It gives the manufacturing plant origin (Raleigh had more than one facility), month, year within decade, and the remaining digits are a sequential serial number showing how many bikes it is into that month's production total.
So in your example; Nottingham build, in April, of either 1974 or 1984, followed by the actual serial number.

 

[carpenter]

I love the child seat

 

[TriGirl32]

I love the child seat

I know.. My mother had one exactly the same for me 39 years ago!!

I have taken it off at the moment to give it a good clean..