Art Design Studio Fine Art Tips / Creating Art in Small Studios. Yes it is a design studio located down town of our small mountain town

I bought a couple of vintage English bikes-Raleigh Sprites recently and decided to restore them. My idea of restoration is merely cleaning them up thoroughly, adjust few parts such as brakes, gears, gear shifter, re-pack wheel bearings etc and if I have to, replace parts but I try to avoid it if I can. I try to find bikes that are complete with all the parts present. Last thing I need is rummage through Ebay or surf the internet for hours looking for an obscure vintage part that's missing from the bike. So far I have had pretty good luck of finding some nice clean vintage bikes that people were getting rid of at a bargain. My last two bikes are early seventies Raleigh Sprites I bought through Craigslist, one is coffee brown and the other in deep red. They are both same year and model and also same size-60cm frames with 27inch wheels. Both bikes are in great shape except the sellers neglected them and they were covered with dirt, dust and greasy grime. I brought them home and gave it a thorough cleaning and they look fantastic. The brown Raleigh came with the gears completely frozen but it was an easy fix and I sold it a few weeks ago. I am also selling the red bike through my local Craigslist. I always forget to take before pictures to compare. . . hopefully next time. (see pics below)

This bike was a very nice Craigslist find. You can read about it in my earlier post.

I finally decided to sell my classic black, vintage '72 Raleigh Sport through the local Craigslist.  I'm a little sad to let this bike go but I do need some extra cash.  Within the last couple of years,  I've bought and sold six different vintage Raleighs and this bike happens to be the very first one I've bought and restored; so it does have some sentimental value.  The frame of this bike is not made in England but was made in Malaysia of all places and does have some surface rust on the paint; the chrome is not in so great condition. So for a bike I would like to keep as a collectable, I do prefer a "Made in England" and hopefully a much cleaner bike. I am always looking, so if you are selling let me know! This bike does have some nice parts; it comes with a vintage Brooks B55 saddle though not original to the bike; all the original Raleigh "R" nuts and bolts and even comes with the Sir Walter kick stand which is pretty rare.  I replaced the tires with some white-walls and it rides very nicely for a 40 year old bike. I listed the bike for $180 and a prospective buyer responded almost immediately. He came to see the bike the following day and within seconds of looking at the bike, handed me two hundred dollar bills and told me to keep the change.  I felt pretty good to sell the bike at a good price but it was definitely a bitter sweet moment. See pics below. 

This is a screen shot of Craigslist's ad for '67 Raleigh Sport 3 Speed step-thru I bought in South San Jose, CA a few weeks ago. I've been obsessed with vintage Raleighs lately and this is the 6th Raleigh 3 speed I bought within the last year or so. It came with the original Sturmey Archer 3 speed hub-dated '67 and shifter; The original paint on this bike is in great condition considering being 45 years old with just a few minor scratches here and there; all the chrome are in excellent condition without hardly any rust; overall a very clean bike. A great find for how much I paid!

I don't know if you can see it in the picture(click to enlarge) but the original Brook saddle was really warped and dry so first thing I did when I brought it home was to apply a generous amount of leather cream; sprayed quite of bit of water both on top and underneath the saddle; strapped the seat into a nice shape and tied it over night. Fortunately, the next morning, the Saddle took on a decent shape and the leather seems to be salvageable. Today, I inflated the tires and rode around the block in my neighborhood and thought how nice the bike was. But for now, it is sitting in my garage and I haven't had anytime to work on it more. I will upload some more pictures later.

Couple of my Raleighs I sold recently:

Just finished my "Raleigh 3 Speed" for my etsy shop. I could have finished it a week earlier except I did the unthinkable; as you know I create all of my work digitally but I made the mistake of filing the work in a different format and lost all of my original file and had to re-do the whole work. This work was based on one of my beloved vintage bikes: Raleigh 3 speeds made in England(see below). You can purchase it here.