My english roadster is a Raleigh Sports from, I believe, 1963. I bought it at the dearly departed Sullivan's Bike Shop, located on Seabright in Santa Cruz. Sullivan's was quite possibly the coolest bike shop in town. Tom Sullivan was usually in the shop, often with his dog, occasionally with his kids, and surrounded by years of old parts, used cruisers, an old couch in the middle of the showroom ('tho I'm loathe to use that term), and the detritus of an old-time bicycle lover.

When I bought the bike, someone had repainted the frame by just spraying over everything, including the headbadge and decals. I rubbed off the headbadge, but the decals are pretty much shot. That's o.k. The Sports was a working class bike, designed as cheap transportation for the blue collar folks in Great Britain and beyond. It's not conceptually right to get all weepy-eyed and overly protective for such an unassuming bike. But maybe I'm rationalizing my not polishing away all the rust....

I added a lovely black Brooks B-66 leather saddle I picked up from a nice French-Canadian named Guy (it came with a new, bad mattress saddle I had Tom Sullivan take off). I also bought a Carradice waxed-cotton bag from Rivendell for storing stuff, and just recently bought the cork grips, also from Rivendell. I had experimented with cloth tape and shellac for the handles, but it wasn't quite right, and I dislike the rubber grips.

Other than that, it's got a Sturmey-Archer 3 speed internal-geared hub with a trigger shifter. It's a heavy beast, due to the rugged, gaspipe frame and mostly steel components.