1930 Raleigh Ladies’ Modele Superbe X Frame (Black Enamel, Unrestored)

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THE ROAD WHICH HAS NO ENDING…

It is the road that matters – the old Road – the only Road – the one true Road of Heart’s Desire. For I believe profoundly in the dictum of Robert Louis Stevenson, that it is the journey, and not what we find at the journey’s end, which brings us real happiness.

Do you say there are many roads? I reply that there is but one.

The road through the Trossachs, the road to Betts-y-Coed, the road to Newlands Corner, the road by Wharfs-side to Bolton Abbey, the road through the Isle of Oxney to Rye, the road to Dedham and Flatford Mill, the road over Dartmoor, the road to Killarney, the road to Miller’s Dale: these are not different roads, but merely stages of one Great Gay Road.

And this road is not confined to the British Isles; it stretches beyond the utmost limits of her far-flung Colonies and Dominions to embrace all the wide spaces of the world.

I grant there are different methods of traversing it …but for me one method is as much too slow as another is too fast. I cannot taste the true glamour of the road as a pedestrian, choked by the fumes of tar. Nor can I taste it as one of a packed line of impatient car drivers, hot and cross because an inoffensive old cow has seen fit to meander across the road and hold up traffic.

So just as there is only one real Road, so there is only one true way of tasting its joys to the full, and that – need I say it? Do you not know it? is through the bicycle.

– 1930 Raleigh Catalogue

 

1930 Raleigh Ladies’ Modele Superbe X Frame

Black Enamel

Unrestored, with most of its original 22ct gold lining intact

Sturmey-Archer ‘Model K’ three speed

Raleigh Pedals

22″ Frame

26″ Wheels

Frame No G42810

This wonderful Raleigh X Frame is cosmetically original and unrestored. Its first paint, box lining and transfers (decals) are all in excellent condition. It retains its Raleigh transfers on the steering head, chaincase (’22 ct Gold’) and rear mudguard. The lettering on the down tube has also survived, stating THE ALL STEEL BICYCLE in script. And at the top of the down tube you can clearly read MODELE SUPERBE in block letters. The gold lining forms ornate graphics everywhere on the bicycle.

The only transfer that is hard to read is the one fitted by the shop that sold it, which is on the seat tube. And the only thing I can find wrong with this bike is a small dent on top of the front mudguard.

The mattress saddle is a Brooks Challenge Model C20 Supplex in good condition; female riders preferred mattress saddles for extra comfort. By 1930 Raleigh had started using chrome, and fitting new Heron badges. But they still had a lot of unused stock, and this one has the older style head transfer and nickel parts.

 

 

 

 

1916 RALEIGH CATALOGUE EXTRACT

The Ladies’ X Frame was not illustrated in a Raleigh catalogue between 1916 and 1930. After 1916, it was allocated only a footnote on the Gents’ Raleigh X Frame page, stating that it was available for the same price.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

1930 RALEIGH CATALOGUE

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

1930 RALEIGH CATALOGUE