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 Popular
New-old-stock
22″ Frame
26″ Wheels
Frame No G94970
(Now sold)
This New-old-stock Ladies Raleigh is cosmetically original and unrestored, with its paintwork, box lining and transfers (decals) in superb condition.
It retains all its transfers (decals):-
- It was the final year for the steering head ‘Raleigh’ transfer, as Heron headbadges were then used instead.
- The transfer at the top of the downtube shows its model name ‘Popular.’
- The ‘loop’ transfer reads ‘The All Steel Bicycle.’
- The chaincase transfer is well-known: I’ve bought and sold dozens of Raleighs over the years, and even if the other transfers have faded, this one usually survives.
- There’s also a transfer on the rear mudguard.
1930 is an important year for enthusiasts trying to work out the age of their vintage bicycle, because that’s when chrome was first used. So if a cycle’s parts are chrome you know it’s 1930s or newer. Prior to that, a cycle’s bright parts were nickeled or painted. Raleigh was one of the first companies to offer chrome parts on their bicycles. The chrome handlebars on this bicycle are in excellent condition, though the pedal cranks and the hubs are pitted. As the chaincase has slightly mottled paint, in my opinion at some time in the past 95 years this machine was stored next to an air vent, where the lower components were affected. Apart from the superb original paintwork, another thing amazed me – look at the pedals; they do not appear to have been used.2
The previous owner found this Raleigh when he bought the contents of a cycle shop that had closed down. He was surprised to find it in the basement. I don’t know why the shop owner kept it rather than selling it, but I’m glad he did as it’s not often we see an unrestored bicycle in this condition. It even has its original Dunlop tyres. When I got the bicycle, the tyres did not hold air, so I fitted new inner tubes. Apart from that, everything else is as it was when it came out of the factory.
1930 RALEIGH CATALOGUE (1st Edition)
1930 RALEIGH CATALOGUE (2nd Edition)
