This weekend I rode my 1974 Raleigh Sports about seven miles total from Silver Spring to Georgetown. The bike is small but you sit up high on it because of the upright sitting position. It's a fun and stately old fashioned ride that brings a few smiles to people who notice the bike as it rolls by.
The old Brooks mattress saddle was acceptably comfortable. The Brooks label on the back of these saddles tends to break apart and mine was poking me in the bum for a while until I stopped and turned the offending piece of label downwards.
The brakes on a Raleigh Sports tend to squeak and squeal embarrassingly loudly if applied too forcefully. So braking needs to be done ahead, ideally a block ahead of a red light. And I made sure not to get going too fast for fear of the need for sudden braking. The brakes on the old steel rims do work; it's just that they aren't as effective as I'm used to with aluminum rims.
I find the geometry of the Sports comfortable. It's just a fun bike to ride. Somewhat slowly, steadily, and in style I made my way through DC on the Sports. The three gears act as follows: Hills, Flats, and Downhills. Pretty simple. I pretended to be a character on Downton Abbey just rolling over to check how the nearby farm is doing.
I didn't want to face the uphill pedaling on the return ride, though, so the Sports and I rode the Metro home without incident.
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