Raleigh rally in cyber space

Yes I apologise, that’s an excruciatingly bad pun, and not even true: two bikes do not a rally make. But what are the odds of having two excellent bikes of the same brand, ripe and ready to post in the same day? It gets me all a jitter, and when I am all a jitter it seems that bad puns just roll off my virtual tongue (I should have been a sub-editor for one of Mr Murdoch’s rags.) Enough enough – let’s get into it.

First, because it is my favourite colour, this lovely Raleigh Twenty. The rider boxed it up and brought it with her from New Zealand, she said she had a bit of a time of it putting it back together (it’s not the folding model). You can’t really see what a magnificant shade of orange it is because it was an overcast day and there is only so much my phone can do. Like many of my finds it was in my patch, parked outside  my local cafe, Ici

(home of the Ici Bike). Ain’t it grand? And the little bike trivia factoid for today is in the name: see here the twenty is in numerals, not spelt out as it has been on all the other Twentys I have seen. That must be special ( I know there is a legion of Raleigh Twenty  fans out there, I have trawled their sites…I hope at least one of them is reading this and finds it an edifying experience).

Bike number two is a contribution from my number one scout, spotted in the city. A Stowaway. Beautiful.

I am loving the Raleigh style of matching mudguards and chain guards (rather than chrome). The chain guard on this on has had a bit of sticker love…

If you have a close look at the paint work (do you call it duco on a bike I wonder?) you can see it looks sort of annodised rather than painted, Curious. I have not really seen this before.

Ahhh, another great day in the world of little bike loving! If only the rest of life were so simple.