Dubbed the Marque III, the new Lenton now featured 27" x 1_" wheels with wide flange Continental style front hub and to accommodate provision (as an option to the usual Sturmey-Archer FM hub) of a Benelux four-speed derailleur, brazed-on fitments for bare wire controls on the top tube and chainstay were provided and the pump pegs relocated to under the top tube to make room for bottom tube lever. The large club style bag was deleted and provision of white tape and plugs on the handlebars and a white peak head imparted the au courant Continental flavor. The cost for the rejuvenated model went to 23.17 s. 6 d.; not quite the value for money of yore given the late Super Lenton, a far superior machine, cost 22. 12 s. 8 d. the year previously And ladies were not invited, at any price the Marque III, no. 3, was available only in a 21" and 23" gents frame. Resurrected in Raleigh's post-war range, announced in March 1946, and now assigned no. 25, the Lenton Sports' frame (still 21" and with a 71° angle) was now constructed of Reynolds 531 tubing with a newly designed fork and new colour: Polychromatic Olive. Although Cycling magazine praised it as being "a sound machine at a moderate price," it was withdrawn in spring 1947 and superceded by the Clubman in 1948.

This article was kindly contributed by Robert Dineen for our 130th Anniversary Booklet. Robert is a sports journalist for The Daily Telegraph and the author of Reg Harris: The rise and fall of Britain’s greatest cyclist (Ebury Press).By 1954, the colour range for the Lenton Sports had been expanded. While the Lenton Sports was still offered in its trademark Lenton Green, the Humber Clipper in Polychromatic Electric Blue and the Rudge Pathfinder in Polychromatic Maroon, any of three models could be also supplied in Polychromatic Mediterranean Blue and Lustre Royal Carmine. Mudguards and pumps for the blue machines were red. In 1971, he returned to racing, winning a bronze medal in the British championship in Birmingham after little preparation. With more training behind him, he approached the British championship in Leicester in 1974 in more confident mood, and beat Trevor Bull to win the title at the age of 54. In 1975, he returned to Leicester, but was narrowly beaten by Bull in the final and had to settle for the silver medal. He continued to cycle almost to his death. From that, you might be able to work out that Dineen's biography is one part Lance Armstrong's War (the world against Reg Harris and Reg Harris against the world) and one part Paul Howard's Sex, Lies And Handlebar Tape. Let's now jump to another quote, this from toward the end of the book. An important source for some of the story Dineen tells is Harris's daughter from his first marriage, Marilyn Harris: Undeterred, he continued to train wearing a plaster cast and unbelievably, thanks to the public insisting on his inclusion, he was on the start line in the Olympic sprint and tandem sprint finals. Understandably, the injuries took their toll and his broken body meant he could only claim silver medals in both. Raleigh is now part of the Accell Group, a European company that owns a wide range of bike brands throughout Europe.

Harris Raleigh' No 2842. Seat tube 22 9/16". Top tube 22 7/16". Wheel base 40". Chain stay 16 1/4". 73 degree angles.Harris was born as Reginald Hargreaves at 7 Garden Street, Birtle, Bury, Lancashire,. [3] His mother, Elsie Hargreaves, a cotton weaver, [3] remarried and Reginald took the name of his stepfather, an engineer and businessman called Joseph Harris. By the age of 16, he had won his first prize in the sports days that were organised for the families of the local community and attracted the region’s best amateur cyclists. Before long his sprinting ability was such that he had begun to make more money from pawning such rewards than he did on the production line. “It was almost like being a mini-wholesaler,” he said. “One had to be commercially minded. It was a question of selecting those occasions where the prize values were good and where one could challenge for two or three prizes in an afternoon.” The Lenton range was last offered to the British market in the 1961 model year. Raleigh completely revamped its sporting and racing range with new models such as the Gran Sport, the first Raleigh to feature Campagnolo 10-speed derailleur gears, and the Blue Streak with a 10-speed Benelux derailleur. The last of the Lentons appeared in the 1962 North American catalogue as the Lenton Convertible featuring a three-speed AW hub and a three speed Cyclo-Benelux derailleur combination. By 1963 the Lenton was completely out of production. That year Sturmey-Archer ceased production of their classic club and racing FC, AC, FM, AM and ASC hubs. It was truly the end of an era, not only of a remarkably successful model, but of a quintessential British form of cycling. The Lenton was gone and with it the classic British club bike.

Kanchelskis made history by becoming the last player to score for the former Soviet Union during the state’s last official game in Cyprus in November 1991. Read More The Raleigh catalogue for 1957 lists the Lenton Sports in 1956 spec., the model changed to Marque III in Spring 1957. The bicycles were still hand built, but hand built in batches. Raleigh management decided something had to be done and Gerald O’Donovan; his family originally owned Carlton (and then worked for Raleigh), took over a small factory at Digby Street in Ilkeston, Derbyshire. In 1974 he created this new factory for making very small numbers of outstandingly high quality specialist frames and bicycles. With only six specially selected expert frame builders from the Raleigh factory; these builders were also chosen for their inventive capability, as Gerald O’Donovan was very much focused on future innovative developments with his new unit.

Traded items with a signature of Reg Harris

He retired in 1957 to devote himself to various business interests, none of which really suited his tastes or abilities. He managed the Fallowfield Stadium, renamed the Harris Stadium in his honour; he was involved in various abortive ventures associated with Raleigh; and he started a 'Reg Harris' bicycle manufacturing business in Macclesfield which lasted three years before folding. He then worked in sales promotion for the 'Gannex' raincoat company, before working for two plastic foam producers. Reg was born at Birtle in Bury on March 1st 1920. He joined the CTC in 1935 and rode with his pals of those days Billy Nuttall and Jimmy Battersby. The latest Lenton was offered in Raleigh, Rudge and Humber models: the Raleigh Lenton Sports (no. 28), Rudge Pathfinder (no. 128) and Humber Clipper (no. 328), which varied only in their forks, colours and decals. The Lenton Sports introduced its own distinctive colour, Polychromatic Lenton Green, while the Rudge Pathfinder was finished Polychromatic Metallic Blue and the Humber Clipper in Polychromatic Lilac.

marks a period in Raleigh history with not only the forming of the 1974 team, but the beginning of a period of dominance not only for the team but for Raleigh bicycles in the continental race arena for best part of a decade and more. The Raleigh team, whether in the guise of TI-Raleigh or Panasonic Raleigh was the last great powerhouse team of the classic era – all equipped with SBDU built bicycles. 1974 Raleigh team He retired in 1957 to devote himself to business interests, none of which suited his tastes or abilities. He managed Fallowfield Stadium, renamed the Harris Stadium; he was involved in various abortive ventures associated with Raleigh; and he started a 'Reg Harris' bicycle manufacturing business in Macclesfield which lasted three years before folding. He then worked in sales promotion for the ' Gannex' raincoat company, before working for two plastic foam producers. He retired in 1957 to manage the Fallowfield Stadium where he’d cycled in his first competitive velodrome race more than 20 years before. Past winners of the SJA British Sports Awards". Sports Journalists' Association . Retrieved 19 October 2015. It seemed people were more interested in stoking Harris's legend than in questioning the legitimacy of his win. Just as he needed their adoration, it seemed they needed to exalt him. Perhaps that is not unusual in cheating's long history. Maybe we are often complicit in demanding of our sporting heroes feats that are narrowly beyond them."From Burners and Choppers to Grifters and Vektars, we’ve imagined and reimagined the world of cycling more times than we could possibly count. 130 years of dreaming, designing, building, riding. And, after all that time, we’ve come to the same conclusion we started with – we just bloody love bikes. Down, R. (1987). Reg Harris: An Appreciation. Biology Curators Group Newsletter. Vol 4. No 8. p146-147 This machine was built for the reigning World Pursuit Champion Sid Patterson to contest the 1953 title. Raleigh had signed Patterson as it was more than a good bet that he would repeat the 1952 success – he did. They presumably decided to mount Patterson on a Rudge to promote this line as Reg Harris would be on his familiar Raleigh and expected to seal the Sprint event. When Reg died in 1992, some older members of the Section who could remember riding with him attended his memorial service at Bury Parish Church. Gradually the SBDU, moving from Ilkeston during 1987 to Nottingham, became the Special Products division, and although this was not a ”strategic” move on Raleigh management’s part they had lost the understanding of how the division might continue to fit within the organisation – especially with the retirement of Raleigh’s Managing Director Sandy Roberts, and a champion of the SBDU, at the beginning of the 1990s.