The internet was different for a while after it began. You had a hard time finding commercial sites. Almost all sites were information sites. The rule was that you gave more than you received. But it didn't take long before commerce showed up. Some commercial sites still gave more than they received and some still do. Some commerce will eventually creep into this site. But I will still try to give more than I receive. I won't be using this site to make money. I may try to influence you. But it will be about what bicycles should be popular, or something like that.

So what can I give? I've been working as a bicycle mechanic for about thirty years, from 1973 to the present. Before that my experience adjusting and repairing bicycles goes back to 1961. That's one year after I got my first real bicycle, a Hercules Hawthorne 3 speed 26 " bicycle that was sold by Montgomery Wards and was "Made in England".  It is shown here from a 1960 Montgomery Wards catalog.
That was the first bicycle that I worked on so I learned about English three speed bicycles first. They were often called "English Racers", but that's not what they really were or are.  They were and are really sportsters. The sportsters were what we usually found in the United States. We didn't get as many roadsters, the standard or premium roadsters, because there was a higher tariff, roughly double, on imported bicycles above a certain weight. Sportsters fit right below that weight. Was it just coincidence that the weight where the higher tariff went into effect was also the weight class of our domestic balloon tire bicycles? The sportsters ran in the mid to high 30's in poundage.

I weighed a 1976 Schwinn Varsity 10 speed the other day for comparison.  It weighed about 39 pounds. We thought that we were making progress in 1976. Were we? I have a 1962 Hercules three speed that weighs just under 38 lbs. with a kickstand, fenders, a chainguard, and a saddle bag carrying a small camera. Bicycles between 1960 and 1976 picked up seven more gears and still weighed about the same, if you compare this "Made in USA" ten speed to many of the "Made in England" three speeds.  But that isn't a fair comparison. Nor is it fair to compare those three speed bicycles to most of today's bicycles. (When compared against those three speed bicycles that were made in England, most of today's bicycles don't have a chance .)

This website will be centered upon almost anything to do with bicycles that have internal hub gears, including mostly three speed bicycles. And most of these were made in England by Raleigh Cycles. But the internet already has plenty about Raleigh bicycles. I will deliberately not center on Raleigh bicycles. I will also not ignore them. To ignore Raleigh bicycles and yet write about English bicycles would be  ridiculous if not impossible. The majority of English bicycles were made by Raleigh although brands such as Hercules Cycles have at times claimed to be the largest manufacturer of bicycles in England. Even those English bicycles that were not made by Raleigh used components made by Sturmey Archer and Brooks, brands that were, for many years, owned by Raleigh and whose factories were in the same neighborhood as the Raleigh factory in Nottingham, England.

I don't know everything about these bicycles. But this will be more than just a pictorial honoring these bicycles. As I said, my first bicycle was a 1960 Hercules three speed English sportster. Unlike most recently produced bicycles it still survives even though it has been ridden many miles. It was my only bicycle from 1960 to 1966,  from age 8 to 14. It went through the nicest days. It also went through, rain, snow, sand, ramp jumping, and almost all terrain. The fact that it survives is testament itself of the high quality materials and manufacturing that were used in these bicycles. It is now awaiting repainting because when I was 13 years old I painted it black with cheap paint. I didn't think that it was as good looking in metallic red as the English bicycles that were painted black with white trim. Now, 38 years later, I wish that I had left the paint original. There are pictures of that bicycle in its early years on these pages. When the repainting project is finished there will be pictures of the final project. I will probably not wait until the project is finished. I will probably start posting pictures as soon as the bicycle looks presentable. Right now the frame and fork are hanging from the rafters waiting for warm weather and time.

Pictures of bicycles owned by others as well as my bicycles will be included on these pages. I will also include  information relating to Hercules Cycles and other English bicycles. This will include, but will not be limited to, technical concerns, availability of new as well as vintage bicycles and parts for them, and whatever else seems relevant. There will be a table at the bottom of each page that will lead to other sections on this website. The pages within these sections will have links within the text that will in turn lead to other pages and outside links.

On these pages I will refer to roadster, light roadster, and sports model frames. I may not always make these references completely clear. But right here, to show the experts who may be reading to see if I got it right, and also for anyone else, for their understanding, the difference between a roadster or light roadster on one hand and a sports frame on the other is illustrated below:

At the top is illustrated a roadster or light roadster in the area where the rear axle attaches,  and at the bottom is illustrated a sportster in the area where the rear axle attaches. The top style may also be used on the frames of bicycles called carriers. The bottom style may also be used on frames called sports roadsters even though the top style is the roadster style. Does that mean that a sports roadster is not a roadster? I don't think that a sports roadster is a roadster. It doesn't have the roadster style rear axle attachment. (The rear axle attachment area on bicycles is called a rear dropout).

There is a considerable amount of style overlap in bicycle frame styles so boundaries are not always clearly determined. Many generalities and standards relating to bicycles have exceptions. That means that bicycle experts are almost never 100% correct nor 100% wrong. Search a bit and you will usually be able to find exceptions to most attempts to categorize bicycles. It often appears that the bicycle builders had little respect for those who would categorize their work. That individuality of the bicycle builders is one of the reasons I find bicycles interesting. Sometimes there are more exceptions to a rule than their are examples that follow the rule. One such example is that English bicycles used English bicycle thread standards for their fasteners and other hardware except when they used Raleigh  bicycle standards. Since Raleigh, at many times, made more bicycles than all their English bicycle manufacturing competitors combined, the Raleigh standard was more common than those who followed the English bicycle standard. Japanese bicycles have used the English standard for years. And American bicycles use the American standard except when they use the English standard unless they use the Schwinn standard. If that's not enough contradictions, how about those four wheeled tandem bicycles? (The term bicycle means it has two wheels.)

I hope that this website will bring more understanding of a bicycle that was very important for two wheeled transportation in some countries for more than a century and in many countries for more than half a century.