Raleigh Sports

The Raleigh Sports, catalogued as the DL22, was the three-speed utility bicycle that Raleigh of Nottingham built for generations, and Sheldon Brown's Retro Raleighs archive calls it and its deluxe sibling the Superbe the flagships of Raleigh's line of utility bikes. For many years, in many parts of the world, it was considered the ultimate in human-powered transportation: a dependable machine meant for everyday riding rather than sport, whatever its name suggested. Raleigh sold it under the slogan The All Steel Bicycle, and the three-speed design, introduced around the turn of the twentieth century and refined for decades, is said to have peaked in quality in the mid-to-late 1950s. The Superbe added a Dynohub lighting system, a key-locking fork, a luggage carrier and a Brooks B66 saddle in place of the Sports' B72, and Raleigh also made equivalent bicycles under the Rudge and Humber names. Production in Nottingham ran until the mid-1970s, when the ten-speed fashion pushed the three-speeds out of favour. The 1968 United States price list shows the DL 22 Sports at 65 dollars among the touring bikes.