The Beginning of A Beautiful Friendship

1967 Hercules Sports Model

Made in Birmingham in 1967, this Hercules lay forgotten in an old shophouse, off a little street in Singapore - for over three decades.

It all began with a Black '67 Hercules Sports Model.

I wandered into an old bike shop and asked if they had any old bikes - those with the full chain covers and with the tail-end of the rear mudguards painted white.

The gentleman I spoke with - the 'co-proprietor/chief mechanic' - said they had only a few old 28" wheeled roadsters left. Too big for me, as he gave me the once over, to assess my height, I suppose. Crestfallen, I was about the turn away when he hesitated, as if something suddenly jogged his memory, then said, "Wait, I think I may have one 26" wheeled Hercules left - or was that a Robin Hood?" He asks another older gentleman if there was one. They weren't sure what it was, but they may have one in the store. "Are you keen?" "Yes!" I replied, "may I view it?" He told me to return the next day.

The brown paper wrapping her frame was still secured by old raffia string.

When I returned the next day, I laid eyes on a piece of history that I didn't imagine would change my life. I was in love. She was preserved in the storeroom of the venerable old bicycle shop, one that has been in operation for over 70 years. The brown paper was still wrapped around its frame, secured by raffia string. Packing foam and plastic wrap was added at some point. The gentleman explained that it was kept for about 40 years, and all parts were kept together as a set. Mummified and forgotten.

Very slight surface rust and mould. So well preserved.

The rims were beautiful chromed 26 1-3/8" Rigidas from France, tires were Cheng Shins (they didnt have any other brands). Everything thing else was original from Nottingham. The proprietor of the shop, an even older gent with greying hair said to me, "Let me show you something," as he proudly peeled off some of the foam to reveal a yellow transfer depicting Sir Walter Raleigh laying his coat on the ground. "You see, original Raleigh!" He said with a smile and a twinkle in his eye. After a agreeing on a price, he asked if I wanted to add a 'speed', explaining that he meant a Sturmey Archer 3 speed geared hub. I figured I might as well do so and agreed. I asked him for a dynamo lamp set as well, for good measure.

I returned the next day to see the co-proprietor proudly wheel out a piece of history - as he presented the Hercules to me, he stood back and smiled at my stunned expression as we marvelled at a completed masterpiece. It couldn't be described any other way. You can tell when a master craftsman has pride in his work. Passers-by stopped and admired the grand old dame, and we seemed to have entered a time warp. I could almost imagine customers walking past in bell bottoms and tight big collared polyester shirts, jet black hair. Peering into the shop through black plastic rectangle framed spectacles. The early 1970s was back.

One of the original decals. The patina of age gives her lots of character

My memories come flooding back. Of Mom taking me out to the market. Sitting in noisy old Leyland buses. The rain pouring down, its smell mixed with the smell of waxed paper umbrellas and people clickety-clacking about in their red wooden clogs. An old man cycling past on a black gents bike, its cotton tail catching my attention...
He tells me this is the very last piece of a final shipment. She arrived in Singapore sometime in the early 1970s, one of 25 in a wooden crate. This shipment resulted from a special, desperate last order of gents bicycles from England. Nottingham had decreed that imports of English-made bikes were to cease, to prepare for when the Raleigh factory in Selangor Malaysia - then being set up - would produce bicycles. The factory wasn't ready when the last such bicycles were sold out and the shops came under pressure by customers who had no such bicycles to buy.

Not long after she arrived home

The serial numbers on this Hercules indicate manufacture in 1967, in Handsworth, Birmingham, for Raleigh Industries. If my analysis is accurate, these framesets were already old stock when shipped out!

I rest my behind on the old Raleigh B66 - a Malaysian-made piece that I subsequently replaced with a Brooks saddle - and I feel right at home. I've always wanted a bicycle just like the one I remember from my childhood. I've finally found her. On my Hercules, I cycle into the fog of time. Each journey a journey back to a bygone era.

As I wheel her out to the street, I recall Humphrey Bogarts closing line from the old movie Casablanca.

"Louis, I think this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship..."