Vintage Raleigh Twenty Folding Bicycle

It was time to upgrade Heather’s bike. She has been using the Raleigh mountain bike since I knew her. It’s a good bike, but for us, we wanted something that looked a little more “chic”. It has to be a folder too. Since she drives a Mini Cooper without a bike rack, this capability would allow for her to keep the bike in the back “trunk” of the Mini. After came across a photo of Chloe Sevigny sporting vintage green folding bike and knew that was the style of bike we were looking for.

A couple of weeks went by and by sheer coincidence, we found a Raleigh Twenty folding bike on craigslist being sold by the original owner. Ever since Sheldon brown raved about it, it has been quite a collectible and hard to find, so I was shocked to find one in South Florida.

This wasn’t any ordinary folding bike. Its a very well-built steel folder, made in England, that sported a very reliable Sturmey Archer 3 speed internally geared hub. They do not build folding bikes like this anymore. It is going to need to work. New cables, new brake pads and lots and lots of elbow grease.