Trent Tourist

This is a 1962 Trent Tourist. The Trent Tourist is an upmarket roadster. The frame is the same as the standard Raleigh, but the paint is better. These bikes survive better than the standard models and people like them.

This bike looks fairly standard at first glance, but we have changed a few things. It has alloy rims and a brand new alloy shell Sturmey Archer 3 speed. The brakes are standard instead of the double nipple cable calipers and levers the bike came with. Parts for these are very hard to find now, and you can't trust 50 year old cables in modern traffic. The mudguards are black plastic instead of the matching painted metal the bike had originally.

This is the bike's most unusual feature, a tailfin on the chainguard. This serves exactly the same function as the tailfins on cars of the same period. The passage of 50 years has turned this little bit of chrome from pointless decadent frippery to charming period detail.