Primitive Accessories: 1948 Raleigh Dawn

The 1948 Raleigh Dawn has a couple interesting, rather primitive accessories. The first is something common: a Wald rear axle kick stand. These stands appear on both American and English bicycles from the 1940s. They allow you to mount a kickstand where space under the bottom bracket is tight.

On this Raleigh Dawn, the rear rod stirrup would interfere with a standard Raleigh kickstand. There are indeed some kickstands that mount under the bottom bracket and allow the brake stirrup to move, but this bike has the rear axle stand.

The biggest drawback to this type of stand is that it is quite heavy and 'clunky'.

The second item is the rear rack. The later "Prestube Minor" and "Midlands" type Raleigh racks have nuts and bolts that secure them to the seat stays. This earlier type has a large wingnut, tightened by hand. The tubes on the rack also are not quite as heavy as the later racks. It's a nice addition to this bike.