True to his word, Mark Agree sent me copies of the 100 or so photos he has taken of the '73 Pro he has for sale, even though it's way too big for me to purchase. It certainly is a pretty bike, for those of us who like Pros of that vintage. If you saw the post and ride that size bike, it's worth taking a look.
I have a '73 Pro that is the same color scheme, but has white and black decals instead of gold and black, as on Mark's bike. Mine also has a much shorter serial number that starts with an A, rather than the serial number on Mark's bike, which starts with the more familiar WK and contains many more digits.
It forst I wondered if Raleigh had two factories going in '73, churning out Pros, but I checked Sheldon's site and he indicates that '72 was the year that the numbering system changed. The only problem I have with this is that the serial number of my bike is A9113. According to9 Sheldon's site, the SN should probably start with the letter H for '73, as A indicated 1966. No way is this frame from '66. It makes me think that perhaps Pro production during the bike boom may have slipped into other Raleigh capacity. After all, A was the letter that the 3-speed serial numbers started at. Perhaps those days when Sports and Superbe demand slipped a little, some of the workers grabbed some Reynolds tubes and tossed together a Pro or two?
Steve Barner, Bolton, Vermont