Yet another Raleigh

N+1 is supposedly the number of bikes you should have...  I already have a Randonneur, a club race bike, a folding bike, a roadster and now I have acquired an old raleigh road bike.  I saw it on ebay advertised as possibly 531 tubing.


Further investigation revealed it to be a Carlton Raleigh.  Carlton was a high-end English manufacturer that primarily made road racers.  They were bought out by Raleigh but continued to make Raleigh's mid range and higher end offerings.  The frame above is a Raleigh Super Course, built in 1974 in the Worksop factory.  The tubing is most likely straight gauge 531 with Gipiemme dropouts and nervex lugs (I think), the frame weight is 2.2kg and the forks come in at 800g.  Seatpost diameter is 26.6mm.  The forks however might be a blow in, as they are stamped Tange and have mudguard eyelets, nonetheless they are a pretty decent item with a sloping fork crown and cast Tange dropouts.  
The frame was made with centrepulls in mind, quite typical of 70's frames.  I would guess  that Weinmann centrepulls would have come with it from the factory.  The reach at the rear is quite large, say about 65mm or so.


Original GB stem




The frame also came with a tatty dried out old Brooks B17N saddle which I subsequently soaked in warm water...






Then I did a mockup with some old Shimano 600 arabesque parts I had lying about...



Not really sure what I want to do with this one, the frame is a touch big with a 56cm top tube, however the standover height is fine.  Hmmmm so many things to ponder.

Continue to Yet another Raleigh Part II




2 comments:

  1. you could always build it up, take lots of pics, ride it a bit, and move it on when you're ready :) I love how you have enough 'parts' to build a bike :)

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  2. Yes actually you might love it but my flatmates don't hehe. Yeah I'm not sure what to do with this bike. I actually have sort of changed my mind and I want to build an 80's/90's style bike, I just have to find a frame. I did find one last weekend but I'll explain the story in my next post.

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