Old Raleigh Bike

dermob

Hi Guys,

I was rooting around the shed and came across an old raleigh Racer. Its not in great nic but i like the look of it for some reason. It was manufactured in ireland, the serial number is DA000911. It has the following:

Bluemels Olympic Mud guards
Raleigh 750 weinmann brakes on back and 650 on front
Suntoour power shifters

i know its not worth a whole lot but ive taken an interest in it. My reading of the serial number says it would have been built in Dublin, in January of 1980. but the factory burned down in 1976.

Im thinking of either restoring it, or stripping it and reusing what i can along with whatever else (respray etc). Not looking to Spend a lot of money really.


Does anyone know anything about the older raleigh bikes, or how i could tell if its 501/531/735 steel - there is no sticker saying so.

Is it a waste of time doing anything with it?

Thanks

Dermot

happytramp

It's hard to tell for sure from that photo. Probably the easiest way to quickly tell the quality of old steel bikes is by the dropouts. Good ones have 'forged' dropouts while lower quality ones have 'stamped' dropouts

http://www.sheldonbrown.com/gloss_dr-z.html

Go down to 'Dropouts' and look at the difference between stamped and forged (note the raised bit in the center of the forged ones) It's pretty unlikely that a Raleigh with stamped dropouts would be made from Reynolds tubing. Seatpost size is also indicative of 'quality' 27mm or 27.2mm stamped on the seat post would probably indicate good tubing. A lot of cheap bike boom bikes had 'safety levers' attached to the main brake lever bodies. From the picture it looks like yours doesn't, but I can't see for sure.

Regardless of tube quality, it's a nice old bike (more so, since it's was actually built in Dublin) and deserves to be restored and cycled around. It looks to be fully original and if it still functions, you could do this very cheaply. An overhaul of the existing parts and a proper clean (getting rid of rust, de-greasing all comonents, metal polish for the clear steel and some turtle wax for the frame) and this would make a lovely town/touring bike. Best of luck.

dermob

Thanks Happy Tramp!

Very helpfull.

ill have a look at the droputs when i get home, im not sure what you are talking about with regards the safey levers but ill check it out also.

yeah, it is a nice old bike and i will restore it, as you have suggested!

Would love to find out the model of it though!!

Tonyandthewhale

Safety levers are secondary brake levers which allow you to use the brakes from the top of the bars rather than from the hoods or drops. They're also refered to as 'suicide levers' because they're pure ****e.

Harrybelafonte

dermob wrote: »

Thanks Happy Tramp!

Very helpfull.

ill have a look at the droputs when i get home, im not sure what you are talking about with regards the safey levers but ill check it out also.

yeah, it is a nice old bike and i will restore it, as you have suggested!

Would love to find out the model of it though!!

Try and get it cleaned up, then some good photos and try here again or maybe retrobike.co.uk. I'm going to take a shot at it possibly being cro mo, but it doesn't make it any less useable if that's what you want it for.

dermob

Cheers guys,

Started to dismantle it last night, it has a sturmey archer seat post, and the symbol on the Front Stem says GB Forged.

I also noticed that the front forks seem to be chrome coloured as opposed to the rest of the bike which is yellowish.

Harry it does look like a cro-mo, are they a poorer make of raleigh?

Dermot

kumate_champ07

Looks decent, mid range at least

dermob

Good, Once im not restoring a piece of Crap.

Dissasembling the fame is going well, should have it back to the bare frame by tonight.

Few things i could use a bit of help on:

Im going to strip the frame with rustyns strip it, then repaint it myself with cans of spray, i know its not ideal but i intend to prep it well and take my time. Does anyone have any links of info on this?

The front wheel has a bit of movement in it, whats the cause of this and do i need to replace it?

cheers!

KOIZUMI

I found this in my neighbours skip a few weeks back.Reynolds 531,shimano 600,super champion wheels.I can't find much info on this model.....can anyone help....

Nekarsulm

A bit of Googling shows that Raleigh bought the Carlton bicycle factory, and this bicycle of yours would be actually built by Raleigh at the old Carlton factory in Worksop. Hence the "W" in the serial number.