Classic & Vintage - Frame ID?

Hey everyone,
I've been riding this bike fixed for a couple years, with no idea what it is. A few mechanics and people much more knowledgeable than myself have guessed, but no one really seems to know what it is. Any one out there recognize it?

26.8 seatpost, suntour GS dropouts, no brazeons/cable stops/etc...

thanks!

edit: the fork in the picture is not original either, so disregard that. i procured this frame completely naked with no components.

Check the serial # at the www.vintagetrek.com. It looks like a TX 300 or TX 500 frame set to me.

I don't think it's a TREK serial number. It looks like D8B1450 which doesn't fit the
TREK pattern fully D would be a 530, next number is frame size, 8 was never used.
I'm thinking it looks british to me, the full wraparound seat stays remind me of a Raleigh international
or the like.

Marty

Possibly a late 70's/early 80's, Raleigh Team Record variant (made in Ireland)? The main problem I see with this theory is the serial number. It would explain the lug style, the Sun Tour dropouts and the 26.8 seat post though.

Hmm, I'm thinking Japanese. The serial number format is typical Japanese, if Marty got it correct. Some late 1970s Japanese frames such as Sekai and Centurion used wrap around seat stays. However, I've got a dataabse of dozens of Centurion serial numbers and I've yet to come acroos one with a D. And the Sekai typically start wirh a M or Y. Still, either could have subcontracted to a different manufacturer.

T-Mar, What about Nishiki? I've seen similar lugs on some of them.

thanks guys, i really appreciate your efforts. the raleigh theory seems convincing, except the headtube doesn't seem to support that. there are two pinholes which must have horizontally secured a badge once upon a time, something for example like the round schwinn chicago or fuji mountain type badges, rather than the vertically longer raleigh type badge. a couple of folks in the past have suggested japanese.

if it helps, the seat stays do wrap around the seattube lug, but they do not touch each other. they each come to point about 4 millimeters apart

Thanks!

Raleighs custom division was called Carlton and was a company that they bought up in 50s or 60s. Carlton bikes had seat stays that wrap the seat post and a headbadge that was held on by two horizontal screws. Carlton was sort of Raleighs Paramount division. My friend has a Carlton track bike that looks a lot like the frame in the picture except his has track drop outs. His daughter is riding it as a fixed gear. Roger

Raleighs custom division was called Carlton and was a company that they bought up in 50s or 60s. Carlton bikes had seat stays that wrap the seat post and a headbadge that was held on by two horizontal screws. Carlton was sort of Raleighs Paramount division. My friend has a Carlton track bike that looks a lot like the frame in the picture except his has track drop outs. His daughter is riding it as a fixed gear. Roger

A carlton would have Campy drop-outs almost definately and it would have a serial number starting with W. Raleigh had some of their higher end production bikes built in the "workshop" but their truely custom bikes were built by the Special Bicycles Development branch/unit or whathave you which had SB serial numbers.