Classic & Vintage - Free Raliegh, good find?

Well, my Dad's friend gave me this bike for free, I'm not sure on specs being that I'm 2 Hours + away at school so I'll get better specs when I can, but anyway, heres a picture.

http://i176.photobucket.com/albums/w181/Subicru/IMG_51771.jpg

looks just like my Grand Prix, except that it has brake levers with hoods and without suicide levers, and a much longer head tube (but, that's due to size).
Post a serial when you can and that'll help out some, atleast when it comes to year.
GR

Edit: 19:27 - And if it is, in fact, a Grand Prix like nlerner said it's a nice bike. Kinda heavy, not top of the line by any means, but a good, solid, bike.

Classic Grand Prix. Possible that it's been fitted with alloy wheels? That should lighten it up considerably.

Neal

Good catch? If it fits you - you betcha. :thumb:

Wrights saddle?

That's a fine leather saddle! The bike should clean up nicely and be a good ride - if she fits.

Its a 64cm, luckily im 6'4"-6'5" haha, my dad is emailing me better pictures, and it is a grand prix.

Saddle looks good with a proofhide treatment.
Wheels look like they might be 700c.
Frame and fork appear to be straight.
Brake hoods look in dirty but good enough condition.
Plus it sounds like it will fit you.
A few drops of oil here and there, top up the tire pressure, and go for a ride.

Nice catch? I'd say "yep". :thumb:

Anything free is worth saving up for.

What everyone else said. That bike looks to be in nice shape for its age, and will clean up well. And you have some superior roads around Eugene, so you'll be able to enjoy it. Well done!

If those are alloy rims, the first upgrade a bike like that needs has been taken care of. Tires probably need replacing, maybe tubes too and new brake pads wouldn't hurt. After a few short rides you probably should regrease the two hubs and the bottom bracket.

Echo everyone else, but to say that you should definitely service the hubs and bottom bracket.

Well worth taking even if you have to pay for it (say, $30-50). Looking at the picture, those rims look like dirty chrome steel. Yeah, an upgrade will be nice, but the wheels as is are good quality. And riding it that way will give you an honest experience of what a Bike Boom bike was like.

From the cosmetics, I'll guess the bike is a completely stock 71-73-ish model. They ride nice, are well built and are well worth the complete tear down, cleaning and rebuild.

Only real oddity about them is that the threading is Raleigh standard (like the 3-speeds, Sprint and Record) rather than English standard.

Definitely enjoy - I'm always keeping an eye out for stumbling over something like that.

nice find indeed. lots of potential and if you don't allready know a lot about bikes, a great project to learn on. clean her up and get her checked out and services wheel to wheel and enjoy. some of the best things in life are free.

Thanks guys, it looks like its got an Eagle rear Deraillur, as well as front, from what my brother told me, and some Weinmann brakes, but other than that im not sure, but i agree, Im happy with it, will need a good tune, the rear shifter cable is out, but ill jsut get it to the shop and fix that. If i can get some better pictures ill post them, thanks a lot guys.

If it's important to you to get it back to original, replace the Shimano Eagle rear with a Simplex Prestige. Shifts just as well, probably a bit better, but have a spare around if you're going to try and get a few years use out of the bike. Otherwise, the bike looks catalog original. Not being able to see the complete drivetrain, I'd assumed that it was Simplex on both ends.

Looks like my dad is going to be bringing this down to me, I'l take pictures... what do you guys recommend for drive train, im not planning on keeping it completely original ill actually be riding it to school, so i want it to perform well..

Looks like my dad is going to be bringing this down to me, I'l take pictures... what do you guys recommend for drive train, im not planning on keeping it completely original ill actually be riding it to school, so i want it to perform well..

Some kind of shimano 7 speed will be your best bang for the buck.

I've been looking into some groups for sale, i think ill have a better idea on how it is when i can see it in person.

dropped the bike off to get new cables and a little tune up, ill post pictures after

I'd give my left nut to get a bike like that for free.


It's my favorite one, too!

I'd give my left nut to get a bike like that for free.


It's my favorite one, too!

whoa, hey now. it looks nice but it's not that nice.

i had a great basic Raleigh mountain bike my first year in college. bought it used for like $75. miss that bike!

is this a trick question?

When are free bikes ever NOT good finds?

Welcome to the Eugene vintage community! This is an awesomely bike-friendly town

Here's your hot tip for the day: working on vintage bikes without the right tools can be a real pain, and some vintage tools are hard to find. Fifty bucks will buy you an annual membership at Eugene Bicycle Works/Center for Appropriate Transport (683-3398; 455 W. First, a couple of blocks north of REI), and that gives you access to four workstations, two wheel-truing stations, a full supply of tools, and all the solvents/lubrucants/rags you need. They have everything, and I mean EVERYTHING, you need to work on old bikes, and if you can't find it on the racks, ask; they'll dig around in the back and find it. Examples: in the last year, I've faced and prepped a frame for a new headset, and removed an impossibly stuck fixed bottom bracket cup, both of which required special toolsets which cost literally hundreds of dollars each. And, there are always people there to answer all of your (or at least MY) dumb questions.

They've also got bins and bins of used parts, probably including every part on your Record except the frame, and maybe the era-specific Simplex derailleurs.

See you out on Fox Hollow one of these weekend mornings ...

Can't beat free, that goes extra for your Raleigh. Of course now when I drag in free bikes, my wife knows that means I'm going to buy stuff for it. Nice looking saddle, seems above the quality of other bikes of the era.

Careful shopping for new parts for old bikes. If you buy a modern groupo chances are it won't fit and you will have to do some work to make things fit

Some examples:
Modern Bottom bracket lengths are normally shorter
Modern Cranksets are more narrowly spaced
Modern chains are thinner
Modern cassettes are made for 130mm spacing
Your fork is probably 1" threaded, the market standard now is 1 1/8" threadless

Just some things to keep in mind before spending money on stuff that might be more trouble than it is worth, like I almost did. All things aside I take pride in knowing that my bike and most of its components are older than I am (23) and still can out ride those on full carbon outfits

I rebuilt and serviced several of these over the summer and if everything is stock that saddle should be a Wrights W35, the wheels will be Sturmey Archer, the crank would be a Stronglight cottered, and the shifters would all be Simplex... not Shimano.

The fork appears to be a Carlton (nice) and the pedals appear to be Atoms (I believe these were also stock).

A number of these Grand Prixs were Dutch made and these tend to be a little nicer and even if it isn't, you still have a really nice vintage road bike as they have an excellent ride and are very comfortable bikes.

For upgrades I would suggest alloy wheels and if you want to use a Simplex in the rear (to keep things original), swap in the jockey wheels from an old Suntour derailer as these will not break like the Simplex ones... or use a an entire Suntour group.

I rebuilt and serviced several of these over the summer and if everything is stock that saddle should be a Wrights W35, the wheels will be Sturmey Archer, the crank would be a Stronglight cottered, and the shifters would all be Simplex... not Shimano.

The fork appears to be a Carlton (nice) and the pedals appear to be Atoms (I believe these were also stock).

A number of these Grand Prixs were Dutch made and these tend to be a little nicer and even if it isn't, you still have a really nice vintage road bike as they have an excellent ride and are very comfortable bikes.

For upgrades I would suggest alloy wheels and if you want to use a Simplex in the rear (to keep things original), swap in the jockey wheels from an old Suntour derailer as these will not break like the Simplex ones... or use a an entire Suntour group.

You are completely correct, and as it is, I really do want to get a new wheelset but as I am new to looking for vintage parts ive been having a tough time, and its weird with how different everything is. But as of now the bike shifts and rides great, i swapped out the saddle due to a tiny rip in the leather one, I didn't want it to get completely ruined. I did look for a new derailer and I think I will go to the where the fellow eugene member suggested where I have been before and look, if not I've been trying ebay, any help with parts you guys thing I should get I would greatly appreciate. I will snap some new pictures when I can.

Echo everyone else, but to say that you should definitely service the hubs and bottom bracket.

...and the headset.

I believe that the bike shop took care of all of that except the hubs, and maybe the headset, i think I can do the headset at least by myself and that shouldnt be too big of a deal, I've done one on my other Raleigh hah. Thanks for all the input.

The headset requires some specially sized spanners. It also requires some skill and knowledge of how tight is tight enough but not too tight. I think misadjustement after servicing has destroyed a LOT of headsets.

If you do open that headset expect that there will be about 48 little bearings that come flying out...their size escapes my exhausted mind right now.

Check you rear hub. Are there two sets of threads, one reverse of the other, on the non-drive side? With some luck, you have a Brampton Flip-flop hub, which was stock on some permutations of this model.

^^ It does not have a flip flop hub, but i've been having some problems with the bead sealing, do you guys have any recommendations for a new rear wheel? it wont hardly keep a seal on the bead.

Looks like a Carlton Grand Prix by Gazelle to me. That explains some of the "upgraded" parts.
http://www.carltoncycles.me.uk/details/raleigh.htm

It does sound like this is it, the hubs are high flange, and the wheels have red nuts on the axles.

The Carlton fork is a good indicator that it may be a Dutch made Raleigh and does make the bike far nicer than it would be with a Raleigh fork... I have only seen the Dutch made versions of this bike here and they are very nice.

The nuts with the red R in them is a trademark of Raleigh... Carlton bikes had a C instead.

Welcome to the Eugene vintage community! This is an awesomely bike-friendly town

Here's your hot tip for the day: working on vintage bikes without the right tools can be a real pain, and some vintage tools are hard to find. Fifty bucks will buy you an annual membership at Eugene Bicycle Works/Center for Appropriate Transport (683-3398; 455 W. First, a couple of blocks north of REI), and that gives you access to four workstations, two wheel-truing stations, a full supply of tools, and all the solvents/lubrucants/rags you need. They have everything, and I mean EVERYTHING, you need to work on old bikes, and if you can't find it on the racks, ask; they'll dig around in the back and find it. Examples: in the last year, I've faced and prepped a frame for a new headset, and removed an impossibly stuck fixed bottom bracket cup, both of which required special toolsets which cost literally hundreds of dollars each. And, there are always people there to answer all of your (or at least MY) dumb questions.

They've also got bins and bins of used parts, probably including every part on your Record except the frame, and maybe the era-specific Simplex derailleurs.

See you out on Fox Hollow one of these weekend mornings ...

I just got a membership, I really have used it already, its a good place.