nlerner

I've had many Raleighs from the 70s go through my hands, including several Internationals, and I'm somehow skeptical that those pristine decals in some of the posts above are original. Feel free to correct me if you are the original owner and really babied your rig, but those decals are so fragile and are in a place that invariably ends up twisted in a repair clamp; they just don't seem to survive very well.

JohnDThompson 

Yes, Reynolds decals of that era were deliberately designed to be fragile, multi-layer transfers, to prevent them from being moved to another, non-Reynolds frame to enhance its value. As Reynolds lost some of its cachet in the 80s as Columbus gained in prestige, the new-style decals changed to sturdier, vinyl decals.

Pars 

I would have agreed, until I read the OPs post about having Brian Bayless clear the frame way back when. Bare Reynolds decals in my experience disintegrated from looking cross-eyed at them.

My '73 RRA (and I believe the '73 International before that) had decals like the ones bdub posted. It wouldn't surprise me if there was a mix of what Raleigh used if '74 was the changeover year.

Peugeotlover

This is what I ordered, RB.
I guess if I didn't notice the difference in 4 years, it's no big deal.

I have decided to keep the bike original, so the new decals will remain in the envelope.
VeloCals is a good supplier, and we are fortunate to have someone supplying old decals.

steelbikeguy

A fellow named Randy Thier was the original owner, but he was in a unique situation. He had bought a number of bikes still in the boxes from a shop that went out of business (in the Chicago area, I think). He had put this International together and may have ridden it once or twice, but never really used it. He was between jobs at the time that he put it up for sale (I think it was an ad in Bicycle Trader, IIRC). He sold it to me with the 3TTT stem, a generic bar, and TA bar cage as extras, along with all of the original bits. As such, you see the original bar tape in the photos on my flickr page. I've got MA-2 rims laced to the hubs now, but the original AVA rims and tubulars are hanging in my closet. The tires are in much better shape than you'd expect for being 40 years old.

So.. yes, the decals are original, and they are in very good shape.

nlerner

That's very cool!

steelbikeguy

I bought the International from Randy in 2000, I think, and it's surprising how much has changed since then. At that time, a local shop was still pulling some very old bikes out of the basement, still in boxes. I recall the '74 (approx.) Gran Sport that they opened up.. lagoon blue with white trim, Stronglight 93 cranks, awful plastic Simplex derailleur, etc. Beautiful! Much too small for me.

The same shop also had two 70's Paramounts in pristine condition on display. One was white and one was chromed. I ended up setting up an acquaintance in California with the ability to buy the white Paramount. The chrome Paramount was in the store until recently, when it was finally sold.

The shop has been good to me too. They would let me rummage around the basement, looking for NOS stuff of interest. I did find some odds and ends, but nothing remarkable. They did let me buy a pair of NOS Mavic MA-2 rims for $30 each not too long ago, which I appreciate.

Prowler 

I found my notes as I'd looked into this last year some time. I found that in April 1977 parent company Tube Investments mandated that all it's subsidiary companies change their names to start with TI: thus Reynolds became TI Reynolds and the decals changed. Nick at H Lloyd confirmed this so I think it's real. Ergo the TI Reynolds should probably not be on a 74, decals probably not even made yet.

nlerner

That's interesting stuff. And to complicate matters further, here's the Raleigh Pro page from the 1978 Raleigh catalog. Note that the Reynolds 531 decal shown is the one without the Ti insignia. Of course, that doesn't quite mean that this decal is the one that ended up on the bikes.