bigbossman 

About six months ago, a friend dropped this sad little 46cm Raleigh Rapide on my doorstep. He had found it somewhere, knew that I was into overhauling bikes, and thought I could do something with it. As presented, it was cosmetically rough and was a basket case - that is, the frame/fork/wheels were all together, but all the other bits were in a paper sack.

I thanked him, put it in the garage, and there it sat. The chrome steel 24" wheels were badly rusted, as was the steel cottered crank. Looking it over, I was disheartened - the components were low-level Suntour, everything that could be steel was steel, and the 24" wheels were problematic.

Last week I got into a garage-cleaning frenzy and was about to give it the heave-ho, but something stayed my hand and I put it on the stand. That was my first mistake..... As I looked at it, ideas formed, unbidden, in my head. What if 26" mtb wheels would fit? If so, would 26" slicks get enough clearance? Would the brake pads adjust up enough to reach? How about knocking out the cottered crank and replacing it with a mtb triple?

Long story short, I decided to find out. Take a look at the pics - I think it came out rather well. Full overhaul with Shimano 200/Exage mtb group, 165mm triple crank with Shimano 6 speed 14/30 in the rear, new cables/housings, bar tape, a spit-shine, new tires/tubes, and some new brake pads.

As it sits, I have about $35 into the makeover, with the balance of the parts coming out of my parts bin. In a bit of fortuitous serendipity, a friend of the wife has a petite daughter going off to school that is looking for just such a bike, and she rolled off with it about an hour ago.

oldpedalpusher

That's real resourcefulness.

You saved a nice lugged frame...


Greg

BlankCrows

I saw that beast in your garage a while ago. The makeover looks good. I discovered your voicemail today about the seatpost when I was standing in the hack-o-matic shop with a 25.8 post in my hands and almost ready to pay for it. Lord knows what exhorbitant price it would've cost. Glad you tracked one down locally.

bigbossman 

Yeah - I cleaned out a bunch of otherwise useless parts that I had laying around. Where else would you be able to use a six speed rear mtb wheel? I had to buy tires ($20), seat post ($10), and rim tape ($5). Everything else came out of my junk boxes. Even at that, in monetary terms it was not nearly worth the effort. But, I got crap out of my garage, did an interesting build, and made someone happy. Every once in a (very great) while, it's not just about the money.

I'd stop short of calling it a "nice" lugged frame, though......

I owe you a lunch for wasting your time. I just happened to be by the Bent Spoke today, and darned if they didn't have one.

RobbieTunes

I've had two of those pass through. Both were destined for the landfill, and are now single speeds with no cutting, same wheelset, just no FD or RD, on ring up front. No cost other than wrap. They are ridden every day on a campus Down East.

bigbossman 

Did those two have 24" wheels?

noglider 

Nice tires. And old Matthauser brake shoes!

jtgotsjets

Aww that is such a tiny bike!

I just sold a mixte Rapide to a nice grad student looking to commute.