Originally Posted by
BenPink
Here"s the whole frame. No bottle cage bosses under the downtube and having scraped the psint away no letter prefix before the serial number 34130. It could be a 1973 Raleigh with later braze ons and the wrong 531 decals. The seat post is currently jammed. Thanks.
I'm not as familiar with 1980's (the integrated top tube cable guides are a certain indicator this was made in 1983 or later) Raleighs as I am with 1970's. The serial numbering convention may be different for bicycles not made in the Worksop factory. If I look only at what's on the frame, the closest catalog match I can find is a mid 1980's Alyeska. The latest catalog I found is for 1985 and it comes with 555 tubing, rather than 531ST. Actually, none of the touring models listed from 1982 - 1985 indicate they were made of 531ST tubing - so it's possible this bike is a couple years newer than 1985, or possibly the tubing decals were added later.
The serial number is what I'm finding incongruous. Some folks here who are more familiar with 1980's Raleighs (cudak888 and marius.suiram are two who immediately come to mind) may be able to shed some light on that.