Originally Posted by 67Carlton

Hi all,

I recently picked up what I believe to be a 1967 Raleigh Carlton frame as a project, essentially seeing the lugs and then buying it. Raleigh headbadge with world champion colors, but otherwise with Carlton decals, including downtube, faint Catalina with Olympic rings on the top tube, partial Made in England on the bottom of the seat tube, and the very faint outline of the Carlton "Man on Bike"/Worksop England badge (see h-lloyd-cycles) on the white seat tube panel. Serial W8073 is not definitive as far as I've been able to find online, and apart from an excellent red Carlton 'C' seatpost binder bolt the frame came with no other parts that would help confirm identification. The layout of the paint matches the colors in the 67 Raleigh catalogue on Sheldon Brown's site, but the blue, yellow and white do not match the bike depicted. The catalogue mentions an alternate 'Avion blue, accented with contrasting panels' which leads me to believe this is that frame, although the excellent On the Drops Carlton site labels a very different dark blue without contrasting panels as the Avion blue model, so I am not 100% sure on this.

Sadly, the paint is in pretty rough shape, but the frame is free of cracks or dents and I'm hopeful of resurrecting it as a fun ride. Rather than attempt a complete restoration to the original I'm planning a 700c conversion (sacrilege on this forum?) with the 750 long reach version of the original Weinmann 999s and hopefully some 35s, likely initially as a single speed for simplicity's sake. This will be my first C&Vish project and I have much to learn. I've already been taking advantage of many of the posts on this site, so thanks very much to everyone for that and this is now my first post here.

My first hiccup has been in confirming the seat tube diameter. A few readings with the calipers on different angles could point to either 26.6 or 26.8. I tried a 26.8 post I had lying around and it can be inserted at the top with some effort, but more effort than I typically associate with inserting a seatpost, so I stopped unsure of whether it is accumulated grime of the ages deep in the tube or whether the tube is actually narrower. Before I do something I regret, does anyone know the ST diameter for this frame, or whether Carlton reliably used a certain diameter around that time?

My second question, less pressing from an immediate build-to-ride perspective, is whether anyone might know about the tubing used for this bike. The catalogue states it is 'precision built with Reynolds 531 tubing', but doesn't indicate which tubes that applied to (e.g. main triangle, whole frame, or whole bike). At this point it is curiosity and research fun, but eventually I plan to order new decals (which still won't affect how fun it is to ride, but I'd like it to be correct). Any insights here would be appreciated.

I'll be happy to post more about the project as it progresses if there is interest or answer any questions to the best of my ability. I will also post some photos as soon as I have posted the minimum of 10 post as a new member, and apologies for not being able to share those now.

Many thanks in advance for your insights!