81-82 Raleigh Superbe
Yep, one of those. I bought mine as a frame set around 85, and it had been painted orange with regular 531 decals. When I had some work done on the frame, including ditching the orange for yellow, I discovered the frame was chrome. Let the search begin. I found out it was the early 80's Chromovelato Superbe, made in Japan. At that time I understood they were built with Tange tubing. No worries, I still love the bike. Recently while stumbling through google pages I noticed some pics from a couple of years ago here, showing Reynolds 531 in red.
Search # 2. Really! I never gave much thought to possible alternatives until I saw those red on black decals, and several look original, so willing to believe they are real.
My serial # starts with MOE. How can I be sure what tubing was used? It does have Suntour dropouts.
I did notice my front fork crown is a smooth transition Cinelli type, where a couple of others have a crown detail/transition.
What say ye?
Thanks.