I’ve purchased 3 British bikes this summer and will be building this winter. 2 are probably from a small Scottish builder and I posted about them here;
New Bike(s) day
After getting the two, I crazily bought a “challenged” Raleigh International because I was on the lookout for one in the first place:
NBD Raleigh International; Why did I do this?
Not knowing much about the pair of semi-custom frames, I wanted to compare them to the more documented specs of the International. i thought they were probably 531 butted, and indeed the green one has 531 butted on the steerer and takes a 27.2mm seatpost. The Chrome one appears older, and a 27.0 was a perfect fit. Weight of the similarly sized International and the green bike were within 50 grams while the slightly smaller chrome bike was just slightly less.
None of these bikes were fit to ride at time of purchase, so I am at a loss as to ride quality. The 74 International is well documented about ride and frame angles and such. It would seem to be slightly more relaxed than my full 531 Trek 700 from 1983. I did try a phone app for angles that was mentioned on this forum, but I didn’t have much luck with it. So with all the frames stripped, I thought to compare them side by side on this rainy day. It was unscientific but still interesting and gave a couple relative clues.
I tried to keep all the bottom brackets at the same height just to give a consistent view when comparing frame angles even though the BBs are different. This was kind of an interesting experiment as one could pick out some subtle differences. The chrome bike surprisingly seemed to have a slightly steeper head tube and perhaps the same seat tube angle. The green frame looks quite interesting with a slightly slacker head tube and seat tube plus about 3/4” of extra wheelbase. It sounds like a cushy ride. Anyhow, it was an interesting comparison and gives me something to go on. I think my brother has some sort of electronic angle finder that I want to use when I can get it and that might be revealing too.