Originally Posted by
ollo_ollo
There was also a "Raleigh Record Ace" in the 50's, 60's & early 70's which had a Reynolds 531 frameset & quality components, also in the late 80's there was a Record Ace with Reynolds 653 frame & Shimano Sante or 600 components. These machines were a "Night & Day" difference from the entry level Record models, so keep your eyes peeled for them. Don
I found a late70's-early 80's blue Record Ace at the curb about 3 years ago- I think it was "decal engineering", it certainly wasn't 531 or with quality components. I changed out the steel wheels and made it a fixed gear, put a few miles on it, sold it for cheap to a friend. He kept it a while, never rode it, and gave it back. i decided to experiment with painting it, so I stripped it down only to find the down tube compressed, bent like it had been crashed into. End of the line for that one. I found the handling of that Raleigh and a couple of Technium's that passed through my hands to be a bit clumsy, and the frames ran on the big side.