5ean

Can anyone help me with what this bike is?

I bought it off a guy for $150NZD thinking i'd slap a front brake on it and have a laugh, then i got it home and found all this Campagnolo stuff and detail on it. The bikes had about three bodgy rattle-can jobs, as I can see green, red and black paint through chips etc. and the crank + pedals are all new, but the hubs are campagnolo record and it has campag dropouts and headset etc.
It has the serial number WB8000296 stamped on the bottom of the BB, and some flair stuff around the lugs?

Also, I read that you can tell the production year of the campagnolo hubs by the locknut, but they read 'CAM. 9x26', and I can't figure that for a year?

Any help with finding out what this is would be greatly appreciated.
Please excuse the condition of the bike, it's as I bought it, dirty.

Thanks!

https://www.flickr.com/photos/4970477...7623824066895/

5ean

it's not THAT BAD is it?

I'm just into the history of it? Anyone help?

kenhawkeye

Hi Sean. I bet if you got through that layer of battleship grey paint, you'd find not an Italian bike but possibly a Raleigh TI Team Bike from the late 70's. I think it will be mostly red with black around the middle of the seat tube and some yellow too. They all had Campagnolo dropouts and components, hence the red herring of Italian source. The serial numbers look familiar too. WB usually indicates Worksop in Staffordshire where one of the factories was. There are some very good websites devoted to Raleigh and Raleigh were good with serial numbers. Good hunting

umpire54

I like the frame! I would strip that puppy down...and have it painted Dodge Viper Green/basecoat/clearcoat with no decals whatsoever. It would look badddddd to the bone! Orrrr...like a Mango Orange color. Ok...my uninvited 2 cents worth.

My Bikes on Flickr:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/umpire54/sets/

miamijim

What ever it is it appears to be a decent bike. Campy dropouts and fork ends, Campy Record/Nuovo Record headset and hubs. The fork curvature is remniscent of 70's era bikes and it has a Portacatina rear dropout which went out of favor in the early 80's.

kenhawkeye

Well, I'm on my second glass of red wine which loosens the memory a little but Miamijim is spot on and I would go for a top end Raleigh of about 1979. I nearly bought one a few months ago and the frame number was not too different

EjustE

Including the heart-shaped cutouts on the lugs?

kenhawkeye

Yes for definite. Check out the sites dedicated to Raleigh. It's looking like it is one of their top end racers, 531 tubing Campy dropouts

kenhawkeye

I checked out a German Raleigh site and Wikepedia and this is the information:-
Serial Numbers

Most carbon-steel framed models were numbered sequentially, sometimes with a prefix letter. Here, we give a listing of the serial numbers used for bikes built from the mid 1960's and onwards at the Carlton/Worksop facility, which built the high-end derailleur models.

* 1966: Annnn
* 1967: Bnnnn
* 1968: Cnnnn
* 1969: Dnnnn
* 1970: Ennnn
* 1971: Fnnnn
* 1972: Gnnnn
* 1973: Hnnnn

In 1973-74 it appears Carlton was about to start repeating the sequence and several instances of the USA Raleigh/Carlton Competition, RRA, and Professional models have been seen with Annnn serial numbers. Then, a new sequence began in 1974.

Factory

* Canada - R
* Enid (USA) - E
* Gazelle (Holland) - G
* Handsworth - H
* Ilkeston - SB
* Ireland - D
* Malaysia - M
* Nottingham - N
* Worksop(Carlton, Sun, BSA, Triumph) - W (THIS IS YOUR POSSIBLE)

Month

* A - January
* B - February
* D - March
* E - April
* G - May
* H - June
* K - July
* L - August
* M - September
* N - October
* P - November
* S - December

Third Symbol is the year of manufacture, e.g. 4-9 would be 1974-1979, 0-3 would be 1980-83, and then the sequence repeats. Thus, 'WH4003203' would be the 3203rd frame built at Worksop in June 1974. In 1982, when Worksop production was moved to Nottingham, the division continued to produce frames with the 'W' designation.[citation needed]

The Special Build (SB) division, which was based at Ilkeston used a serial number SBnnnn, assigned sequentially, starting in 1974. See the TI Raleigh Team Pros yahoo group for more details. These are the top frames. So yours is a very good Worksop made road model

repechage

Well, not a special workshop frame but one that did sport team colors and has the nice fork crown. If it fits it is most worthy of refinishing if "stealth mode" is not to your liking. Points for the guy who did not remove the braze ons.