Raleigh questions
 

I just got a nice old Raleigh Gran Sport bike at a rummage sale, fixed it up a little and is now in perfect working condition. I'm not sure on the date of this bike which brings me to my first question. How can you find the date of a bike you have? Also I'd like to know how much this bike is worth. It is exactly the same as the bike here: http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...MEWA%3AIT&rd=1
Although I don't know if mine is the same year. So if you could answer any of my questions it would be great. Thanks!

Looks to be early '80s. Look on the inside of the crank arms and on the steering stem for manufacture dates.

Thanks for the help on the date...but do you have a ballpark estimate on what it is worth? Do you think that $175 is high? I thought so but thats what the eBay seller has it up for. Again, thanks for all the help.

That's way aggressive. You can usually tell by the number of bids (in this case, 0). I seem to recall that they weren't worth that much new. Probably start it at $40 and see what it'll bring.

If $40 is all its gonna get me right now, I think I might just sit on it for a couple more years. But thanks for the help and any other opinions would be helpful.

I could probably sell something like that in this area for around $100, but I wouldn't buy it myself for more than $40 or so.

Suicide levers and stem-mounted shifters? If that's a Gran Sport, the model must have gone WAY downhill from the 70's. It doesn't even look like a Raleigh to me.

Well IDK about the eBay bike but I do know mine is a real Raleigh Gran Sport for sure.

It's real alright, but it doesn't share a direct lineage with the Gran Sports of the '60s and '70s. The Asian firm that purchased the Raleigh name uses a number of familiar old model names, but they're completely different bikes. Not bad necessarily, but different.

The Gran Sport, sold from about 1968-1976, was a 531 throughout / almost throughout bike, 23-24 lbs, with peugeot PX-10 components. A GREAT bike, very under-rated. Worth at least $200 in good condition.

The asian gran sports unfortunately were like raleigh gran prix. No effort spared to make it cheap. 2030 carbon steel gaspipe frame, bottom-of-the-line suntour gears (work well but are heavy), and usually top it off with an ugly crankset. sorry but your bike is probably worth $50 tops, it probably weighs 27-29 lbs.