Restoration efforts
 

So I have an 83 Raleigh touring 18 that was gifted to me. My original idea was to try and faithfully restore it to original. Also thought about updating to today’s standards. My question is, which route would you all go? I’ve tried to contact Raleigh and haven’t received an answer yet (3 days). This bike rides so nice, but would love me some sti brifters and some featherweight wheels, to start. Not at 10 posts yet, pics coming soon.

There are tons of Raleigh geeks here, and few would avoid assisting you in your endeavor.

I suggest taking thorough pics, document the components and condition of the bike, and then put it all out there with your questions.

The responses will need to be filtered a bit, but are worth their weight in currency and savings on effort. The plus side would also be if you actually met some forum members, with some exceptions, of course.

Many of us take the route of preserving the look and feel of a classic bicycle, while upgrading things like brake pads, cables, cable housings, and tires to safer, more efficient, modern standards. Some of us also add lower gears than were provided at the factory -- with only one exception, every former 10-speed (2x5) bike I have owned became either a 12- or 14-speed (2x6 or 2x7) or a 15-, 18-, or 21-speed (3x5, 3x6, or 3x7). That way I could maintain the tight 6-7% ratio development I favor, while increasing the gear range, or vice-versa.

A place to start with a Raleigh is the serial number, most often found on the underside of the bottom bracket housing.


While this is somewhat relative, "faithfully restore it to original" ≠ "brifters and some featherweight wheels" for most of us.


Whether it's important to restore a 1983 bike that's not necessarily a notable or collectible model is another question. Unless "collecting" is your main reason for being here, I'd say it's probably better to concentrate on making the bike something you'll be comfortable riding regularly/often.


"Featherweight" wheels are a significant investment, and unless the current wheelset is in poor or unusable condition, I'd try to make the bike roadworthy and reliable first. I know little of brifters, except that they make no sense without a compatible indexing rear derailleur, and a new rear hub, freehub and cassette cogset. One of the attractions of "classic and vintage" is that the equipment for such bikes is more flexible and interchangeable than current-day stuff.

Post some photos. I loved the ride of my Raleigh 18. I was able to ride it all day without tiring out. It did some nice tours. The only complaint is that the ride was so smooth and mellow I started to get sleepy riding it. Some complaint! It is a nice "true" touring bike. Japanese. I think Huffy had the rights to the Raleigh name then and contracted the bike out. Shimano Deore on it. Cantilever brakes. Did you get the original front and rear racks? I would keep it at least semi-original. Bar end shifters would be a nice upgrade on it. Maybe a 700c touring wheel set if you catch a deal and they work with the brake calipers. I would still keep the original 27s. Good bike as original, though.

I'm pretty much with Charles Wahl. It's most likely a fine mass-produced frame, which from the '80s can be very fine indeed. If it was a good ride in the past, it can become a great ride upgraded with modern systems, like brakes and shifting. I usually don't come out in favor of modern wheels if you have good vintage wheels that can accept indexing components, but to each his own, the wheels don't matter that much, if they are well-maintained.

You may find some useful catalog info here - look for touring near the middle and the spec page at the end. My axiom for bikes old and new is uncomfortable bikes don't get ridden, so the first question is does it fit? is the frame the correct size for you? And second- is it comfortable? For myself I tend to swap out bars to a wider Nitto set, and I like the Nitto technomic stems as I can get the bars up higher for a more comfortable ride and I like newer brake levers as they have beefier hoods for my hands and of course you need a saddle that feels right to you. YMMV. Even with those changes the bike looks pretty vintage with the added bonus that I enjoy riding it. Good luck with your resto, I happen to really like Mid 80s touring bikes like your Raleigh and have an 87 Nishiki Cresta GT in the refurb queue. I have included a gratuious shot of an 86 Schwinn Passage touring bike I refurbed last year with the aforementioned modifications (and a few more)

https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4158/...9970ef33_k.jpg
Pass hill day by Ryan Surface, on Flickr

I'll go along with the pack.
1) It may not need restoration
2) changing out the original parts for modern upgrade is the exact opposite of 'restoration'
3) Its a touring bike, a sturdy (not lightweight) frame intended to carry a load; not really the best candidate for featherweight wheels*
4) Before doing anything that requires real money, ride it at least a couple hundred miles to make sure you like the fit.

Once you post pics, there's going to be plenty of advice going in various directions (mostly "keep original" vs. "upgrade everything") Point #4 above is really the most important one.

*Additionally, the bike came originally with 27" wheels and may not be that easy to convert to the 700c size, which is where you find all your light wheel builds

If you do install modern wheels, at least choose some with 32 or 36 spokes, for durability, longevity, and adjustability, not to mention a proper look with your frame. I am decidedly not a fan of reduced-spoke, paired-spoke, radial-spoke, and other modern fads in wheelbuilding.

Wise words

Yeah, it'll be interesting to see how much of the original bike is there. If it's laid out with SunTour shifters and derailleurs, it's probably already plenty rideable. There's no reason you shouldn't take all that stuff of and modernize if you really want to, but the canti brakes/wheel size issue looms large on a modernization project. So search around for "converting 27" to 700c wheels canti brakes" threads before you jump into the deep end. Also check out the "retro roadies thread" for inspiration on modernizing an old bike. I've done it a couple times on road bikes, but I've left all three of my touring bikes mostly how I found them. On those bikes the calculus works out to "Eh, why bother? It's pretty great the way it is."

Nothing wrong with cantilever brakes. Make sure you have good -- i.e., KoolStop -- pads and modern low-friction, low-compression brake cable housings. Wheels and tires are indeed important, but you will not notice any real performance difference if you go with "modern" wheels, other than a loss of repairability and reliability if you go with fewer spokes.

I wouldn't bother with indexed shifting, which is a solution looking for a problem, either. If you don't like taking your hands off the bars to shift, there are lots of good linear action, non-indexed or non-indexable options, including barcons and various flavors of "takeoffs."

I guess the majority of what you should do comes down to what you want out of it.

High end 80s touring bikes are really desirable- and probably will be for a long time. They're beautiful, with great lines, functional, a balance of beauty and badass with ATB/MTB components. These bikes are not lightweight or sprightly or nimble. They were built to carry loads long distances. Not a lot about that has changed over time.

You're looking at a bike that was likely around 26 pounds without racks, as opposed to a 21 pound racing bike, or even a 23 pound sport bike- both of which would probably have thinner, livelier tubing, shorter wheelbases and less robust all around. If you're talking about STI and "featherweight wheels," this might not be the bike you're looking for.

Think of it this way- tourers are like a 1972 Cadillac Eldorado. You're not going and adding a turbo and dropping a blower in the hood. No matter what you do, that car will never be a GTO or a Civic R.

If you're not interested in a bike that's the equivalent to a 1972 Cadillac Eldorado- it has value, and you can likely sell/trade to get the bike/platform you want.

https://cimg0.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...984c0f8c3e.jpg



If the idea of the bicycle equivalent of a luxury land yacht is appealing to you- there's bunches of ways of going about this.

I don't like the idea of the slavish recreation of a stock bike- there's too many nifty parts to try out- and unless you're doing a museum worthy restore- it's just not worth the headache or money.

My personal opinion is that these are classy bikes- only classy, "classic" and classic looking stuff goes on there. IMO- many/most modern parts look cheap, plastic-y, and swoopy. And black. These bikes look good with silver. It takes effort and research to find good stuff that looks good and does what you want it to. In the past, most of my concept was 'upgrade the bike to the way someone might have done it in 1994.' A lot of the 1985 parts are REALLY good, some are among the best of all time.

If you're still looking for opinions- I got a billion of them!

Hell yeah!

:thumb:

Putting sti levers on is quite do-able... but it may require changing the rear derailleur and possibly the chainrings, and the chain. Will also mean the rear triangle will need to accommodate a 130mm axle. You may be able to spread it and fit a wheel in, but if it's a labor to do so, probably best to cold-set the frame for it.
If your brakes aren't working well, it's likely a matter of adjusting the cable lengths and possibly the positioning of the straddle yoke. There are good youtube videos on this.
As for wheels... as long as they aren't damaged, aren't steel (or worse, chromed steel), and the rims can fit the tires you want, no real reason to change them beyond cosmetics. If you are going to change them, you may as well pair that change with an upgrade to sti.

Looks like you've made it up to 11 posts now and should be able to do a picture.

[MENTION=484113]Redneckroofer[/MENTION]

OK- to Business.

First- you have the stock front and rear racks- REALLY good- those are impossible to find.

From where I'm sitting- the bike looks to be in nice shape. For real- to be a good rider- it doesn't need much beyond fresh grease in the bottom bracket, wheels, and headset. Maybe new cables and housing; probably a new saddle. I love the Brooks Cambium (around $130). That's just me though.

If'n it were me- and I wanted to do a sort of "period" upgrade of the bike- I'd keep the wheels. I'd get a set of cable stops (maybe $20) and score a set of Suntour bar end shifters (maybe $50). I'd replace the rear derailleur with something cool and super functional. To be "period" I would use a 3 pulley Suntour XC(maybe $50). To make it a little later I'd get a Suntour XC Pro or XC Comp or an M730-M735 Deore XT (maybe $60+). I'd want to get a matching front derailleur... just because I'm all obsessive compulsive matchy-matchy like that (maybe $30). Again, if this were me, I'd also replace the brakes with some M732 XT or MT-60 MT-62 cantilevers. IMO- they're much better brakes-(probably the best wide profile cantilevers ever) they're seriously pretty much the same- the only thing that's seems to be different is the stamping on the back (I just bought a set for $40).

If you want to have indexing- having a 6 speed rear end makes things pretty cool- the spacing is the same between Suntour's Accushift 6 speed and Shimano's SIS indexing. For indexing- you just have to use Suntour shifters with an index compatible Suntour derailleur and Shimano shifters with Shimano derailleurs.

If you wanted to really modernize the bike- it's going to cost a bunch of money- a good wheelset (do the 36 spoke wheels) and if'n it were me- I'd go with XT or XTR derailleurs and hubs, Dura Ace bar end shifters Ultegra cassette- Not skimping on anything. About 2 years ago I went sort of this route with my Trek 720- I collected parts for a few years and still dropped an unbelievable amount of money building it up- but it's a SERIOUSLY badass bike.

https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4734/...4b77138c_b.jpg
IMG_2377 by Dave The Golden Boy, on Flickr

https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4646/...28f7ddf0_b.jpg
IMG_0616 by Dave The Golden Boy, on Flickr

https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4731/...a59b967d_b.jpg
IMG_1715 by Dave The Golden Boy, on Flickr

https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4731/...c2d43713_b.jpg
IMG_1703 by Dave The Golden Boy, on Flickr




I'd say to remember that it's built with thicker- stiffer tubing- it's got a longer wheelbase- it's never going to be a weight weenie, ultralight bike- It would be folly to attempt to do that to this bike. IMO- it'll be great with an 8-9 or 10 speed rear end-