La Brea Bike 

I'm sure a number of you have seen the all-red Raleigh SBDU frame for sale on Ebay for the last 6 months or so... Not particularly attractive or unique, not a 753, and not even built at Ilkeston, but it's an SB serial #!!! I have been looking at the thing for months trying to decide if it was worth it... Two days ago I came to the conclusion that I was in ($650 seemed reasonable). Anyway, I was notified today that the owner found a crack in the DS chainstay while packing it and it would need a chainstay replacement... Obviously this repair would devalue the frame. Is it even worth negotiating on? Is it now worthless?

Charles Wahl

Plenty of fish in the sea of $650 frames that wouldn't need major repair and repaint. Save yourself the headache.

La Brea Bike 

I hear ya! I am unfortunately a Raleigh fan, and have been reading old books and reading Neal McGowran musings... He even references this S/N as a possible SBDU end number (later proven false). $650 is a big commitment for a frame for me...

3alarmer 

.
...not sure I understand what you are asking. Are you asking what it ought to be sold for to you after the current owner has it repaired, or are you asking what it should bring as is, with you on the hook for the repair and repainting ? I can assure you that this frame just got a lot more expensive. Also, I don't understand why you assume a repair devalues the frame ? If that were the case, nobody would ever cough up the cash to have frames repaired in this way.

Ask in the frame builder's forum for some estimates on the cost of doing a stay replacement and repainting. I think it will help you decide.

The Yahoo list group for SBDU frames/bikes has stuff that comes up for sale by the members all the time. You should find it and join.

3alarmer 

.
...I bought this one over in Petaluma in rough mechanical shape for about $600-650 ten or fifteen years ago from someone who was tired of it.
The whole bike, complete with most of the components, but I had to rework the wheels. $650 is a lot of money for a frame only.

La Brea Bike 

I was trying to decide if it was even worth trying to purchase at a reduced price. I would assume you would agree a non-damaged original frame was different than the same frame damaged and then repaired and repainted. I thought the Yahoo Groups were shut down, no?

La Brea Bike 

Beautiful!

cudak888 

I've often wondered whether some low-number hand-built frames - like this basic 531c SBDU - have a marginally higher potential for failure than mass-produced frames built by folks cranking them out every day; framebuilders who didn't even have to think about reading the flux, moving the torch, and moving on to the next joint. Not to mention whether the lug thinning and potentially less filler material on these fancy machines might work against their longevity in comparison to upper mid-range bikes (e.g., the Japanese-built Raleigh USA models below this SBDU at the time).

At any rate, it is a 531c SBDU frameset straight out of the 1986 catalog. Fancy serial or not, the solid bright red and '86 Raleigh graphics are as loud as they are generic. You couldn't make a SBDU more boring if you tried. An '84 Grand Prix looks higher end from a distance just because of the chrome fork and rear triangle, and I bet you couldn't tell one from the other in the saddle.

Sure, the Grand Prix will be heavier...if you're carrying your wallet, post-purchase.

With that chainstay crack, how about $6.50? Sure, a framebuilder could fix that, and another $175 later, a competent painter could probably blend it really well. And you'd still be left with a gaping chasm in your wallet that would have bought you a more interesting machine...

...the kind of interesting machine that has an SB serial, Prugnat lugs, and those exciting "T.I. RALEIGH" "TEAM" decals that even make Record gas pipe look cool.

-Kurt

La Brea Bike 

Yeah, for sure! I get wrapped up in Skunk Works aura pretty quickly, but the bespoke build and intended purpose absolutely do not equate to a higher quality product! I LOVE my Racing USA stuff.

p.s. I still lust after the history and mystique, I can't help it.

Lascauxcaveman 

Hard pass.

old_dreams

That’s an easy pass.

A hard pass is what I did a month ago.

At midnight I found an Ilkeston 753 frame in team colours delivered to my door for less than €250. I hovered over the BIN button but didn’t pull the trigger. Turned off the computer and went to bed. It was gone when I got up the next morning.

The paint was in good condition but there was a dent in the top tube at the seat lug. I’ve waited 10 years to get one of these at a reasonable price. I can wait longer.

La Brea Bike 

Ouch! That's one heck of a dent!!! Would you have repaired it?

old_dreams

On a 531 frame you might have been able to roll it out and possibly use some techniques to pull it out. I'm no frame repair expert. I know however that 753 is a different beast altogether. I did some quick googling and could find no accounts of dent repair on 753 so that is ultimately why I let it go. I calculated that even if the frame was too costly to repair I could still recover a lot of the cost by selling on the front fork but still I let it go.

There are no guys near me that could replace a top tube so I'd be looking at several hundred for shipping, tube replacement + repaint.

So if money matters to you I would get my money back. These bikes do come up but there are a lot of eyes watching. You need a bit of luck and a lot of patience.

I did manage to get my hands on an Ilkeston 531P recently for a reasonable outlay. It's not a team colours edition but it has wonderful paint, chrome and came with dura ace.

La Brea Bike 

Thanks, yeah it does. I am trying to get a refund.

cudak888 

Heat treated. It would have likely cracked. This is what happens if you try to straighten 753 (coincidentally, this is an SBDU Team Pro):





Mind, this is both a lot more damage + the cold setting done here was done purely for curiosity's sake.

-Kurt

3alarmer 

...they switched over to a new format/hosting site/something. I still get updated e-mails from them in my Yahoo mail account. Try RaleighTeamPros@groups.io

La Brea Bike 

I was able to log in! Awesome! Thanks for tip!

pcb 

SBDU frames don't grown on trees, so I think it boils down for how desperate your are to find one in your size, how much less you think it might be worth with a repair/respray, and how much you want to have into it.

Franklin Frames has stay replacements priced up to $95, and single-color paint w/clear starting at $240. I had him repaint a frame of mine a few years back, at which time he told me his website pricing was out of date and he'd be raising them. Looks like he didn't change the web pricing, but even if he's charging a bit more, say $150/stay and $300/paint, for around $500 you could possibly get the frame repaired and repainted by an established builder/painter. If you were willing to pay $650, for a frame that wasn't mega-clean to start with, IMHO if you could get it cheap enough, it might be worth it to you. Cheap meaning not more than $100-$150.

Yeah, you could luck into another SBDU in that size for $400, but you'd have to luck into it. I've been watching them on ebay, and you're at $800+ for clean tall one, and $1,000+ is more likely. Nobody on the SBDU yahoo list is selling 'em cheap.

Personal judgement call in my book. I'm not desperate enough for one at the moment, but if I were, I'd seriously consider it. Of course the seller would have to be willing to let it go cheap.

I realize OP has already requested a refund, just thought I'd throw some numbers and thoughts out.

La Brea Bike 

I think the main things that killed it were that it wasn't a Ilkston built frame, and the paint scheme is uninspired (boring) to say the least. My Ultimate would be a Team livery mid-80's in 56cm / 57cm range. I see a few on Ebay from time to time. It would, however take a lot of fiscal pain (and the courage to tell my wife I dropped $2k on a bicycle frame) to get that done. The net result would be N- I don't know how much of my stable.

xiaoman1 

Is the seller going to repair and repaint...mostlikley not because he will not get his money back deduct the cost for R/RP and non-original/repaired frame and go from there.
Time for "hard" negotiation....looks like a bike person so maybe the seller will understand, if not move on.
Ben

pcb 

I hear ya, all-around it wasn't a perfect fit to start with.

Of course, if you did the repair and got it repainted, nothing says you couldn't have it painted in your favorite team livery. As long as you don't try to misrepresent it, no harm no foul in my book.

The owner is a bike guy, I "know" him from another/other forum/s, so he has the capacity to be understanding of the issues involved. But I don't know him, without quotes, so I can't vouch for him.

I did drool over this for a while, but it's a little small for me, and I wasn't thrilled with the dent under the non-drive chainstay, and I'm not particularly on the hunt for SBDU. Mind you, if I can find one in 60-62cm in nice shape for not a ton o' money, I'm drooling.

rjhammett

This my daughter's '84 Team Pro (SBDU). I paid WAY less for the complete bike than what they are asking for a cracked frame. I don't think the last of the SBDU bikes are as in demand or valued as the earlier ones. I would pass on the frame.

repechage

Honest seller.
Unwind the deal.

La Brea Bike 

Done! Just waiting for the money to come back.

cinco

If you're talking about the red/yellow/black "traditional" team colors, that paint scheme lasted until the end of 1983, which I wouldn't necessarily call mid-'80s. In '84 the team colors were Panasonic's white/blue. I got lucky and found an all-original 1982 753 frame in team colors for a semi-reasonable price locally, so all hope is not lost. But do your homework because there was a fake on ebay last year for well over $1k.