Is this a Raleigh?
 

There is a Facebook listing in this area. The bike has a Raliegh headbadge, but I have never seen lug work on a Raliegh like this one. Any guesses on what this might be?

https://www.facebook.com/marketplace...9873924372436/

Looks like a nicely repainted Competition with Capella lugs.

Be wary too. Their ad copy makes it quite clear that they're less interested in accepting offers and more interested in using offers as a valuation tool.

Could prove to be a very difficult seller to work with.

-Kurt

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lug pattern Capella

model Competition

date early 1970's

original finish black with gold lining


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Thanks for the quick reply. I am no expert in Raliegh, and I had never seen a production bike with those lugs. Do you have any idea of the year? Value?

We have a different forum for valuations: https://www.bikeforums.net/classic-v...th-appraisals/

Are you the seller?

-Kurt

No, I am not the seller - this popped up on FB yesterday and I was confused by what I was looking at.

This is not likely a bike I would be interested in. But I do try to know as much as possible as I peruse the listings. I did learn that the guy listing the bike is doing this for an estate and feels compelled to represent the family to the best of his ability. I do own a Competition GS from the 70's and the lugs are completely different than this one.

I have that era competition in the original paint. Excellent frameset for converting to 700c if you want to go with fatter tires. Mine wore 35s and fenders easily.

An “A” serial number with Capella lugs. Bike is from 1973.

The GS is definitely it's own thing. The early Competition was very much a sports tourer; the G.S.'s revised geometry oriented it a lot more towards criteriums. Same along most of the Raleigh range; the Mk.V Professionals are similarly a lot tighter than the IV's that preceded them.

Come to think of it, I wonder if the deletion of the International from the '77 catalog was also part of this shift from touring to racing.

-Kurt

The lugs are unusual - originally developed for Carlton while they were an independent company, before Raleigh bought them out. The story is that during a renovation of the Carlton plant, a sizeable quantity were found in boxes, and they were used extensively c.1973 until they were all gone. The general consensus is that they were primarily used in 1973 on bikes that previously had used Nervex Professional lugs - the Super Course, the Competition (now renamed Competition Mk. II) and the International. By 1974 the International returned to Nervex Professionals and the Super Course and Competition to Prugnat 62A lugs. The Capella really needed a lot of handwork to make it nice, and lots of us have stories of crudely brazed and fitted specimens. Stack that on top of the crushing demand for bikes in '73, the peak of the great bike boom, and you get all sorts of hack work. One frequent poster has noted his Raleigh Competition Mk. II has not fully brazed - the tubing and lugs were held together with tacked brazing, and he had everything properly joined when he had it painted. My '73 Competition has some interesting (but fortunately largely cosmetic!) holidays in the brazing of the long lug points.

My experience is that the Competition and the Gran(d) Sport(s), which were alternating models for a few years, have nearly identical geometry, just different lugs, dropouts and chainstays. The greatest virtue of the Competition Mk. II from the sloping crown era is the outrageous tire clearance, pretty much the most of any of the classic Raleigh/Carlton 531 bikes.

And it's gone

He told me he had an offer for $250 so I am guessing that was the sale price.

Excellent frameset for 650b conversion as well!

I've got 650b x 42mm on mine.
https://cimg2.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...bcd1f0aad1.jpg

Based on serial number formats in the bike boom year of 1973, I have a suspicion that Gran(d) Sport(s) were, at least, assembled with the Grand Prixs and Super Courses (wherever that took place) since they share the same seven-digit serial number on the NDS dropout. Competitions, on the other hand, are numbered in the "letter plus 4 digits" format on the bottom bracket that follows the pattern shared with the up-market models (International, Professional) that we can be pretty sure were assembled at Worksop. Just speculating here, but as the Gran(d) Spor(t) and Super Course both carry the "Carlton" decal on the seat tube perhaps the frames were brazed up in Worksop and then moved in bulk to Nottingham for final assembly?

[MENTION=40306]cudak888[/MENTION] may know more since he has the most in-depth understanding of the Raleigh serial numbers used at that time.