Check this Raleigh out on ebay. It is as good as Raleigh gets.

https://cgi.ebay.com/RALEIGH-SERVICE-...QQcmdZViewItem

Perhaps their finest in excellent paintwork to enhance the beauty of the frame's craftsmanship, but otherwise, it is a reasonably uninteresting frameset - right down to the sloping crown fork that looks as if it came off a mid-range Nishiki and the unmarked dropouts - the whole package topped off with a reasonably uninteresting groupset.

That bar tape doesn't help one bit either.

Price is right though - if he took the reserve off

-Kurt

Hahahaha - it's Hilary, so the reserve will be up in the stratosphere somewhere. And he'll still sell it. Dunno how he does it.

Very nice Team Pro type frameset, but the earlier ones (late '70s) were much prettier. I'm sure that one has an excellent ride though!

Hilary's reserves used to be somewhat realistic; I think I stole the Hetchins I got from him!

I dunno - I'm sure they ARE realistic, but I'm always looking for a bargain, not to buy something for what it's really worth.......

What did you pay for your Hetchins?

It went $400 shipped. I think his reserve was $300 though. '52 Experto Crede straight stay. The paint was ugly, but the frame was flawless, with no dings/dents, no rust, no bad threads or crash gamage... Cost me another $500 for a Baylis paint job, but it sure is pretty!

$400 including shipping to the states is pretty good. It's less than I almost paid for a fixed-gear Vade Mecum (where the hell do they get the names?). Was it just the frame though, or the whole bike?

Bare frameset, but exactly my size, and in my favorite lug pattern... I wouldn't have minded a curley, though it does have pencil stays.
This one came out cheaper with the fresh paint job, than a new Hetchins would be, is arguably better built, and I much prefer the NLA Experto lugs.

Dudes
Uninteresting my ass. You have no clue to the pedigree that this frame has. This is as good any steel frame you will find. The dropouts are stamped Campagnolo but they are not chromed. I have a frame very similar to this but to a different customized geometry and a different paint scheme. You have to get very close to see that the dropouts are stamped Campy. They also painted over the dropouts. My frame has Raleigh in the same font ( in white) on a red frame with blue rear triangle, blue forks, with white stars on the forks and triangle. My frame has a serial #SB7272 and is 57 cm. It was built for Pete Pensyres as a backup bike for his race across America. These frames were built at the Raleigh specialized bicycle development shop. Only the BEST framebuilders built these frames. Only the best framebuilders got to even touch 753. Note the number hang tab on the frame on ebay. What is better. A production Raleigh Team Pro or a very special frame from the specialized development shop. I am sure the pros rode frames from the development shop.

My frame will be dressed with a more appropriate Campy Super Record group. However, I will not look down at Dura Ace on that bike. That bike was obviously built for functionality.

I'll not argue, but simply note that my preference would be one of the 753 team frames with the older red/yellow/black livery. 54 cm if you please.

spending (wasting) most of the day doing research on team professionals it would seem that most of them are from the specialised bicycle development workshop anyway and they are 753.... which means they are no different in pedigree from this bike.. it was Hilary's ebay ad that pointed me to the Yahoo group about team pros and where I "unvieled" the existance of the mysterious 555rsl tubing which no one had heard of. Thanks lofter for your valuable raleigh artifact.

^
+1. The all-blue scheme on this later machine is less then unique, and the lugset used is not spectacular in appearance.

I don't contest that. I simply feel that if a frame is to be gawked at, it should also have a degree of uniqueness and awe-inspring details. Barring chrome, due to the restrictions on 753, I look for unique lugs and lugwork, plus interesting paint colors and/or designs, on high-end frames such as this Raleigh.

In other words, to simply look at this bike from a distance, it might be hard to tell it from any higher-end mass-produced machine off the rack. Hell, strip all the decals, including that of the tubing, from this frame, and it might take someone a few moments to realize that it's not something out of the ordinary.

That's not what I expect from a high-end frame. I look for features that stand out visually, in addition to its materials and build origins.

Take care,

-Kurt

I have seen a lot of 753s not stamped with SB. SB frames do not appear very often.

This thread is useless without pics!

Regarding the Raleigh, well, ultimately, it's just a Raleigh. From a UK perspective, I'll never be able to see Raleighs as more than carthorses next to the thoroughbreds from the small shops. Dawes, Raleigh, Coventry Eagle, to me, are just mass market factory bikes. Some of them are pretty good, some of them are in fact VERY good, but they'll never give me "the feelings". It's like comparing a really fast VW to a Maserati.