Rather than bury this factoid in an old thread, I thought I'd put it in a new one. The question often comes up as to whether or not the Raleigh Super Course has a standard English/BSC-threaded bottom bracket or a 26tpi Raleigh-threaded bottom bracket. On Sheldon Brown's page on Raleigh threading, he notes that

"In later years, higher-end Raleigh models such as the International, Professional, Competition, Grand Sport and other models built at the separate Carlton workshop used B.S.C. threading, as did models made in Asia and the United States. These bicycles all used cotterless cranks.

Generally speaking, Raleighs that use cottered cranks will also have Raleigh 26 TPI threading for both the bottom bracket and the headset. Although the diameters of these parts are the same as B.S.C., the different thread pitch makes them incompatible. This article will provide strategies for getting around this problem."

Well, to confuse matters, the early 70s Super Course was Carlton made, had a cottered crankset, and a 26tpi bottom bracket. Here's a scan of a Phil Wood bottom bracket retaining ring box (a product that's still available, btw):



Forum member evwxxx confirms that his 1972 Super Course has BSC threading. My 1971 Super Course has 26tpi, so looks like that's a key transition year.

Neal

So I guess the assumption is that models under the Super Course (Non-Reynolds 531 bikes like Grand Prix and Record) do have the old Raleigh threading on thru the 70's, until they went cotterless??

I think that's a safe assumption, but you never quite know with Raleigh. I wouldn't be surprised if a couple of thousand Grand Prix frames went through the wrong line at one point and ended up with BSC threaded bottom brackets and someone out there will say, "But my 1968 Grand Prix has an English-threaded bottom bracket!"

Neal

Raleighs are weird.
My Canadian-made Criterium seems to have a 71mm BB shell, but does NOT have Raleigh threading - it has standard threads!

Another thing I might mention on the 2 Raleigh Super Courses from 1972 is that they both have the Reynolds 531 decals on the seat tube that were cosmetically altered from the diagonal 531 "Butted Tubes, Forks and Stays" to "Tubes" only, with the remainder marked out with some kind of black marker pen!!!! So they are diagonal "531" decals but are not meant to indicate full 531, just 3 main tubes. So, they ran out of the "tubes only" decals that year??

And another comment on the Raleigh Super Course from Sheldon Browns web pages: "Throughout the Bike Boom era, the Super Course was the least expensive Raleigh model to feature aluminum rims. It was also the least expensive model to use standard British tread dimensions, rather than the Raleigh proprietary threading used on bikes built at the Nottingham factory." Which must mean the "Bike Boom era" started in 1971! https://www.sheldonbrown.com/retroral...er-course.html

So what is your guess on the threading of the BB and headset for a 1975 Super Course Mk II?

Standard BSC threading on that model

And perhaps the Super Grand Prix was late enough and obscure enough to not make the cut?

Well, thats a good question. Just from what I read in the papers, it would seem the Super Grand Prix, if it had steel cottered cranks, would be Raleigh 26tpi. If it came with the alloy cotterless, it should have BSC, But thats just from what I have gathered so far!

The Super Grand Prix always seemed to have the components of a Super Course on a Grand Prix frame.

What about a Supercouse with a cottered steel crank?

See earlier posts in this thread. Apparently Supercourses after about 1971 with steel cottered cranks had BSC bottom brackets, ones from before that seemed to have the Raleigh proprietary 26tpi threading.