samwheels

I was cleaning out my tool shed and I decided to clean up and sell an old bike I bought for commuting. It's a Raleigh Record Ace with original groupo (Raleigh crank set, Raleigh Weinemann brakes, Suntour gear set), but the wheels had been swapped out for cheapos, and there is a funky mountain bike style handle bar and the seat is some old Avocet brown thing. It has lots of original stickers, one which says "Raleigh winners Tour de France 1977" and it has the "Raleigh Nottingham, England" metal insignia on the neck. I posted it on craigslist.org for $75, and within a few hours I had ten responses. What gives? I can't seem to find any listings on ebay that would indicate this bike is worth more. Am I selling some sought after treasure for which I should be asking twice as much? Please, any advice welcome.
thanks,
Samwheels

nlerner

There were several generations of RRA, the earliest ones from the 1930s-1950s were essentially custom, top-of-the-line framesets made from Reynolds 531 steel. In 1973, Raleigh resurrected the model name for that year and produced a top-end, Reynolds 531 bike. Then around 1979, the model name came back, but this time on fairly low-end bikes.

See this page for a '73 example: https://retroraleighs.com/rra.html
See this one for the specs on the '79 RRA: https://bulgier.net/pics/bike/Catalog...ifications.gif

Given what you described, I'd guess you have on of the latter ones, and getting $75 for it is a pretty good deal.

Neal

samwheels

Thank you for the quick reply, Neal. It's a 1979, I think. I'm just baffled why there are so many responses to my ad, though. Not since I sold old campy parts have I had such a response, but they were actually worth something! I'll sell it for $75 and move on.