Hi,
Just joined your forum. Anyhow, I just picked up a Raleigh Grand Prix last week for $40. It had the original seat, original tires and brakes, everything is original on it. The rear wheel is slightly rusted and needs to be rebuilt. I bought the bike to commute on. Aside from this i have two recumbents that I go on annual 1-2 week long cross country tours on. So that said I don't know much about retro bikes at all. I just like to tinker with stuff.

I found Sheldon Browns site that says you can date the bike by getting numbers off the bottom of the crank, but there are no numbers there on my bike. There is however a number near the rear left dropout and that number is 179573. The bike has Weinmann 610 Vainqueur 999 u shaped brakes. The derailer is simplex I believe. The bike looks like this:

https://www.sheldonbrown.com/retroral...rand-prix.html

except that its the blue/black color. it does not have the duel lever brake levers, you can only brake from the dropped position. It has white covers on the brake levers. it says raleigh of nottingham on the front of the frame.

Can anyone help date the bike? I think it might be closer to 1968-70.

Also, can anyone tell me a little more about these bikes? It's a little heavy, but seems like it would make a nice commuter. I want to change the tire size to a 700cc. Has anyone done anything similiar? Seems I'd need to change the front brakes out to make them reach.

The bike also had brackets on the bottom tube that used to house a bike pump. does anyone know what they looked like? It seems like its from the factory and I'd love to see a picture of one.

Lastly, I'd love to know if anyone has any advice for cheap good upgrades to this bike. I dont want to drop a lot of cash into it, but I'd love to make it a little lighter, put wider bars on it, and put brake levers on it that i can pull from the top position.

Thanks for any help, and thanks in advance for any info you might have.

btw, this frame looks a lot like my bike in color, it might be identical but without the bike in front of me its hard to tell:

guess i cant post links to images. Try this.

https://www.brian-payne.com/stuff/raleighframe.jpg

Looks to be in fine shape. Pretty good deal on it too.

Do you commute in places where you might need to stop very quickly? If so, you might want to look into some alloy wheels. They won't rust, and they get gripped a lot better than chromed steel wheels do. Especially when they're wet.

As there's no serial number on the bottom bracket, check the seat tube, just below the top tube. If there isn't anything there either, I think your guess of '68-'70 is very close.

If the picture is your bike it is definitely newer than 68-69. They used a smaller cursive script for the names. I would guess this is a 73 or later. My first "real" bike was a 68 Grand Prix. The first link, the Sheldon Brown one is from the 76 catalog.

Here is a picture from the 68 catalog on Retro Raleighs. Mine was identical to this:

neither pic is of my bike, but I'll get one in the next few hours and post it up.

I would guess that is the serial number, and that it indicates 1973.

here are the pics of the bike:

https://www.flickr.com/photos/2314280...7603784278385/

also, there was no number on the seat tube.

Sure looks like the Grand Prix from the 1976 catalog on retroraleighs.com but in blue/black:

https://retroraleighs.com/catalogs/19...rand-prix.html

Someone upgraded the shift levers to Weimann levers and Carlton hoods, but otherwise seems the same.

In terms of 700c wheels, that would help lighten things considerably as it looks like the existing wheels are steel and you'd be switching to aluminum alloy. Your rear brake looks like it has the reach to do the job (an additional 4mm), but the front would have to be switched to a Dia Compe 750 rather than a Dia Compe 610. Those pop up on eBay with great frequency.

Neal

I actually just ordered a 27" aluminum wheel from my local bike shop for 32 bucks, so I'm going to stick with the 27" stuff and eventually upgrade the front to aluminum when its needed.

thanks for everyone's help so far!

fyi - most of the stopping power is in the front. Don't ride with reckless abandon until you swap the front out too.

good to know, thanks.

btw , you asked me where my commute is, I live in Phoenixville pa just outside of Philly and my commute is about 50% on the Valley Forge Bike trail and about 50% on back roads. I can't really complain about that which is why I picked up this bike to commute one. There is a section where there is no shoulder and really bad traffic and I was doing the ride on my lwb recumbent and it got really old getting run off the road, hence the raleigh.

Anyway, thanks again for the info.

I'd still guess 73-76. Nice that someone changed out the Simplex derailleur, and also nice you have quick releases on the wheels. My 68 didn't, instead it had wing nuts.

i do have the carlton hoods. not sure how to tell if i have high flange hubs or any of the other stuff. It does say nottingham on the badge on the front of the frame though.

Raleigh Grand Prix's were built in several different locations.

Worksop (Carlton) Denoted by the "W" in the S/N usually,

Nottingham "N"

Gazelle (Holland) "G"

Canada "R"

and Possibly Enid Oklahoma "E"

All of them from the 70's should be made from 20-30 Steel, I have noticed, that the Carlton, Canada, and Gazelle produced frames seem to have been built with a little more care.

All should have Nottingham England headbadges.

i recently acquired a made in canada 'Grand Prix'. I cannot find a SN in any of the usual places. This bike is in very good condition and from the date codes on some of the components it is an1985. Interesting mix. It has Tange No.5 main tubes. No chrome. A very nice fork. Forged Drops. The derailleurs are Suntour, AR ll on the rear and AR on the front. The shifters are very nice suntour braze ons. Brakes and wheel(s ) Weinmann. Fluted sr seat post 25.8. It did not have any cranks or front wheel when i got it and i am wondering what the crankset would have been and the pedals. Anybody have an idea? Sorry no pics yet.

After 1981 control of the North American market changed a lot. So by the mid 80's, I have no idea, Raleigh USA and Raleigh Canada were seperate entities.

I’m getting close to getting this bike set up how I want. It’s my dedicated commuter. I just ran new shift cables, installed barcons, adjusted the deraillers, put on the fenders and rear rack. I’m still unsure if I’m going to run a front rack or not.

I still need to run a new rear brake cable, as install the front brake! I’m looking for a front brake lever on the cheap that fits on the bars. I stole the rear lever off of an old mixte frame and I had and rigged the clamp to fit.

Here’s a pic.

At some point I want to ditch the cottered crank and get longer crank arms. The bike is pretty heavy, but I mean, I’d expect a commuter with racks to be on the heavier side. I took it for a short 5 mile ride last night and I was happy. This was my first time installing shift cables and adjusting derailers and it shifted flawlessly. The headlight however is a POS. It came off yet another donor bike I have in my basement.

I really like the bullhorn setup for commuting/touring. The only thing I might eventually do is add an aero bar, just to give me another position.

PM me. I have a few extra brake levers and I think one of them should fit.

Dante

wow, wtf.

Fify.

Neal

i'm not sure if I was dumber then, or now.

Three and a half years and you still don't have it set up the way you want it.

actually it was sold as a single speed maybe 2 years ago.