help ID'ing a Raleigh roadbike
 

I picked up a (free) Raleigh roadbike frameset and now want to figure out what it might be. I'm at the dayjob now pecking out this post on a smartphone and the frameset is at home. So, what do you need to see in order to help me ID what I've got? I will get the details and upload some pics later tonight, just figured I'd get a list started so I'll know what to show later.

I'm thinking:
1. Serial number
2. Seat tube, top tube, rear dropout spacing dimensions
3. Pics of headbadge and any lugwork
4. Pics of dropouts
5. Seattube-seatstay connection

The headbadge says Nottingham and looks like what I believe is the 1970-1990 era. Forks are chrome. Frame has been painted over at least once or thrice with something akin to a transparent mottled scale model spray can rootbeer paint that looks almost like the frame was painted shortly after the bike was sprayed with WD-40. The bottom bracket is there but I don't recall if the cranks or chainrings are still on it, I think they are though. Rear derailer is there, sort of.

It does have a Nitto quill style stem and some sort of upright handlebars different from what I've seen before and are kind of neat looking. Brake levers are mismatched and one looks much older possibly than the frame but might be original with the handlebars.

I believe the brakes are still there but don't recall if they are center or side pull, I'm thinking sidepull. If the brakes are still there I'll try to throw a 700c wheel and a 27" wheel on to see what the brake pads line up with to get an idea of what sized wheels the bike might have come with (I suspect it might be 27").

I think it measured 57ctc on the seattube and maybe 56ctc on the toptube. I was going out the door when I was told I could have it and I've been busy since, just now getting time to look it over closer tonight.

Let me know what you need to know. And I don't care about the value so this isn't a pricing question, I just like Raleighs. :-)

if its a 70's raleigh hopefully the Bottom Bracket and Cups are there or you might be in for a pain in the butt.

Pretty much everything you listed is right. Pics being the most important.

Just an fyi - Raleigh measured seatposts ctt.

Add to your list - braze-ons.

You can pull the fork and see if the steerer is painted the original color.

Neal

I'll include pics of brazeons and such, pretty sure the BB is all there (I hope anyway), good idea on pulling the fork to look for original color.

In the back of my mind I'm wondering if any original decals or stickers are hiding under the later paint job(s) and if so is there a way to at least see what they show. I might be doing some cotton swab paint removal a section at a time.

Surprise grandkid sitting duties sort of intercepted the bicycle stuff and ran me later than planned.
Then I had the camera set on email pic mode so these might be marginal quality, let me know if I need to upload higher res stuff and I'll get to it probably Thursday.

Turns out the measurements are interesting:
Seattube measures between 58.5 to just shy of 59 ctt
top tube measures to about 56
front fork between measures to about 9.5cm (or 95mm or something like that, it's late and metrics ain't my strong suit)
and here's where it gets interesting, the rear dropouts measure between 133-135mm depending on where I put the tape, where the axle would rest it is about a 135 spacing. I'm thinking someone at some point did a frame spread on this thing, whatever it is.

I looked fairly well and didn't find any serial numbering, could be buried under paint or was hiding in the shadows. I'll look again when I've got daylight.

Brakes say Weinmann type 730 on them, levers are mismatched. Derailers are SunTour. One cable clamp down by the BB says Mafac (I think, I'm tired)

Anyway, here's a bunch of pics of various quality. I've also got a Raleigh Record that I haven't got to working on yet and a Raleigh Marathon that I worked on last summer and neither of them match this frame. Judging by the rear brake stay I'm going to guess this is a lower end frameset, but I could be wrong, but suspect I'm right. Not sure if it would have come originally with drop style road bars or if the handlebars on it are possibly original.

The wheels in some of the pics are off of a different bike that I parted out. They're 27" wheels with old rubber, looks like the brakes could handle dropping down to 700c. I didn't measure the standover height yet.

more pics. looks like I'm going to have to make some higher res stuff, these are tiny, sorry. and sorry about any redundancy....

yada yada, pics and pics,

I did find on the seat tube what appears to be either an oversprayed decal or the remains of what's left of one underneath the paint. Looks like a big letter R for Raleigh, it might be visible in one or two of the pics and might help narrow down the year once I re-find the Raleigh catalog scans.

Also, I haven't tried to find any date codes on the components yet.

So, any guesses on what this thing originally was? Once I've got some idea of what it is then I'll decide what I'm going to do with it. I've got a set of Campy tubular wheels with a 5speed freewheel, but those might be overkill for this frame, plus I'd have to respace the rear back to what it probably originally was. I don't think Raleigh of Nottingham made any framesets like this with a 135 rear spacing, but I could be wrong.

Anyway, looking forward to your thoughts on this thing. Thanks in advance for your inputs.
g'night, zzzzzzzZZZZZZzzzzzzZZZZZzzzzz

oh, and one last thing before I hit the hay, the last pic in this batch looks like the rear wheel is crooked, it is just not all the way up into the dropouts and just barely haning on due to the wheel in there being a 5speed clincher flopping around this frames spreadout 135ish spacing. It doesn't appear that the frame is bent in any obvious what that I have noticed so far. I also didn't get the fork off yet to see what the internals look like or to see if any original paint colors are lurking therein.

Okay time for some sleep....

You want Spike Bike to ID this hunk of junk?

It's what's left of a Raleigh Thingamabobismnism Sprite.

-Spiro Bikopoulis

Approximately 1980? (certainly post CPSC).

This may offend you and for that I apologize in advance, but that bike is a run of the mill, low cost, low performance frame.

No offense taken at all, truth is good so if it is junk then junk it is. :)

Thingamabobismnism, I like that, you may have just named this beast. ;-)

I may chem-strip the paint and rattle can respray it, I can use the practice once the weather warms up some more.

I suspect no tears will be shed and no kittens harmed if this one goes the alternative direction.

Edit: with the above leads I found this
http://www.sheldonbrown.com/retroraleighs/sprite.html

And with that info and a couple of minutes of thought while walking downstairs to the coffee room I think I'm going to play around with setting this beast up as a City Coffee Commuter. Should be fun to mess with if I stay within a budget.

Thanks for helping me figure out what this thing is and was and might become.

Clearly a lower end Raleigh - possibly a Sprite, but I'm not sure how to separate Kurt's seriousness from his playfulness in his post. I can't make out the serial number from the photos, and didn't see it in your post. I think your intentions for it are appropriate.

This is from Sheldon's Raleigh threading page: The easiest way to identify Raleigh-built bikes is by looking at the rear dropouts. Almost all Raleigh-threaded bikes have the rear fender eyelets located directly behind the axle, instead of above it.

So based on your pic of the rear dropout, it sounds like you should expect 26tpi threads.

I'm sure the bike will prove serviceable for your intended use. It would be cherished transportation in many parts of the world.

It's a Sprite. Came as a five or a ten speed version of a fender-less Sports.