banger

When I bought my 1981 Supercourse it had 27" wheels on it. They seem to be too large. Did the original 81' have 700c wheels I put on road road guard tires and had to remove the reflectors because the additional thickness of the tires caused them to touch the bottom of the reflector. I gotta believe it was built for 700c and not the 27" but can't find anything on the internet yet. Thanks.

Bikedued

I'm not sure what year they switched to 700, but I do believe an 81 would have have come with 700's. My 1980 was all original when I bought it, and had them.,,,,BD

redneckwes

1979 (at least) and up have 700's.

cycle_maven

My wife's 1975 Supercourse Mk II-

12-32 9-speed rear, cruiser handlebars, 48/38/28 crank, 700c CR-18 rims on the original Normandy hub up front, Ultegra in back. Basket and ladybug bell. 35mm tires for a soft ride on gravel. People compliment her on her bike- make me really proud. One of the few Mixtes with a 531 frame.

jdefran

Just picked up this 1978 Raleigh Super Course. Everything seems original except the saddle and shifters. Unfortunately it is one size larger than my norm and would need to ride with the post all the way down (as shown) or trade one of you



Not sure what's going on with the rear derailleur, but it doesn't seem to spring back to soak up the chain. Any thoughts?


Just a couple more here: https://s1081.photobucket.com/user/jd...se/Pre%20Build

sailorbenjamin

Funny. I just got this one that's one size too small for me...

jdefran

What size do you need and what size is that? Pretty crazy!

sailorbenjamin

I like a 23". Looks like yours is a 25" and I think mine's a 21". Wait, I'll measure it.
Yup, 21" C-C. I don't really need another 23" Raleigh. I've got 5 that I can think of off the top of my head. Not sure why I brought this one home. Nice shade of brown. Pictures don't do these Raleigh paints justice.

jeirvine 

Could be a snapped return spring, or possibly frozen if it's been sitting like that for a while. It can be rebuilt either way. Those are fun to disassemble.

jdefran

Would that #19 in the first diagram/#20 in the second diagram? Where would replacement parts come from?

jeirvine 

Yup. I may have one if it is the spring. I have a small stash of parts Suntour RDs.

noglider 

Ben I am tempted to say I'll buy that super course off you but I can't think of what I'd do with it. Is that silly or what?

DiegoFrogs

I'd start with a solid disassembly, cleaning and lubing of the derailleur.

The spring may be totally busted, but may just be running loose inside of the housing.

As I recall, the cylinder that is coaxial with the upper pulley houses the fixing end of the spring. There are a bunch of slots in the fixing cylinder (for lack of better language) where you can place the end of the spring, thereby adjusting the spring tension.

jdefran

Out of curiousity, I attempted to remove the bolt (don't know the technical) connecting the upper pulley/cage to the body and as I turned it to the left the cage came back and had some spring action. It seems that bolt doesn't actually loosen or tighten. What am I missing here?

DiegoFrogs

Here's a link to the diagram from Yellow Jersey.

It's been a long time since I did this, and I haven't had any coffee yet, but you basically have to keep the slotted shaft (20) from turning. I recall that I did this after I had already removed the cage, which is held on by that weird nut on the back (23). The diagram actually has the right Suntour tool pictured on top of it, but I don't have one and I just used a big ass screwdriver.

jdefran

Yeah I saw that funny looking tool. So it seems when moving #18 it tightens the spring (#19).

DiegoFrogs

The spring isn't locked to the bolt, but moving the bolt probably rotates (20). Keep in mind that the spring doesn't sit above (20), but rather (20) sits inside of the spring.

The other thing that might have happened is that if the stop screw on the cage (22) is missing, the cage could've rotated itself until there was no spring tension. I guess I should note that the reason I removed the cage and whatnot while doing this was because I was also replacing the pulleys. If I were investigating the tension alone, I'd probably pull the setscrew, rotate the cage to get tension, and replace the setscrew to see if that worked before messing with the position of the spring on the shaft.

Real1shepherd

Wow...I'm still sorting through this entire thread. I started another thread about this Super Course I bought...not knowing about this thread. I traveled all the way to Seattle to pick up this old, 'weird green' SC, which is like 700 miles round trip. I missed a one-owner Competition GS from the late 70's by just a few days. I'd been looking a long time and bought this SC on the 'rebound'. The original alloy wheels were long gone, steel wheels on, has a decent Suntour derailleur front and back, brakes original and shifters look original from the old adverts I've seen. But you guys are the experts and I'm here for advice.

I just wanna make a decent road bike of it again by; buying alloy wheels, installing a nice(almost new) Pro-Compe cassette, probably leaving the crank set alone for nostalgia.....maybe some nicer pedals with toe straps and a Brooks saddle. But awww about the paint. I know some of you are very fond of the 'weird green', the patina from age etc. But.....while I like the old color, it's been really trashed....although rust isn't a problem. I talk to people around here about painting bike frames and they look at me blankly and utter 'Huh?'. I'd have no problem taking a rattle can to its worst parts and leaving the rest...but I'm not convinced it can be reasonably matched? The paint is the thing I have to reconcile first, so I would appreciate some input.

Oh yeah....I'm having some trouble deciphering the serial. On the BB it looks like two stamped 'T's' and on the rear dropout it reads;297178. In all the links I searched for, they claim there has to be letters before the numbers.....except in the SC and then they don't go from there.

Kevin

Real1shepherd

Finally I got some pics....unbeknown to me, the lens on my work phone is cloudy. So....just pretend it's a very gloomy day in the PNW.

And yes, I know the seat post is not OE(little bit of rust), the saddle is junk, the handlebar tape is ****e, the wheels are steel and the back wheel is nutted instead of quick-release. It's got decent Suntour front & rear derailleurs....I'll get those sparkling when I take it down to the frame. I think the front riser is OE? And I think the brakes are period and the downtube shifters I think are OE, but kinda sucky.

However, aren't those the infamous Carlton/Capella lugs? And wouldn't that date it '73/74? From what I read, Raleigh bought Carlton and used the Capella lugs for just a short run, correct? Anyway....after much deliberation, I think I'm liking the original paint more and more. That patina has some real character and after new decals and a really deep polish/wax, it should look good enough.

Kevin

Lascauxcaveman 

Your bike looks like the little brother of mine, a 64cm SC from 1972, at least according to the person I bought it from, and this agrees with evidence found previous posts on this thread. Standard (Nervex?) lugs, the Capellas are slightly fancier with some round holes in them, I think? I'm not sure about anything else, but the brakes, stem, shifters and the crank set are probably original to the bike, and maybe the seat post, too. The steel wheels (downgrade) and Suntour derailleurs (upgrade) were likely added sometime in the the last 30 years or so.

On mine, I just today pulled off the original steel (1.2 kilogram!) Nervar crank (F#$&*@ing cotters - but I got them out, by golly), pulled the original plastic Simplex derailleurs, yanked the chain (had a broken link plate) and test-fitted a couple standard English-threaded bottom brackets, one cartridge and one standard, which both fit perfectly (Whew! No funny proprietary Raleigh sizing there, anyway) Got a 600 Arabesque drive train and shifters from out of the parts bin and have mounted it all up in anticipation of getting a proper chain to fit. This is a huge bike and will need a full 116 links, I think. I've got a couple vintage triples I may try on it as well. They weigh about 1/2 as much as the original steel double crank.

I've got the same 'weird green' paint job in about the same condition as yours. I'll post pix when I get it all sorted out.

Real1shepherd

Cool, we're doing these projects about the same time. Pretty fancy lugs for their regular run, but I'm no expert on these bikes. The front brake is Winemann 7something-lable partially worn off and the back is Dia-Compe.....that's probably not correct. I need to know more about the brakes that were supposed to be on. I'm having doubts on the seatpost, because I thought it was supposed to be alloy...it's speckled with very small rust spots. I'm probably staying with the original crank set and peddles for nostalgia. I'll get a huge benefit from period looking alloy wheels in weight gain and actual use. Thanks for looking and yeah, post some pics of your project!

Kevin

Real1shepherd

Found out the early 70's seat posts were steel....the brakes most likely to have been on there are Weinmann 750 Vainqueur 999 center pull, red label. Easy to get those crank pins out with a tall socket and a large C-clamp. You're never supposed to beat on them-always press in & out. So.....unless I find something horribly wrong, I'm staying with original paint and crank set/peddles. Just have a lot of polishing to do.

Kevin

Lascauxcaveman 

Aw, c'mon. Where's the fun in that? But seriously, what I did was back off the cotter tightening nuts, shoot some PB Blaster in there, let it sit for a few days, shoot some more PB in there, then carefully ride the bike around (with the nuts still backed off) to loosen the cotters. After about a mile of riding, I went back and gently tapped them out with a hammer, making the nuts flush to the end of the cotters to evenly distribute the abuse. It worked very well.

I have a good collection of vintage alloy cranks, and so I can't think of any really good reason to use the original stonking 1.2 kilo pair. Not on a bike I'm actually going to ride. I have a soft spot in my heart for center pulls, so I'm going to do what I can to get the Weinmans in top nick before I ditch them for the much more modern Shimano 600 stuff that goes with the crank, shifters and derailleurs I've put on it so far.

Real1shepherd

I guess a lot depends on how the crank set cleans up and what the condition is of the BB itself etc. I'd love to see some vintage alloy cranks from that period....are you talking about like Campy? Maybe if I saw one and it had WOW factor, I'd swap out. I too love the old Weinmans....just looking at them brings back memories of warm & fuzzy....although I also remember they had their 'moments'.

Kevin

Real1shepherd

Wow.....this Raleigh serial number thing has really got me baffled. It would seem that with the SC, they ran two serial number systems concurrently. One was six digits and one was seven. And this was all between '72-'73. So.....I'm just going to say my bike was built between '72-73 and let it go at that. I have no idea what the 'TT' means on the BB. The six digit serial is on the rear drop out. Good grief......

Kevin