Raleigh Super Course restore
 

I picked up a new Raleigh to keep my Competition and Grand Prix company.

Serial no. says its a '76. It looks totally original and must have been hanging in a basement for the last 30 years. Even the Carlton brake hoods have survived (PVC rather than gum rubber), and the red matching toe straps.

Paint is pretty good in a "nice patina" way. It shold wax up nicely.

I'd love to say I got it for nothing at a yard sale, but I actually paid too much to a bike dealer. (i think he noticed that I was drooling on the bike.)

This one will be an easy restoration over the winter. It won't need anything except cables, tires, new white tape and maybe a set of white Bluemels?

Or maybe I should try a rattle can paint job and go fixie.

Any opinions?

David S.

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Absolutely! And why not drill some holes in the top, seat and down tubes to lighten the bicycle:-( You might also want to check out Should I Paint My Bicycle? even though I am pretty sure you will not be doing so. At least, I hope not!

Nice bicycle and you should have lots of fun bringing that old machine back to road worthy life. Good luck with the bicycle and welcome to the Bike Forums.

I disagree with Randy about drilling out that top tube to save weight:
You'll need all the weight you can get with the winter coming, after welding some steel plate ahead of the forks to push snow.

(JK)

By the way -- Here is a thread with a wealth of information/ideas on Super Courses.

Yours will be a beauty too!

Thanks guys, and thanks for the link to the SC thread. I hadn't seen that.

Here is last years project: an 81 Competition built up from a frame with mostly old Campy parts.

Regards,
David

That's the first time I've seen conclusive evidence that late 1976 models came with the Suntour drivetrains that were not spec'ed until 1977.

I had a 1976 Gran Sport that came with a loose bag of these drivetrain bits; could never prove that the bike originally came with them. That can't be doubted on this Super Course Mk.II; not for a minute.

-Kurt

SN is WK600xxxx So midyear '76. Yeah, I was looking through the catalogs and the 76 (in the catalog) has different components. I'm guessing they changed mid year after the catalog was published ("we reserve the right to....").

At first I thought the SR crank was the same as my 78 Grand Prix, but it isn't. This is proper crank arm and rings style, where the Grand Prix has the larger chainwheel permanently attached.

David

New Christmas toy soon in pieces!
 

I didn't mention that the Super Course was a "present". The quesion was how to get yet another bike in the garage under the watchful eye of you-know-who. "How would you like to buy me a bike for christmas?", turned out to be a good approach. The better half chipped in a hundred dollars and resistance over to a bulging garage subsided.

The only down side was that I couldn't work on it until Christmas morning. An hour and ten minutes later I had it fully disassembled, including the bottom bracket and headset bearings.

I continue to be amazed with the originality and low wear. I don/t think there are many miles on this one. Looks like first set of brake pads and first or second set of tires. No corrosion, just a lot of gunky dried oil. The saddle looks new (no cracks at all, plastic badge in better condition than another sample I have). The frame has a lot of miscellaneous scratches but is quite presentable.

This one will go back together totally stock. I'm even keeping the "dork plate" on it. Times have changed since we were kids and took every part off that could save a few grams. (Okay, the pedal reflectors are toast.)

One picture shows the parts that are Raleigh signed. Raleigh, like Schwinn, was big enough to get their name branded on lots of parts. Signed parts are: brakes by Weinmann, Crank by SR, and front and rear deralliers by Sun Tour. This year SC also has Atom pedals, GB stem (very long, stock?), unsigned handlebars and seat post.

Now, as time allows, I will start going through all the subassemblies to clean and relube. I'll need tires and cables (I'm going to clean and keep the cable housings).

Does anybody know where I can find some white fenders? Bluemels or otherwise.

Merry Christmas everyone,
David

ps. How do I get my pictures in full size rather than as thumbnails?

http://bikeforums.net/attachment.php...hmentid=231612

If anybody is into Raleigh minutia, these are the cranks from the Super Course (right) and my old '78 Grand Prix (left). I initially thought they were the same but you can see that the Super Course is a little better quality with real 5 bolt attachement (118mm BCD?). It is 49/40 while the other unit is 52/42. Both are by SR.

David

Welcome aboard BF and the C&V, as said. Nice looking Super Course you have there. I'll wager cehowardGS will like this thread a whole lot.

Bill

LOL!!!! Auchen, you rule....

It's a beauty! You're a better man than I, My first thought would have been to grease the hubs, a little oil down the seat tube, air for the tire and ride off into the sunset....;)

That's a gorgeous bike. Looks like a fun project.

Thats a nice raleigh you got there, thank you for not going fixed gear, i hate seeing old bikes like this getting stripped down to fixies and rattle canned

Winter helped stiffle that urge. It was warm enough Christmas day to put on a bunch of layers and a big winter coat and noodle down to the Leslie Spit, about 15 miles, on the old Grand Prix.

David

Its the rattle can part that I don't understand. "Its only original once."

I must confess some of the fixies are a little interesting, though.:o

David

Good point, and, as you can see in the picture, not drilling the top tube, but lowering the saddle height works well for this Raleigh Gran Prix as it patiently waits for winter to descend...

http://www.bikeforums.net/attachment...9&d=1268878910

That one has all the improvements including improved steering geometry and the famous "rider mass assisted servo braking".

David

I pick up one from a storage garage clean out. It's a 73 and a big time project bike unlike yours. I've been working on just getting the stickers off of it. The guy I got it from put all sort of reflective stickers on it. He said he got a couple of tickets in Miami back in the 70's for riding home in the dark. Mine has campy rally derailieurs and a TA triple which I don't think are original. I was hoping to trade the frame for a bigger one 60cm, mine is a 56 cm. but there were no takers so I'm just going to rebuild it as a bike to ride a few miles with the kids. I will post pics when I get it picture worthy. Good luck on yours!

Slow progress on the Raleigh so far. Its wintertime so I'm just tackling a sub-assembly or two every weekend. Last week I finished the rear wheel bearings and thats the last major part, so soon I will be putting it back together.

I thought the Raleigh signed SR cranks are especially pretty so I've attached some pictures of them.

I'm still looking for fenders. No luck on white Blummels so I'm thinking about alternatives.

David

What a perfect bike. It already has the Suntour stuff that I had to add to my '72 Super Course to make it a rider: it had beautiful but poorly performing French stuff, and a cottered crank. Yours is plug and play. I love those Raleigh-branded group sets. I picked up a full set on eBay, including Bar Cons for like $50. Enjoy.

Shakedown cruise of the Super Course today in spite of 27 degree weather. It is supposed to be warmer tomorrow.

I found to issues that the experts might have an answer for.

First, I gave the unit a 6 speed freewheel. It wasn't much of a squeeze, no cold setting required. I just added another locknut to the right side. Shifting is a little fussy, just as it is on another bike where I upped to a 6.

Question no. 1, would a narrow chain make a difference? I'm thinking it would give a little more room before the chain starts to shift or make noise.

The second issue is that the bike wants to veer right if I try hands off. I don't notice any pull with my hands on the bars, just hands free. Could this be an issue of inadequate dish? I think the amount of dish was a little under, and the extra spacer would make it slightly worse (1/2 the spacer thickness, not much). Anything else I should check for?

Pictures later.

David

A narrower chain will make it worse. Stay with a 6-spd chain.
What would help is a ramped Hyperglide FW.

If the rear wheel more or less centers to the brake bridge the dish is probably close enough.
It's more likely the fork/frame is tweaked a little. Check the frame with a string test, because it's easy to do. Then examine the fork. If it appears to be out of alignment you'll need to address it. It's easy (too easy) to cold set the legs, so go slowly and iteratively on any moves you make there.

Currently I have the orriginal chain on it (5 speed, I guess). Shifts fine but it is hard to get it to seat without noise. The freewheel is a Sun Race ("freewheels today are crap" my bikeshop says).

String test sounds good.

Thanks,
David

The original chain will shift like poop. Modern chains have huge improvements to make shifting a pleasure.

auchencrow says it's easy to bend the fork, and by that he means, it doesn't take much force. However, knowing which direction to bend it in is very tricky. Do some reading first. You may want to fashion yourself a jig so you can measure your movements. You have to concern yourself with fore-aft, with left-right, and also with leg length. Leg length can change when you bend a leg a few times. If you're lucky, it's just a left-right problem. That's the easiest to fix. If it's a fore-aft problem and don't have a jig, roll it slowly on a big pane of glass. You might be able to see its (mis)alignment if you do this repeatedly and patiently.

This talk of nice looking Super Course's is getting my interest up. There is that '77 up the street that didnt sell at a garage sale last year. Hmmmmm.

Nice bike, 55 Traveler!