mainstreetexile 

Man, I wish I had your neighbors.. that's a great bike.

If you're thinking of wrenching on it yourself, I would recommend getting a lower end, less valuable bike to practice on first.

Tuc

Never saw one with the black paint, but it is right there in the catalog! Post more pic's!

Zach32

That pretty much answers my next question :-)

I went by my local bike shop and they guy gave me his honest assessment -- he showed me a $110 tubular and implied that what I have is an expensive decoration. Replacing the tubulars or replacing the rims would come to >$300 and I would have an "OK" road bike by today's standards.

Turns out there are more reasonably-priced tubulars, and with some basic mechanical skills, they are not so hard to fix. I plan to find a (different) shop nearby that can replace the tubulars the first time around. I am looking forward to taking a ride on this bike!

SingleSpeeDemon

This is the point where I would have said "I was looking for the Sushi place..."

I took my Zeus that I am restoring to a shop where the chief mechanic actually "gets it" to have the BB removed, but this weekend the shop was staffed by two young kids who couldn't comprehend why someone would want an old bike like that. I almost regret leaving it at the shop; I hope neither of them took a wrench to it.

Amesja

Amazon.com

Tuc

My LBS put a pair of Continental Giro's on my tubular rims for about $140 total, they were marked around $30 each for just the tubular, so the rest was labor. Yeah, they cleaned them up nice, put some grease in and checked the spoke tension and trueness. Try another shop.

Edit* Giro is good training tire, I have their tubulars on two bikes and they work fine aired down to about 90-95psi. I am just under 200 pounds riding on fairly smooth roads and they work great. Really impressed by the quality of the Presta valve stem as compared to others. There were some other tires I looked at, and this forum is fond of arguing about each of them, but went with what the LBS had in stock in a 23-25 width. Sure, they said they would be happy if I ordered from Amazon and brought the tires into their shop to mount,... but I didn't - twice in three months for each of the bikes. Note: it is a three day process done right, the novelty of doing it myself wore off 25 years ago.

BTW, a Raleigh Pro from Carlton is more than OK by any standards of the last 40 years - top pro race bike for today? Nah, but far exceeding "OK"

Tuc

Started thinking about the LBS reaction to your bike, seriously, you were better off at a sushi bar. As a for instance, one of the first days I got my 74 Raleigh Pro sorted out I went on a long ride and near the end realized that chain was just not right - not getting any better with riding and I stopped by the LBshop. The young guy there says he had heard of this bike before, and thought the steel workmanship was sweet but he himself only rode track bike fixed gears. He got me a decent enough chain on to finish my trip, and took it for a quick spin to make "sure it was ok" He was flippin gone almost 30 minutes and came back with the most enthusiastic grin I have ever seen on an ironic bike mech! Later it turned out what I needed was not a chain, but the steel cable housing at the RD instead of the plastic modern one.

The ride is unique, enjoy it, it is a highly sought after vintage bike for good reason.

the correct steel RD cable housing, is this what yours has?