I've been thinking of building up a road bike to see if I can get used again to riding drops, and get beyond my neck pain problems.

Then I saw this bike - an early 80s Raleigh Clubman - on ebay, just 4 miles from my house, so I thought I'd give it a go - and won it for £90. It was advertised as parts or not working (brake cable missing) but was in great, original condition and looks to have done hardly any mileage - no wear on chain wheel/freewheel teeth and chain unstretched, and new tyres.

I've now serviced it and am going to try out a few rides. If I don't get on with it, no problem, I'll sell it and probably make a small profit. I'm going to try a 20 mile ride tomorrow.

Good choice. 531 frame (and forks?), weinmann calipers, should be a nice comfortable bike. I had a similar vintage Raleigh Royal - sadly totalled by an inattentive driver - which was the softest-riding bike I ever owned.

Beautiful.

If you can't ride in the drops you can do like MANY and ride on the hoods.
Those old bikes with downtube shifters scare the poop out of me. I'll take my STI brifters any day.

That is indeed one sharp-looking steed! If you find that even the brake hoods are a bit of a stretch to reach, consider a stem with a shorter horizontal reach and a longer insertion, to allow you to bring the bars up and closer to you.

If you do not feel safe reaching for the downtube shifters, consider either barcons or clamps which allow you to mount the shifters on the handlebars.

You could probably find some Suntour Barcons which would be period correct.

Sweet bike!

Some inline brake levers on the bar tops, cyclocross style, might be handy.

Thanks for the comments & suggestions.


Just been for a 20 mile ride this morning to my favourite coffee shop in the Bay. Some observations on my first road bike ride in just short of 40 years:


1. The bike rides well and is definitely faster than my hybrid
2. The gearing at 52/42 front & 13-24 rear takes some getting used to after mostly mtb triple ring gears (luckily not too many hills on this route)
3. The down tube shifters work well but are not as convenient. I found I was changing gear much less than normal, perhaps not a bad thing.
4. Riding position, especially in the drops, leads to a bit more discomfort in the undercarriage because of sloping my body forward more. Need to experiment with saddle angle and/or saddle shape.
5. I estimate I was on the hoods around 80+% of the time.
6. Riding on the hoods in traffic I didn't feel fully confident of being able to brake quickly if needed.
7. Toe clips & straps are fine.
8. Must get some padded bar tape.
9. Neck pains from looking forward while in the drops quite bad. (Look at increasing stem height)


I'm not giving up on the mtb and hybrid, but will persevere for a while with this bike.

If the neck pain is troubling, but you like the bike in other respects, it might be worth considering replacing the original bars with some more modern, shallower drops. The originals were designed to allow one to go very low despite the saddle-bar drop being quote small, but that's clearly not a priority for you.

And for bar tape, try Lizardskin. Bar tape for the Gods. It's about twice as expensive as other brands, but worth it, imo.