Not so long ago, I was gifted with a grimy-but-gorgeous, 1979, Raleigh-made (for Intersport, a sporting-goods "megastore") bicycle... with a beautiful, lugged-steel frame that's fitted with Suntour and Shimano components. To make a long story short(er), while refurbishing it I discovered that the rear, drive-side dropout, lacked an integral hanger, and that the rear derailleur was attached with a "claw". Although not aesthetically pleasing, it was functional. Except... the portion of the hanger that extended into the dropout slot took-up 3/8", which created a clearance issue between the tire and the chainstays at the BB end. There was 1-1.5mm between the tire and the chainstays, but I wanted more.

So... I brought the bike to a welder buddy of mine, who welded the hanger to the dropout and then removed the "offending" material inside the dropout slot. Yes, it's somewhat ugly, and the dropout needs to be realigned; and yes, I would've preferred taking it to a frame builder to have a proper right rear dropout installed, but... when asked how much it would cost to do so, my LBS (which has given me, and others, great service for more than 25 years) told me "North of $200".

So... I made a dollars-and-cents decision -- in retrospect, perhaps not a dollars-and-sense decision. If the welded-on-claw turns out to be "wonky", what are current prices for replacing a rear, drive-side dropout? Was that "North of $200" really ballpark?

(respecting the regional differences in our economy, I should mention that I live in South Florida -- Palm Beach County)

Note: I originally posted this in Bicycle Mechanics... dunno why. Anyway, deleted it there, and reposted it here.

I thought I had seen just about everything from that era, but that bike doesn't ring a bell. Does it have forged dropouts? $200 before paint is about right, although just putting a hangar on a forged dropout would probably be considerably less.