voila! introducing the POB001, my 1st ever complete road build.

based on '74 Raleigh Grand Sport Reynolds 531 frame and fork.
home painted HEMI orange + marine grade clearcoat. completed with Tange headset; GB stem/bar; Weinmann centerpull brakes + perforated levers + custom leather housing; Campagnolo Chorus crank + Camapgnolo/Stronglight rings 51/42 on Campy Veloce BB; Lyotard road pedals; Suntour VX front/rear derailleurs + friction shifters; Weinmann 27" wheels + Suntour Perfect freewheel 13-26; Sansin hubs; Taihei seatpost; Adga saddle. 2 x 5 = 10speed.
custom brake lever housing and saddle reconditioning by a good friend of mine.

Campy crank is a contingency solution as i couldn't make the Stronglight 93 setup worked-out on time—maybe some day.
99% done, to be complemented with white bar tape.
not sure if i want to put decals, maybe a subtle Raleigh logo and Carlton? i don't know.

how does it ride? amazing. how does it feel? awesome.
i know it may not please some purist folks' 'period-correct' fundamental spirit, but please don't discourage a newbie who've just become a level II hoarder.

a long 6 month of collecting parts pain aka joy has finally been paid off.
no shame to put some pics and share here. enjoy and thanks for looking.

looks like a fun project and the paint job looks really good. . . . hey I have an old bike in need of painting

Nice. Love the color.Looks like a fun ride!

Those leather hoods are killer. I think some not-too-loud decals and headbadge would finish it off nicely. Well done!

I own 3 orange bikes. My favorite bike colour. Looks great!

Looks super. After months of searching and saving it makes the final product sweet, eh?

How bad was the paint? Or was the frame required to pass Orangeology 101?

Hey, say more about the leather brake hoods? How did you make them? Close up or in-progress pics?

+1 On the brake hoods! But I thought '74 Competitions came with forged dropouts- those looke like stamped dropouts on a Super Course. Just sayin'.....

Very nice build. You need one of those brake bridge cable adjusters.......I have a spare. It's yours if you want it.

Nice paint job. And yes....did you make the hoods? Very nice.

it was quite badly beaten up with some deep rusts under TT and DT. had to strip out and treat it although i hated to do so.
once stripped out, why not the fav color, right?


a friend of mine did it. he's a professional leather artisan, did it for me as a favor. i could upload some close-ups later.

Quote:
But I thought '74 Competitions came with forged dropouts- those looke like stamped dropouts on a Super Course. Just sayin'.....

it's not a Competion frame, but a Grand Sport. dropouts from Huret (front ones have mark), and known slightly better than those factory stamped ones. even better looking, chromed for Grand Sport and Grand Course, IIRC.



hey, i totally need it i know. just couldn't find it 'on time'. will PM you!!!

Bump! Beautiful bike. Something to be proud of.

thanks! no i did not make the hood. my friend did. it really added the nicest touch to the bike.

thanks! i AM proud of.
and already started thinking of the next one...

Looks great; congrats. I love my GS. Nice riding bikes. What was the difficulty with the 93 crankset?

Nice. I love orange bikes but don't have one yet.
You'd better lock yours up!

Yeah. Orange bikes forever! :>
Say, Orangeology...can you please tell me what color orange that is? the brand and color? I'm just trying to decide if it's my monitor, but that looks more reddish/orange to me on this computer. Any helps, thanks.

Oops. I see you mentioned "Hemi orange". What brand, may I ask?

That is really nice - is that a long reach weinmann in the rear? This is some motivation to get moving on my '73 Carlton GS project. I think I'm going to move my shifters up to some bar ends for practicality if it doesn't look too horrendous. I have a SL 93 on it also - what was the problem you ran into?

Throw a head badge on there! and some leather toe clips! If you could find a carlton decal I would put that on there also.

bb. couldn't get right bb "on time" for the crankset. ridiculous price tags on all SL stuffs on the net. tried to get the spindle 1st to mix-match it to a campy bb, but then i'd have waited another week or so. just wanted to finish it badly. most of all, Chorus doesn't look bad at all. the 93 will be on my next one. such a mighty handsome crankset.


i know. don't even think if i can lock it up on NYC street. luckily, where i work has bike stands inside the fence. buying a good kryptonite + chain combo soon.


yes it is HEMI orange, darker than usual orange. more redish orange. 2 brands you can look for: Duplicolor and Rustoleum. it's engine block paint — supposedly withhold high temp like 500ºF with ceramic component. both are terribly close to each other in terms of hue—i'm a graphic designer myself, being very picky when it comes to color. major difference is that Duplicolor one has pearl like metalic glitters which look quite nice, although i found Rustoleum one has better adhesiveness to the primer. i basically mixed them. for the clear coat, i'd recommend MOELLER engine coat lacquer. it's supposed to put on marine stuff with proven durability. i've used Spraymax 2K—self-claimed as most durable surface—but found Moeller is better and easier to handle. the painting you are looking at is Rustoleum primer + Rustoleum HEMI over Duplicolor HEMI + double clear coat. took long to paint, but happy with the result.

couple tips on finding paint: Autozone or Advanced Auto usually stock HEMI orange color. Autozone for Dupli, AA for Rustoleum. it's also called 'Chrysler HEMI'. there's another one called FORD HEMI, it's different.
Moeller is hell lot cheaper than Spraymax 2K on the net.


not sure if it's a long reach model, it's original to the GS. it has a quite a bit of adjustment range, like nearly a couple inches.


yeah. waiting for my first Raleigh decal arriving. it's a vertical Raleigh letter for the ST, gonna put where the Carlton decal originally was. wanted to keep it modest, not too loud. while i still love to put Carlton decal somewhere, i'd keep searching good price on both Carlton and the head badge. still don't understand why i need to pay $20 + shipping on those stuff. the 'vintage' labels on the web are somewhat wrong in terms of pricing, IMO. please do let me know if you know a good source for Carlton decal and Raleigh head badge—the tri-rivet one is kinda hard to find, actually.

needs some detail work (pinstriping) around where the paint meets chrome! looks sweet otherwise

Beautiful Bike Great Job!!

rear brake adjuster has been alt-fixed using a DiaCompe step-down ferrule.
with a bit of filing, the stepped in part fit perfectly into the hole on the bridge.
here is the 'after' photo:

Very nice! (Now find a headbadge...)

OK - this is awesome. The leather hoods are one of the coolest touches I've ever seen...INSPIRED! The combo of orange and brown leather is inherently fantastic. I would go with a brown leather bar tape, not white.

IMO, there is nothing sexier than an orange bike.

I agree with the above...custom headbadge! I HIGHLY recommend Jen Green...if you can think of it, she can execute it.

Looks good...nice custom touch with the leather hoods. They will look awesome once they get the natural patina from use!

I will keep my eyes open for a Raleigh head badge at the co-op, if we have to scrap any Raleighs with the right badge.

I think leather tape would be "too much" with the hoods...white will look nice.

Will the graphics be white?