shoff535

OK, here is my Raleigh USA, a 1987 frameset from England and built up by the original owner with Shimano 600 tricolor. Sometime in the mid 90's he swapped out the 7speed 600 group for an 8speed Ultegra with brifters. When I got it, it had the Ultegra on it, but he had all of the old 600 components. I retrofitted it with the original 600 components but then decided to take it with me to the mountains in SW Colorado...hence, I added the Deore derailleurs and crankset. So for my old legs and weak lungs (living at 550' elevation for 30+ years) coming back to the 7800' elevation necessitated the 13x26 cassette and 24-36-46 crank (24gear inches in low!)

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531c tubeset

Cute Boy Horse

I don't know what happened in 1987 for them to pick such a horrible font.

shoff535

yup, it's almost like it's too big or bold, the previous years (84-86) seems to fit the frame better..

3speedslow

the sci guy 

Man, why is my 84/85? Sportif the only bike to not come with water bottle bosses anywhere?

Contigo

My 1984 Gran Tour:

Kilroy1988 

A beautiful and very functional-looking bicycle! I've been admiring 1980s English Raleighs and Carltons on ebay.uk and the prices can be insanely low... To the point that the outrageous shipping costs seem justified. Is yours a Canadian model or was it imported from England? Cheers!

-Gregory

beicster 

I am asking this here since this seems to be the place for the Raleigh experts. Yesterday, I was looking closely at the front brakes on my 79 Super Course while braking hard to figure out why they are squealing. I noticed that the fork flexed backward quite a bit. Can someone let me know if this is normal? If that is normal and not dangerous, then no big deal. Note-this is the original fork and it is made of 20-30 high tensile steel.

Contigo

Sadly, I don't know the history of the frame. I bought it not too long ago on Ebay, then built it with the parts you see.

TugaDude

branko_76 

I found this bike at a thrift store in Chicago. It was in bad need of some tlc so I completely dismantled it, removed all of the dried-up grease, and repacked all of the bearings.

All of the aluminum components were deconstructed, polished, lubed and reassembled. Some of the cheaper parts such as the saddle, seatpost, crank and pedals were replaced with slightly better ones from the same era. I re-laced the wheels with 14 gauge stainless steel spokes and the original steel rims were replaced with aluminum dual wall rims.

New tires, tubes, brake pads, brake lever hoods, fenders, lights, pump and patch-kit were added to complete my inner-city commuter.

shoff535

branko_76 

Thanks!

I restored it about 8 years ago and it has been a joy to ride. There has been one nagging problem with it though, I could never get the headset adjusted properly. There was either too much slop or some binding. Since I have several Grand Prix's with the same problem, last week i decided to get to the root of the problem and purchased a Park CRC-1 fork crown race cutter, (I already had the HTR-1, head-tube reamer/facer) I used it on two Grand Prix's this week and the headset's now run smooth with no binding.

jandm

Nice looking ride. Digging the two tone blue. Nice work!!

branko_76 

Thanks!

steelbikeguy

good work! I'm always happy to see one of these bike boom Raleighs given a new lease on life.

Any idea what year it was made?? The wrap-over seat stays suggest early 70's or so, but the Japanese components suggest 80's.
'Fer instance, my '76 catalog shows the Gran Prix being available in blue/black scheme and with the wrap-over stays, but with Euro drivetrain (albeit cheap steel cottered cranks, steel Huret rear derailleur, steel seatpost, and a crap saddle) and Weinmann centerpulls. Your alloy parts must have cut a dozen pounds off of the bike's weight! ;-)

Steve in Peoria

branko_76 

Thanks!

From the research I did online, it's a 1977 model. The original rims were steel but all other components were alloy except maybe the seat-post which if I remember correctly was steel as well.

noglider 

That's all correct. And my old Raleigh still has its steel seatpost, because I don't care.

branko_76 

It wasn't easy finding the SR Laprade in 25.4 but it was well worth the effort.

Speaking of which, the 20-30 tubing used for the Grand Prix's are not seamless. Some of the seat tubes have welds inside which can scratch up an alloy seat-post. I got lucky and found a 1" reamer, 8" long on ebay that no one was interested in and got it for $20.00. It was the perfect tool to remove the welds from the interior of the seat-tube.

noglider 

Good reason to stick with a steel seat post, if you can stomach it.

branko_76 

One rarely learns anything by leaving well enough alone.

I have a Super Grand Prix that came from the factory with an alloy two-piece post. The previous owner(s) moved the seat up and down several times over the course of 30 years or so and the post looked like someone went after it with a Dremel blind-folded. Since I took the time to remedy the problem on a previous project, I easily took care of the seat tube on the current one.

noglider 

Well done!

branko_76 

noglider 

Not trolling! Sorry it seemed that way. Your approach is different from mine but very useful and even artistic, and I found your previous post to be funny. Carry on!

branko_76 

Thank you, I may have taken your input the wrong way.

I think I may have been trolling myself...