hey guys just found this raleigh record (year=?) in my attic and it was my dads and hasnt been rode for over 10 years. serial number on bottom bracket is nonexistant...
first is this worth anything as a "classic"? im fairly sure it has most if not all OEM parts.

second would it be considered ruining a classic if i converted this frame to a fixed gear?

should i do it, as in convert it to a fixie?

THANKS in advance

If the bike is in good (semi)working condition I would just leave it as-is. Those older Raleigh's are nice rides!

well i should have mentioned this is my second bike and the first is a raleigh olympian in perfect condition
so as long as i can keep the price down i plan to convert it now

I'd post pics since we don't have a serial number. The Record, at least in the 70's, was not a high end bike, hi-ten steel frame. I have a Sprite, which is the same frame as the Record and turned it into a SS/FG bike. Pics here and HERE

I like the ride of my Raleigh. It's not "dead" feeling at all and doesn't feel real heavy like a Schwinn Varsity or Gitane Tour de Luxe did to me.

Sheldon Brown has info. HERE

Yes, it'll make a decent fixie as it has long horizontal dropouts but the bottom bracket is Raleigh's 26tpi so keep the cups and bearings. I'd ditch the cottered cranks but you can keep them, too. Wheels are steel so you may want to upgrade those at some point. Keep the brakes and calipers, replace the cables and housings.

I wouldn't pour a lot of money into it, though. Money better spent elsewhere but it'll be a nice project. You would not be ruining a classic. If you know someone who restores old bikes, donate the parts to them or to the local co-op.

Hey, easy on the low-end Gitanes, bbattle. I love my Gypsy Sport conversion.

I question how feasible this would be if the bottom bracket isn't ISO (which it may well be). When I was converting my Gitane, I went through a period of panic when I thought it had a French bottom bracket, and even though I had usable cups, I basically concluded it would have been a deal breaker due to the chainline headaches it would have created.

But if it is ISO, convert away!

haha translation?

i was thinking about buying a wheel set off ebay or something and then buying the pieces i needed after that.
im a noob and dont know much about what you have to change...?
PS im trying to keep it lower budget. is under $100 feasible without being "janky"

Thanks

Read Sheldon Brown for help in getting your conversion up and running.

https://sheldonbrown.com/fixed/index.html

You can get a wheelset with cog and lockring for $100 (look at bikeisland.com). I'd budget $25 for a bottom bracket (you'll want a 103mm bottom bracket to make a nice chainline with your new track wheels, consider the Tange at benscycle.net), another $50 for a cheap crankset (look for Origin 8 on eBay) and $10 for a chain.

You'll probably also want new brake cables and pads ($20-$40 total). You'd do well to overhaul the headset, which means about $5 for ball bearings. New tires and tubes are also likely in order. If you're going to ride it much, you should plan at least $50 for this. If you need new bar tape, figure on $10 for that. You can get really nice brake levers for $20. Figure $10 for grease.

Finally, there's the question of whether or not you have or can borrow all the tools you need. If you have the tools, you're looking at about $350 to do the project right. (Not coincidentally, this is the price of the cheapest brand new fixed gear bike on the market.)

Anyway, I don't mean to scare you away. For the above investment you'll also get a lot of first-hand knowledge and a deep bond with your bike.

The question about the bottom bracket has to do with how it's threaded. I'm not sure if that was clear from the previous discussion. Most new bottom brackets use what's called English or ISO threading (1.37" x 24 tpi), some older Raleigh's used a Raleigh-specific threading (1 3/8" x 26 tpi) which isn't compatible. The thing to do is hope that you don't have that. Your LBS can probably help you figure it out.

I fear he does. I worked on one of these old Grand Prixs with a friend who wanted to make it into a fixie. The BB of that one was 26tpi. Best bet with that is to try and use the existing crank or at least the BB. You might be able to change the axle and keep the existing cups. Alternatively, a good LBS should be able to rethread the BB shell. If you want to stay 26 tpi, you could buy Phil Wood cups (in 26tpi) and use them with a BB that has removable cups such as the Phil Wood BB or a Shimano UN-72.

Good luck!

You can get a wheelset with cog and lockring for $100 (look at bikeisland.com). I'd budget $25 for a bottom bracket (you'll want a 103mm bottom bracket to make a nice chainline with your new track wheels, consider the Tange at benscycle.net), another $50 for a cheap crankset (look for Origin 8 on eBay) and $10 for a chain.

You'll probably also want new brake cables and pads ($20-$40 total). You'd do well to overhaul the headset, which means about $5 for ball bearings. New tires and tubes are also likely in order. If you're going to ride it much, you should plan at least $50 for this. If you need new bar tape, figure on $10 for that. You can get really nice brake levers for $20. Figure $10 for grease.

Finally, there's the question of whether or not you have or can borrow all the tools you need. If you have the tools, you're looking at about $350 to do the project right. (Not coincidentally, this is the price of the cheapest brand new fixed gear bike on the market.)

Anyway, I don't mean to scare you away. For the above investment you'll also get a lot of first-hand knowledge and a deep bond with your bike.

The question about the bottom bracket has to do with how it's threaded. I'm not sure if that was clear from the previous discussion. Most new bottom brackets use what's called English or ISO threading (1.37" x 24 tpi), some older Raleigh's used a Raleigh-specific threading (1 3/8" x 26 tpi) which isn't compatible. The thing to do is hope that you don't have that. Your LBS can probably help you figure it out.

thanks for all the info im deffinatly going to be coming back to this fourm for more info, first i wont have to pay for labor, tools, etc, but your estimates sounded a little inflated (or maybe its me being an optimist) but lets say i reuse everything possible ,except front/back wheels, what would you guys say im looking at then? if you couldnt tell im trying to keep it low cost due to my other upcoming toy ('98 volvo T5M )

thanks but idk if you were refering to the model type when you said grand prix, but i have a "record", and i hope that means i dont have the weird threading ...

existing crank? i can use the one on the bike?

sorry for this essay you had to read haha ill try to keep it shorter next time
THanks in advance

If you don't want a flip flop hub, you can reuse the existing crank and bottom bracket, but you'd need to respace and redish the rear wheel to fix the chainline. I think someone already posted a link to Sheldon Brown's site where this is explained. You'll still need new cables and pads if you're planning to use brakes (which I recommend). I would expect you'll also need a new chain. It's possible you could reuse the existing wheels if you don't want to stop in the rain.

so if i do this its :
Chain
front brake
wheels...(which includes?)
... what else still trying to get it all planned out thanks again

OK, I'll be repeating some of what I said before about budgeting, but now I think I'm on the same page as you.

If you're only going to run a front brake, you can probably get the cable for about $5. You need cable and housing, but if you go to your LBS, they'll be happy to cut you a two-foot piece from their bulk supply and sell you that and an inner cable. Make sure they give you a couple of ferrules and a crimp too.

You can reuse your current brake levers and probably the caliper (if you replace the 27" wheels with 700c wheels, you could have brake reach issues, but hopefully not). So you only need a pair of brake pads. I used linear brake pads to replace the pads on my Dia Compe center pulls, but I'm not sure if that will work with all calipers. You can get cheapo pads for $5 or top-of-line Kool Stops for $12, so I'd spend the extra bucks for the good stuff here.

If you get a 1/8" chain, you avoid some possible incompatibilities with some track cogs. You can get a KMC Z410 for $8 or less. If you happen to have a 6-, 7- or 8-speed chain lying around, you can use that, though it may be 3/32" which raises the cog compatibility question.

Whether or not you can or should re-use the existing cranks is an open question. If you can unbolt at least one of the chainrings (or if you're willing to leave both on there and be laughed at), you can re-use them. You'll almost certainly want to replace them at some point, but I understand you're trying to go on a shoestring budget here. So let's assume you will reuse it.

If you keep your current bottom bracket, you'll probably need to overhaul it. Buy some grease if you don't have it. Everybody here loves Phil Wood, but I use Park PPL-1, which is much cheaper -- a $5 tube will cover the whole project and then some. You'll also need some ball bearings, probably 1/4". This is an easy procedure and you definitely don't want to skip it. (BTW, don't remove the fixed cup on the bottom bracket.) You'll also want to do this with the headset, which will use a different size ball bearings. These things generally need to be done every year or so with loose bearing parts, so with an old bike it's certainly going to be needed. Between grease and ball bearings, these jobs will cost you $10 or less total.

If you keep your current bottom bracket you'll also need to solve chainline issues with the rear wheel.

If the wheels you have are in good shape, you could use them. The main problem is that they're almost certainly steel, and rim brakes don't work with steel wheels in the rain -- not to mention they're insanely heavy. The other problem is that while you can thread a fixed cog onto them, you can't thread a lockring on. This means that you run the risk of inadvertently unscrewing the cog when applying back pressure on the pedals, which you'll probably be doing because you're trying to stop, which means that's a really bad time to have the cog come off. That said, people do this. Since you'll be running a front brake, it's not quite crazy (unless it's raining).

If you buy wheels, they'll almost certainly be setup for a 42 mm chainline, which is not likely what you'll get with your current crankset and bottom bracket. Measure the chainline on the crankset. If it's only off by a few millimeters you could conceivably fix it by putting a spacer behind the cog. More likely it'll be more than that, which puts you back in the respacing+redishing camp. In theory, you can do this yourself. In practice, unless you've built wheels before, I'd take it to the LBS. There's a place around here that'll do it for $35. As you ponder that, consider that you can fix this problem with a new crank and bottom bracket for about $75 in which case you wouldn't have to pay another $35 to have it undone if you ever wanted to upgrade the crank.

Whether you buy wheels or use the current wheels, you'll need a track cog. Consider your gearing ratio. Since your using the existing crank, you'll probably have a 52 or 53 tooth chainring, so you may want a cog as big as 20 teeth. Most wheelsets that come with cogs come with 15 or 16 tooth cogs, but if you talk to the seller, you may be able to get this swapped out at the time of purchase. If you're buying wheels, you'll want a lockring, which may be included. If the wheels don't come with rim tape, you'll need that too, $3-$5.

If you're open to singlespeed, as opposed to fixed, there is another option available to you. You can buy a set of wheels meant for a geared bike (you can get a set of Alex/Dimension wheels for around $75) and buy a single-speed conversion kit. The conversion kit will come with spacers, a lockring (not the same as the one discussed above) and one or more cogs. The one from Performance Bike comes with 16-, 18- and 20-tooth cogs, so that would work for you. The nice thing about this is that you can use the spacers to get your chainline exactly where you want it. The downsides are that you're carrying around a bit of extra weight in the form of the big freehub, you can't go strictly fixed and it doesn't look as clean.

You almost certainly need new tires and tubes. You can get $15 tires each or less, but for $26 each you can get tires with decent flat protection. You can mail order tubes for $3 each, but at your LBS they'll likely be $7.

Somebody here recently posted a deal with wheels, tires, tubes, cog and lockring for $130. The tires weren't great, but it's hard to beat that deal. I recently bought a set of Formula/Mavic CXP22 wheels with

Make sure you can adjust the seat and stem height before you get into any of this. Those things are notorious for seizing on old bikes. If they're good, you can keep the seatpost and saddle if you're happy with them.

Finally, I do want to repeat that handlebar tape is the single cheapest thing you can get to make an old bike feel newer. You can get cheap stuff around $6 or good stuff around $12.

You might be able to get this all built for around $200.

I recently built up an old Gitane as a singlespeed for about $80 using wheels (with spacers as described above), chain, saddle, tires and tubes that I had sitting around my garage, but I've been upgrading it constantly and currently have almost $500 in it. I'm never satisfied.

So, anyway, shopping list...

Brake cable and housing
Brake pads
Chain
Grease
Ball bearings for bottom bracket
Ball bearings for headset
Wheels + Cog + Lockring (or Wheels + conversion kit)
Tires
Tubes
Handlebar tape

Another thing that just occurred to me is that your current cranks are probably standard square taper, so you could possibly fix the chainline issue with a cartridge bottom bracket for about $25, if your current bottom is English threaded, even if you keep your current cranks. You'd need to measure the current chainline to figure out what size cartridge you need. This would also be a nice upgrade, as cartridge bottom brackets are essentially maintenance free.

Post pics of the bike. Include a headtube shot, seatpost cluster, bottom bracket, rear dropouts, a good drive-side shot, closeups on the wheels, derailleurs and brakes.

If it's a 70's Record, it'll have the Raleigh 26tpi bottom bracket. And it'll have cottered cranks. The rear wheel will be what's called a freewheel, and the cassette will simply unscrew from it. The hub will look like the singlespeed side of a flip-flop hub. You can actually put a singlespeed cog on there, but will probably need a spacer or have the rear wheel redished. LBS can do that cheaply.

If it's from the 80's, it's possible to still have the 26tpi bottom bracket and the freewheel unless it's very late 80's.

All the above advice on replacing brake pads, cables and housings and the bearings is good; definitely do them.

Again, read the Sheldon Brown webpages. He covers everything and should be required reading for BF members. Deakins wrote a nice "how-to on the cheap" page. It's on the Sheldon Brown site.

You can redish the rear wheel and use it with the existing crankset. After you've fixed the bike up and got it rolling, you can then decide if you want to put more money into it. If so, getting a set of aluminum wheels with a flip-flop hub is the best bang for the buck. Then a new crankset or a nice used one(even better). I wouldn't get too crazy with it.