Restraint or Laziness? (1983 Raleigh Record)

This morning I was driving around my neighborhood in search of French Toast which I have been jonesing after for weeks, and for some reason the places I had intended to go were all full up- Happy Mothers Day btw.  I then remembered a local pub had started doing brunch and with no minors allowed I thought it was worth a shot (what about bikes when is he going to get to the bikes! ....wait for it).  So as I am getting close to my destination I come over a rise and see this..

Now I do actually see bikes on the sidewalk for free occasionally but 98% of the time they are either kids bikes or rusty Mongoose  mountain bikes, I very rarely see bike boom ten speeds.  The one time I literally lugged one home (Curb find) I discovered on closer inspection that it had serious issues.

But hey its me and its obviously an old 10 speed so of course I have to stop.  My first thought is what is it? Yeah I am a bit of a label snob and I probably wouldn't give a Sears free spirit a second glance but as it turns out I am in luck- its a Raleigh.

Now the sharp eyed amongst you probably already noticed one glaring deficiency - no front wheel, that isn't much of a detriment as I have at least a couple floating around.   The first thing I noticed when I got closer was that the frame had been painted with primer so I couldn't for sure identify the model and the clues were somewhat contradictory.  The fork crowns had the engraved Raleigh crest indicating a mid to upper end frame but the suicide brakes and stem mounted shifters suggest something entry level like a Raleigh Record or Gran Prix.

nice power ratchets

The non cottered crank

And single pivot brakes, rather than center-pulls, seem to suggest late 70 or early 80s vintage.

And it also has Sun Tour throughout which also seems to suggest the later 1970s to 80s time frame, including this rear derailleur.

Now if I was a better flipper I would probably have picked up the bike without hesitation and stuffed in my trunk thinking I could spend an hour with it and slap it on CL for $100.  I am not that guy and I would probably need to strip down to the frame and rebuild it even it was just going to be a beater bike and  I really have no place to do a paint job anymore either.  And by "paint job" I mean Rustoleum in a spray can.  More importantly I started thinking about what awaited me at home:

• A rebuild in progress in the bike stand - Raleigh Super Course
• A Mixte in need of some TLC on my balcony- Raleigh Rapide
• A possible clean and flip project also on the balcony -Motobecane Mirage 
• A frame that I have 75% of the Parts to build up - Motobecane Mirage (Yellow)
• A frame that I am "probably" going give back to bike works as I have too much to work on! -Schwinn Traveller III
• And my own beloved Motobecane Grand Touring which sits in my bedroom with lots of new parts waiting to be hung from it.

Just thinking through the queue, and the siren call of French toast, wised me up and made it easier to walk away from this "freebie".

goodbye little fella

Then again I could drive by it in two hours and load it up...is there room behind the couch?  Until next time. 

Ride. Smile.Repeat.

PS the French Toast at the Bridge was awesome.

PPS  I am an idiot at least when it comes to old 10 speeds....I went back...

brought home another stray

There was room on the balcony....It occurred to me I could swap the drive train over to the Schwinn Tourist and have a mostly complete bike for zero dollars, although if I had a garage this frame shows some promise but most likely I will probably just donate it to the local bike kitchen....

seat cluster detail

pantographed fork crown

forged fork drop outs

At least I don't need to worry about a stuck seat post - it practically jumped out and then I noticed the jacked up hardware store seat clamp fix, wonder if the seat post was too small?

Well soon I will probably either drop my moonlighting gig (REI) for more time or my main contract gig will end at the end of the fiscal year  (less likely) and I will only have the moonlighting gig in either case I will have more time in which to clear my bike project queue...yeah that's the ticket.

PPPS

A bit more research and I believe this is a 1983 when all levels of Raleigh frames had nice details like the ones above.  And based on the little paint I can see and all the other items - brake levers, stem shifters, etc. I believe its an entry level Record like the one below.

1983 Raleigh Record

My $5 Ride

I got a message last week that on Saturday the University of Washington Police would be having a bike sale. Their website said that the sale started at 9 am so I was in line at 8:50 am....in the waaaaaay back of the already long line.

As the line inched forward I watched people emerge with 2 and 3 bikes each, mountain bikes, hybirds, hey was that an 1970s Raleigh Olympian? whoa nice Peugeot Mixte!  Apparently getting there 10 minutes early was 20 minutes too late.

The space formerly filled with bikes was emptying fast.  In what may have looked like a mad scramble to the uninitiated I executed a hard target search of the immediate area and found my prize.....of sorts

Hey for a 5 spot its worth it just for the parts and dammit I didn't spend my morning coming here in vain! Don't even think about a test ride however....

At least I was better off than arriving at 9:30, as I waited in another long line to pay for my prize things got even emptier and emptier....

One cool thing about this whole deal is that with everyone buying bikes that needed "a little TLC" conveniently  just a block away is a great bike shop dealing with new and used bikes and parts -Recycled Cycles and the folks were lined up down the block to get some love for their new purchases.

Ok so what does this awesome $5 find look like?  Well its a Raleigh Reliant which appears to be a USA made entry level bike with Suntour components and at no extra charge a extra helping of rust.....

Oh did I mentioned some urbanite converted this to a hybrid straight bar commuter?    Or that the once soft suede saddle was cracked and dried out? And a Reliant? was this some sort of unholy co-marketing with Plymouth?

My original thought was that for $5 I was getting a SunTour drive train and a wheel-set at the very least, and then I thought well I can do the whole down the frame refurb rebuild back into a road bike option, but my last idea was to do a "stealth commuter" as in make it mechanically sound but not too cosmetically nice so it would uninteresting to bike thieves but solid mechanically and great for the commute.  More to come on that subject.

Ryan's Rebuilds to the Rescue

One of my older brothers also lives in the greater Seattle metro area and most weeks we are able to get together before work at a downtown Seattle coffee shop.  Recently he revealed to me a pickle he found himself in.  In cleaning out his garage he had decided to put an old bike into a garage sale, it was an Nishiki Hybrid bike that he had used in a sprint triathlon but it was functional and nothing special .  Anyway not long after the garage sale his wife asked him what had happened to her bike.....seems she considered the Nishiki her bike and my brother, at first speechless, had to confess that he sold it not realizing it was her bike.  Doh!  So knowing his little brother is a bike geek and that his wife's birthday was approaching at the end of April, he came to me with a request that I find a bike to replace the one he had sold.

His criteria was that it would  be a step through (women's bike), which the Nishiki was not, and that it had to be blue.  He also wanted to keep the budget in the $250 range.  I told him I thought I could help him out and envisioned a split top tube classic European Mixte, perhaps a Peugeot or Motobecane, to fit the bill.  Today I decided to visit my favorite haunt for bike projects, Bike Works, to search out a donor for this project and I found not exactly what I had in my own mind but a bike that fit the bill none the less.  It's a nice  late 70s or early 80s Schwinn Le Tour III Mixte frame in need of some TLC.  No split top tube but a very nice Japanese built lugged frame with Le Tour branded SunTour parts, and the blue paint seems to be in good shape for its age.  It's certainly NOT a 40 pound, hernia inducing, Chicago built Varsity.

1978 Catalog

I have some nice swept back city bars and brake levers to match  from Velo Orange put aside for just such a project and I think the SunTour components will clean up nicely.

Since I only had to shell out $40 for this little gem I might also be able to upgrade the Steel wheels to some new Alloy 27 inchers and maybe add a faux leather sprung saddle.  And for sure it needs a nice basket up front.

I am hoping this will turn out to be a sweet Mixte if I do my job right and certainly it will be a upgrade over the Nishiki that was a garage sale casualty.  Should be a fun build for my sister in-law, and a face saver for my brother- More to come.

Ride.Smile.Repeat.

Curb Find Raleigh Part 1 (Jan 2012)

I had read on other blogs about people finding bikes in dumpsters, put out for trash day, etc but had never had that kind of luck, until.... I was riding my bike home from downtown when I spotted a Raleigh Gran Prix in front of a pile of garbage and cast offs in the front yard of a rental house.  It appeared that someone had moved out and ditched the bike along with an number of other items and after taking a closer at the Gran Prix I could see why.

I had first thought to "ghost ride" the bike home but after pushing it a few feet I realize it wasn't exactly a smooth roller, so I decided to just walk it as it was only about a mile home.  I also realized that the paint job was a little on the rough side, like someone had put the frame in a cement mixer with a bunch of gravel, let it go for a few minutes and the result was not one square inch of the bike was clear of pits, scrapes or scratches.

Yep it all pretty much looks like this

And the head tube wasn't a whole lot better. I mean how do you manage this kind of damage?

However, there were a lot of cool Raleigh branded Suntour parts that were worth the trouble getting this bike home.

And best of all the famous Suntour power ratchet shifters.

You may notice, as I did that there was a discolored and rusty spot where the down tube intersected the head tube lug and a similar spot where the top tube intersected the head tube lug (look under the rusty broken bell in the picture of the head tube).  Hmmm that might indicate there had been some trauma like front end crash.  Better get this checked out by a real mechanic.  To be continued.....

1985 Raleigh Marathon Mixte (September 2011)

Make: Raleigh
Model: Marathon (Mixte)
Year:  1985
Obtained: August 2011
Found: Bike Works 
Paid: $30.00


As I mentioned in the post regarding the 1974 Raleigh Grand Prix, after  one too many setbacks I had to walk away from that project (temporarily).  This is what I walked towards, a 1985 Raleigh Marathon.  One thing I could have added to my beginning bike refurbisher post was don't start out with just a frame when fixing up a bike.  It can be expensive tracking down all the parts and you might not get it right the first time.  However if you have become a bit bike obsessed you might have acquired more than a few spare parts.  Heck you might even have some nice ready to go parts from a stupid project that sent you to a bad place and made you walk away and....but I digress.

I was drawn to this bike because it was in great shape and had wonderful details, a cut above your average Record or Grand Prix.  I hadn't walked into the Bike Works warehouse intending to buy just a frame, at the cost I normally spent on a full bike, but I couldn't pass this one up.

It had great fork crown details

More great stuff on the seat stays

A gorgeous head badge -note this is a Raleigh of America badge

And a lovely Raleigh branded alloy crankset

It did have a hideous gold bulky quick release seat clamp that I ditched for the Raleigh branded one from the '74 Grand Prix.  I also had a set of wheels I had cleaned up and trued, with rebuilt hubs and cool white walled tires that had been intended for the Grand Prix that went nicely with this bike.  I was going to use the center pull brakes from the Grand Prix as well until I realized I needed side pulls to make the rear brake work on the this  mixte frame (in the picture at the bottom of the post note the cable loop has to come up to the rear brake rather than down to it as it would on a mens frame).  I also took a nice set of SR Road Champion drop bars with engraving off my 1979 Miyata (future post), since I was planning to put something wider on the Miyata,  and put them on this little gem along with some Suntour Power Ratchet stem shifters.  The white bar tape, pedal straps and cable housing were also purchased for the Grand Prix but went well with this bikes color scheme and detailing.

In retrospect I probably spent more than I should have building this up and asked too little for it based on its condition but it did sell fast to a nice lady who seemed very happy to have it.  One of my favorites bikes that I have worked on so far.

Ride. Smile. Repeat.