My old dads old Road Ace.

MY_DADS_BIKESHED

Retro Newbie
Howdy folks, wonder if I could get some advice.

I always used to bomb about on mountain bikes but recently I have got my hands on my dads old Raleigh Road Ace. Its hardly been used by him, its just been hanging in the garage so it seems as though it is pretty good condition apart from its tyres which are cream crackered. I was wondering if once I get some new tyres on it what else might need done. Its been hanging on the wall for 10 years so if I am going down a hill at top speed and the pull the brakes are the likely to work? what else should I be looking at before I saddle up. Also I was looking online at peoples road ace's and some of them had put modern wheels and tyres on them, they looked pretty snazzy but I don't know whether
to do this or keep it old skool? Here are some photos for your eyeballs pleasure. Oh yea and can anybody give me any more details on this specific model?

Cheers
Stu
 

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Thats amazing, people search and ponder to find and your's was a family hand down to be kept
be funny if your inseam is the same !
well what would i change prob nothing for a year once i got some good tyres i would prob go for 25mm or 28's
because its recently been proven these are only slightly slower but comfy' oops hope you got clincher's then i would ride the hell out of it ! love it those saddles were just as good as roll's 140 miles no prob . Every brit has a rayleigh stashed
even if its in his heart.
 
I'd just change the tyres to some 25s or 28s. That's a beauty! Depending on your build you might want to change the old { but beautiful } single pivot brakes to modern double pivot one from Wiggle. { the coloured words are links to click on }

Hope this helps.
 
Good morning,

The bike looks great and i am jealous as i always wanted a Road Ace in my youth. It seems as if your Dad has changed a lot of the parts - the frame looks to me to be a 1983 one and the bike would have been equipped with Shimano 600AX equipment, it would also have GP4 tubular rims. Do you think you have the original bits in the garage? The brochure for the Road Ace is here somewhere - perhaps someone could post the link.

Good luck with the build,

Richard
 
No offense, but I'd strongly suggest to use either BR-1055 or BR-A550 RX100 brakes on your build. :) A pair of those old one-oh-fives or RX-100s costs less than a pair of Miche, and they're much nicer-have more braking power IMHO. Not to mention they'd fit the bike better,after all,they're short drop calipers. :)

Alternatively, I've seen a shimano 600 "tricolor ultegra" equipped bike with dual pivot BR-6403 on the front and single pivot BR-6400 on the rear (campy stil.. : ) )

Any of those would look much nicer on your frame :)
 
yes, im sure you will find a pair of duel pivots here,or on the bay or at a cycle jumble .make sure the drop is right
57mm? [ or what ever is required} Aztek brake blocks are good too!
love the gear lever mount ! ive never owned a 531 , coupled to a good engine a worthy adversery to anything i reckon !
 
i don't think that the frame actually adopts long drop calipers.. I know that I cannot tell it by the looks or componentry, but the rear derailleur looks like a RD-1056 to me, and the calipers are BR-1050s, which mostly came in short drop (39-49) version. The derailleur is from the early-mid 90ies.

But the cranks-shifters look like a sooner type to me..: ) My guess that short drops would be enough for the frame.
 
Good morning,

I found the links to the original catalogue (i think) -

http://bulgier.net/pics/bike/Catalogs/R ... l84_03.jpg

http://bulgier.net/pics/bike/Catalogs/R ... l83_04.jpg

http://bulgier.net/pics/bike/Catalogs/R ... l83_05.jpg

The full specs are in the last link. As i mentioned it was a full 600AX groupset, i am now wondering if yours is a later edition with a different group but i think i was initially right - perhaps someone else will know better. It seems that the full group has been removed from your bike for some reason, replacement would be costly - in the region of £250 for bits in great condition and less for more worn bits. Please note that 600AX brake hoods can cost around £50 and are difficult to find.

It would be interesting to know where the bits have all gone (i like 600AX!!!)!!

I hope this is of some use,

Richard
 

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