1989 Raleigh Equipe, Rebuild

Hi all and this being my first post I'll try and introduce myself as best as I can.
I'm 21, an Illustration student and up until now have been been limited to biking the 1-2 urban miles between my home and University. I'd do the occasional 12-mile slog to my Aunt's house in the next town, over some rather patchy country roads but even that so far has been limited by poor hardware, poor knowledge of bike mechanics and generally bad cycling. I consider it a bit of a miracle I haven't severely hurt myself by exercising poor technique or had an accident, or something.

All of which are why I decided to buy my scrappy Raleigh Equipe. It was £55 from eBay and came packaged with its original 1989-period tires, perished to the inners, Weinmann side-pull rim brakes again with ruined brake pads, seemingly original handlebar tape and cables and Maillard hubs which very badly needed a service. On assembly I promptly found that everything had seized and, after applying bike grease to all the vitals, spent a painful ride into town working it loose again. It was, quite appropriately, a barn find.




And yet, my current attempt at restoration will hopefully help me understand it like only a complete disassembly will. I have plans to remove, dismantle, clean and service every moving part and hopefully get it into as-new condition, or close. Not a restoration in the traditional sense - but a thorough renewal. Hopefully it'll now last as long on the road as it did for the first part in a shed.

Re: Raleigh Equipe rebuild

I've found enough Raleigh Equipe restoration projects to decide I wanted mine to be low-budget (no powder-coating, chemical stripping, professional help except for tips and advice) and I wanted what felt like a new bicycle altogether. So the paint, 80`s decals, stainless steel rims, ancient spokes and worn bearings and washers would go.

It sounded radical considering it`s a pretty bicycle but the dings and scratches were getting to me as was the nagging sensation that I`d spent on a write-off, barn find disaster.

So on to the strip-down...
Here it stands outside my makeshift outdoor workstation. It probably won`t stand up by itself for a few months yet.



Front and rear brakes and cables, both derauillers and gear cables, gear levers and seat post removed. I`ve Brasso`d the shiny bits to a mirror finish and rubbed rust down on the seat post and under the seat with a bit of aluminium foil.



The original Maillard freewheel, very rusty and no amount of grease is loosening it. It also makes an unpleasant grating sound from the rust between the freewheel body and the hub. I`ve had some trouble finding the right removal tool or it would be done in a jiff.



So my Maillard freewheel is too small to fit a 32mm tool - but only just. I reckon it would fit a 30 or a 28mm sized device but haven`t been able to find the like. Any suggestions?
P.S I`d more than happily pay return postage if someone has the tool I need and is willing to trust me with it.

Re: Raleigh Equipe rebuild

Here are some of my components - all of them have been cleaned, polished and individually bagged for re-assembly. The reassembly will be a huge test of my limited memory and patience, or so I think.



And now I'm starting to strip the paint off of the damned thing. I'll give the company this - for even a 'standard' consumer road bicycle the parts are well machined and assembled and the paint was thick and resilient.









I started off with a paint scraper, painstakingly taking most of the paint and primer off by hand. This took me about six working hours, while the sanding down took about four and 11/2 packs of wet and dry paper. I started with a 80 grit on the thickest bits and then moved down through a 120, 180 and finally finished the bare metal off with a 400 grit paper and buffed it up with fine steel wool.

Nearly done -



Here it is, in all its shiny, bare metal glory -



I haven`t taken the paint completely off the lugs, bottom bracket and head tube, both because I lost patience with it and because my fingers now feel like they`re being peeled off, fingernail-first.

More soon on the masking, priming and hopefully painting so watch this space. I can`t decide on whether to invest in a tin of brush-on enamal or several cans of spray - any advice? I'd love some insight 'coz I am a bit stuck.

As you've gone this far with the paint removal I suggest perseverance and clean the rest off, it will make for a better finish. I wouldn't hand paint it the brush stroke will look crap so go for the spray cans have a look on youtube for so how to's and good luck rebuilding you wheel and the refurb