Revellation - mid-eighties Revell Rapide 531c restoration

Re:

Very nice! I had one of these, similar colour, but it was it hit from behind by a car while I riding it in London in 1984 and I was advised to scrap it. With what I know now, I think it could have been easily and safely repaired.

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Re:

Here a pic of frame just back from powder coatersand after decals applied - or in old money with transfers applied...

And thanks Merlin, magic! And sorry to hear of your rear ender.
 

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Re:

Hi mate please could you tell me where you got the frame repainted and more importantly the stickers for the Revell Rapide, I have just bought one on ebay and it needs some love. Thanks
 
Hi there, frame was powder coated in fact. Done by Colorcote here in Norfolk. If you're not in the area there are lots of people who do the same work across the UK. Some folk are a bit "sniffy" about powder coating I believe, perhaps they're more purist than I about such things. All I know is that I couldn't afford a "proper" respray and got this one done for £50! I've had another done since and in both cases the finish was superb - at least as glossy and, in my opinion, tougher than paint. Still, each to their own!

The stickers ( or decals more usually [or transfers if you're old fashioned like I am]) came from H Lloyd Cycles - find them via Google. The Revell ones (words and headbadges) are from stock but the "Rapide" were specials made by someone else. Although Steve at H Lloyd recently did some others for me in the same way..You just need to specify the font, size and colour etc. They were superbe.

The "Rapide" were in "Comic Sans MS" font, 36pt, italic" although this was my invention as there was no record that I could find of any originals. The attached picture shows a Rapide in slightly different clothes which may or may not be how they were originally badged. If you can identify the font used - by trial and error? - it should be possible to get some done.

A few pics of your new machine would be welcome...

Reynolds decals from H Lloyd again.

Good luck with your project!

p.s. the pic below is not my bike - it's an example I found on line but finished just like your new one...
 

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chickendrumsticks":3g2spfij said:
Hi there, frame was powder coated in fact. Done by Colorcote here in Norfolk. If you're not in the area there are lots of people who do the same work across the UK. Some folk are a bit "sniffy" about powder coating I believe, perhaps they're more purist than I about such things. All I know is that I couldn't afford a "proper" respray and got this one done for £50! I've had another done since and in both cases the finish was superb - at least as glossy and, in my opinion, tougher than paint. Still, each to their own!

The stickers ( or decals more usually [or transfers if you're old fashioned like I am]) came from H Lloyd Cycles - find them via Google. The Revell ones (words and headbadges) are from stock but the "Rapide" were specials made by someone else. Although Steve at H Lloyd recently did some others for me in the same way..You just need to specify the font, size and colour etc. They were superbe.

The "Rapide" were in "Comic Sans MS" font, 36pt, italic" although this was my invention as there was no record that I could find of any originals. The attached picture shows a Rapide in slightly different clothes which may or may not be how they were originally badged. If you can identify the font used - by trial and error? - it should be possible to get some done.

A few pics of your new machine would be welcome...

Reynolds decals from H Lloyd again.

Good luck with your project!

Many thanks for the info, have posted somewhere else on forum pictures of my bike, will update as I go along.

Thanks again.
 
mattiamerca":2jl2dxhv said:
great work!
simple and effective race-allround bike!
reynolds 531?

Great Restoration work looks great, have away to go with mine :).

Can I ask did you need to replace the headset and if so were did you get a new one and mine has 600ex brake levers with cables on outside, did you change yours and what to.

Cheers
 

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I retained the headset as it was in good nick, but it was a Shimano 600 Ultegra. My bike had a few changes to spec over the years before I bought it - pedals, brake levers (were 105 aeros) and rear mech but I managed to track down replacements from the 600EX range. Some from ebay IIRC and one or two from here. There is a wanted forum here BTW.

But first - how are you getting on with identifying what's fitted now? If you don't know what you have, how can you decide what you want - that's if you're aiming to restore the bike to its original spec?
 
You may or may not be surprised to know that quite a lot of these frames were in fact made by Mercian. They made frames for other smaller independents and they were then badged accordingly.
 
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