Help and advice: Raleigh Europa / Falcon restoration

Hello gents,

Firstly hope this is the right forum...

I recently helped my grandma clear out her garage and my dad had mentioned a couple of old bikes were in there; I'd recently been thinking about investing in a new MTB just for general activity and recreation so I thought I'd check them out. The bikes are pretty neglected, rusted etc. but I thought it would be a really interesting challenge to see if I can at least get them 'roadworthy'... save myself some money and come out of it with a classic bike or two!

I have included a link at the end of this post to a photo album with some pictures.

In addition to introducing myself I was really after some guidance two fold...

1. Can anyone help me ID these bikes, the model, age etc.
2. Where the hell do I actually start with the restoration?! Any guides on this forum or books I should check out?

My experience with bike maintenance is fairly basic, I haven't even ridden a bike for a number of years but I was hoping given the age of these bikes it might not be beyond me. I didn't think I could do DIY around the house until I recently tried and succeeded. My aim is to get them usable but I would obviously like them to end up looking fairly smart.

I've also recently welcomed my first child into the world so there is a strong possibility that I could be no further forward in several months time!

re the models I can see one is a Raleigh team Europa and the other is a Falcon, looking on some blogs around the net the paintwork on the Raleigh looks like a 1978 BUT I am fully aware it could just be a replica. I haven't had a chance to check the back story on these with my dad yet.

Thanks in advance, here are the links:

http://flic.kr/p/p54ndf[\url] [url...ic.kr/p/p54wxr[\url] Best regards, Richard

Re:

And below with hopefully working links this time.

http://flic.kr/p/p54ndf

http://flic.kr/p/p53EVd

http://flic.kr/p/p53ENE

http://flic.kr/p/p54hNU

http://flic.kr/p/p54wxr

Really like both those bikes - they don't look too bad - need stripping, cleaning, polishing. Where possible salvage the parts but the rust looks quite bad on some of he chrome bits - but nothing that's too expensive to replace.
I remember the Europa in the mid 1970's so 1978 might be right.
Get down to Halfords and buy some basic tools, degreaser, grease bike oil and WD40 . There's nothing too difficult and you can find loads of advice online/ YouTube etc to help.

Re:

Thanks; I was surprised when I saw them, I think they could be smart and fun bikes once given some TLC.

What sort of tools do I need? Standard wrench set or are there specific types for bikes?

Also would it be worth attempting to put the rusted components in an acid solution or would it be better just to replace them outright?

My main worry to be honest is taking things off and not being able to reassemble them correctly.

You need spanners more than Allen keys for bikes that age. Also the biggest difficulties you might run into are removing the headset and the bottom bracket - which might have to be removed and regreased. You might need special tools / spanners for this. Wouldn't use and " acid solution" - better to use a wire brush or just replace.
I've got a Haynes manual that I used to use as a guide when I started fixing the old bikes I'd been left by my father.