Raleigh Criterium 12 (Finished pics 3rd Dec)

I must be mad ..... with two unfinished projects that I'm working on I've gone and bought a thrid.

A Raleigh Criterium 12. As a lad before I got proper into it all this was the bike I so so wanted. I remember it being at the very end of the catalogue along with the Record Sprint and it being the only one that had full on areo brake levers.

This one came up cheap so after a drive to Peterbrough it was mine. Once I got it home and inspected it properly I was suprised just how good it is. The paint is in amazing condition and every thing is there even down to the wheel reflectors. Few bits are past it like the seat post and spokes but hey can't have every thing. And one a couple of the decals have bits missing or are pealing.

The plan is to strip it down to a frame (already done) compound and polish the frame and maybe some new decals. Polish all the componenets and re-build. I will prob have the wheels re-laced with new spokes but I will be keeping the hubs and rims as they are in good nic and original to the bike, Then a new seat post, saddle, bar tape and cables. I will prob keep the shimano 105 rear mech and levers that have been put on.















Oh even the pump works

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Nice! That looks to be in super condition. It will probably be worth seeing whether the seatpost will clean up. I am always surprised how a seemingly knackered alloy component can be brought back to a presentable condition with a bronze brush, steel wool and a bit of elbow grease. And you could have a go at rebuilding the wheels yourself, there are some good tutorials on Youtube if you haven’t done it before.

Re: Raleigh Criterium 12

Yep, that seatpost looks like it would clean up easily. It's in better nick than this one before I worked on it. I just wrapped a scotchbrite pad round it and kept twisting, wire brushed the clamp. Like Martin said a bit of time and elbow grease works wonders. This one looks the same as yours - SR Laprade ?
Nice bike, wish mine were in as nice 'as found' condition.

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Hmm looking at your one I will have to give it a go on mine.

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Maca":2diwxv4v said:

Hmm looking at your one I will have to give it a go on mine.

Click to expand...

Did the same to the one on my Quadra, they are surprisingly expensive to replace like for like.

Carl.

Re: Raleigh Criterium 12

Started to have a go, there are some real deep zig zags in it that I just think are gona come out so it may end up getting an aero post like all my other bikes.

Re: Raleigh Criterium 12

Nice, I traded my Raleigh Pursuit in for one of these when I was about 13 or 14!

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Superb, I like that a lot.

Re: Raleigh Criterium 12

Well with the Peugeot having to have a complete re-paint and the light weight Raleigh waiting for bits to be polished I cracked on with this one.

So far I have striped it down to a bare frame, removed the decals and sent them off to be re-made, compounded and polished it. Re-greased the headset and bb, striped, polished and re-built the brakes. Polished the stem, bars and levers and added new bar ribbon.New brake cables inner and outters. Polished and kept the refectors (I quite like them on this kind of bike).Polished the mechs and crank and added look pedals.

I decided to keep the upgraded rear mech as I qute like it and it was upgraded back in the day so is part of the bikes history I even manged to save the Shimano SIS logo'd rear mech cable.

I've got nos brake blocks on order so they will be black fron and rear these were just used to set up the front brake, I've also decided not to re-build the original wheels at the moment but rather use another pair of my Mavic FB190 look-a-likes.

So here it is so far, hope you like so far.

Re: Raleigh Criterium 12 (pics so far 10th Nov)

Brilliant job, that's looking lovely!