Raleigh Sirocco 1978 with delusions of granduer.

It's that time of year when I start thinking about what projects to start looking at ready for spring and usually what happens is I have a list in my head at the end of Autumn that completely changes in the following January

This is a case in point, its a very scruffy 1978 Raleigh Sirocco frame that I picked up in a job lot at the end of last summer and thought now what shall I do with that.

The late 70's Sirocco is quite a rare thing as they weren't around for long.They were a Carlton Worksop built frame that look exactly like the 531 frames of the period but are not, but that doesn't make them bad and the ones I've ridden have been nice enough things to ride.

A friend did a very good job of restoring a white one a couple of years ago and as someone who hadn't ridden steel for a good number of years was very impressed with what he ended up with. So they're worth saving in my book.

As this came as a bare frame and the paint is shot (especially as someone has obviously had difficulty getting a seat post out) it's going to get a full respray in as close as I can get to that gold with a new set of decals, but will be built up as a retromod so that it gets used, that and I've got a mish mash of Shimano bits hanging about that will go on it nicely.

This thread won't get updated that frequently but unlike my normal there you go its finished thread I shall try and be a bit more vocal with this one.

Interesting... I have a red and white '86 Sirocco but didn't know they went back this far....

These is the mish mash of bits going on it (well for now anyway)

105 (octalink) chainset
Tiagra front and rear mechs
Sora 9speed brifters
Promax brakes
3TTT bars and stem

All are going to be stripped down and cleaned and as they're a bit worn I might paint the crank spider and NDS arm frame colour with a black inner ring to match the outer but that's still subject to change.

There are 3 basic colour schemes I think and each has a different frame type but this is the earliest iteration of the name as far as I know, most of these I've seen have been white with blue on light blue decals

Is yours the red and white with defined red panels (which I think is the middle one) or the red, white, black fade (which is the last one)?

Middle one I think...
viewtopic.php?f=23&t=383693

Yours will be the 501 framed one then? They got better as they went along tube wise with the last one being 531

I managed to get a bit of time to put this thing together as a dry run to make sure everything works before I paint it when the weather warms up. I haven't had chance to ride it yet but it all went together well.

I've still got to put some pedals on it and get the bars and saddle positioned correctly but one thing that did strike me was the seat pin is 26.4, it's not Reynolds tubing but was built at Carlton in Worksop so must be at least half decent and I'm hoping it will ride quite nicely.

I like it, a nice balance between old and new.

A mid 80's Sirocco passed through my hands a few years back, it was 501 and in a metallic red. Was quite a nice frameset actually, and it had campag brakes, although they might have been added later. I built it up for a relative and now it languishes un-used in a shed.

Thanks, it's growing on me and I hope it rides as nicely as I think it will.

It will get painted in as close as I can get to that gold and the decals are available so I should be able to make it look quite presentable.

The middle (501) Sirocco I've never had and that's a shame that it's not being used so I think I'd try and get that back.

I do have a later (531) one as well in the queue to do but that's for another time

Lack of paint stopped play on my Europa build so I dropped back on to this one.

Stripped it back down to the bare frame, rubbed it down and got a coat of primer on it today, should be able to get this one painted this weekend so I'd better order some decals for it.