1984 Raleigh Road Ace

Very nice looking bike...

absolutely beautiful and what a find indeed.

polar blue if my ageing memory serves me correctly?

just remember NOT to get up out of the seat when going uphill
or racing for the 30mph sign with your chums - those gears
will have you!

saying that, it's worth it!

Baz-IRL":aa02fauw said:

Hi folks,first post on this site so please be gentle.
Quick question for shawnb: Could you please point me in the direction(link or shop name) of where you managed to get the Iscaselle saddle and what hoods did you replace the black ones with?
I've spent the past week looking for a replacement saddle and have nearly given up the search and was leaning towards a San Marco Concor as a make do substitute. Did you change out the levers or find hoods that fit the originals? I know ax hoods are next to impossible to find.
Any info you may care to share would be gratefully appreciated.
Picked up my Road Ace last weekend for just over £200. Serial no:WP3003597.
Spent about 20 years stored indoors without use.It's nearly cleaner than the one I rode back in the 80's. Saddle and hoods need a refresh,replace bar tape,seat tube+top tube decals and spend stupid money on a bottle and I'll be happy.

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Hi there, nice bike you have there! great to see a few original ones popping up.
Where to start! Basically the saddle was pot luck, on Italian ebay with a buy it now price of 74euros. It wasn't actually all good though, the seat was nos but biege! a pot of mid blue suede dye sorted that though and it looks like it's always been blue

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/300659685778? ... 1439.l2649

same seat, honest

Regarding the hoods, they are not ax ones but '80's sis ones that fit perfect and are an off white/light grey colour. I will keep an eye out for the right ax ones but from what I can see the originals are grey. On ebay 600ax hoods are gum coloured standard:
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Shimano-600AX ... 3374518e23

You have to look out for the dura ace ax ones as they appear to come with the grey hoods:
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Vintage-Shima ... 43aea4f084

I guess in the design dept they thought the gum wouldn't work with the bike colour so specefied dura ace grey hoods for the bike??

The decals you may have some problem with, I nearly bought another road ace before this and it was missing some decals, I contacted H Lloyd and he doesn't make any of the road ace ones unfortunately. A member on here did have the 'handbuilt in england' measured up and emailed me the copy that you could give to a vinyl / sticker shop??

The bottles.... again good luck!!!

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/251026702707? ... 1438.l2649

Interesting to see your bike was made in November 1983 as the '83 models didn't have the 'shot-in' seat stays but the '84 models did so yours was a late build ready for the '84 model year

All well worth the hassle though

Baz-IRL
Have you seen this?

1983 catalogue
http://bulgier.net/pics/bike/Catalogs/R ... l83_04.jpg
1983 specs
http://bulgier.net/pics/bike/Catalogs/R ... l83_05.jpg
1984 catalogue
http://bulgier.net/pics/bike/Catalogs/R ... l84_03.jpg
1984 specs
http://bulgier.net/pics/bike/Catalogs/R ... l84_05.jpg

Shawn.

bikenut2010":2fekwte5 said:

If I remember those shifters have a cool feature where the rear mech lever moves the front mech lever to prevent chainrub

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Didn't know that, mine certainly don't do that! will have a look at some '80's shimano catalogues online and see if I can find any info on that feature

Thanks guys.
@Shawnb, some great info there. Genius idea about getting a blue saddle sorted.I would never of thought of doing something like that.
As for the hoods,I'll have to try one or two things out. I've seen the gum coloured hoods but only ones that are attached to levers. Might try some slightly newer 600 stuff for the greyish hoods,if the price is right.

I had looked at the H Lloyd site before and was hoping they'd still have the seat tube"Made in England" decal. The town tube decal shouldn't be too much trouble for a guy I know that does vinyl signs.
I bookmarked those bulgier.net scans before and always had a laugh looking through the pages,as a teenager I had both the 83+84 catalogs in the house and practically knew each page word for word.

Lovely bike. I wish my Raleigh Road Ace had come with the matching seat post - mine's a fluted version. Great idea to dye the saddle - how is that working for you? Would you recommend the suede dye brand? I might consider brightening up my own Tornado saddle. Cheers - KM.

http://cycleseven.org/raleigh-roadace-shimano-600

PS - I don't think many frames match that sloping fork crown for simple elegance

keyboardmonkey":r73qohzh said:

Lovely bike. I wish my Raleigh Road Ace had come with the matching seat post - mine's a fluted version. Great idea to dye the saddle - how is that working for you? Would you recommend the suede dye brand? I might consider brightening up my own Tornado saddle. Cheers - KM.

http://cycleseven.org/raleigh-roadace-shimano-600

PS - I don't think many frames match that sloping fork crown for simple elegance

Click to expand...

Hi i've seen your thread above already
The dye idea has worked 100% with help from me Mum I chose a good brand. Dylon only did a navy blue which I thought was too dark so I bought this stuff
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/400283399098? ... 1439.l2649
apparently a good brand although I only used 1% of the bottle!!! are you thinking of dyeing yours grey? if you are thinking blue then let me know I can let you have some from my bottle.
The job is easier than I thought, it does go on a bit stripey which worried me but when dry evens out fine.

Oops, missed your reply, shawnb. That's very kind of you to offer to send me some dye, thanks. I wouldn't want to put you out so I'll ask Mrs Keyboardmonkey if she would like to get me some for my birthday. Just got round to buying the right bar ribbon tape (I had the wrong type) so my Road Ace will look almost like new for the few sunny (?) days I take it out over the summer :smile:

Road Ace

Lovely machines...

I train on my period Road Ace/ Corsa mix bike every day...great fun with all the carbon machines out there.