1989 Raleigh Lightweight 531C

Very very cool bike!

Its a similar story to one of my bikes, i've had 2 raleigh racers that had been stood then resurrected, both had lost pace & smoothness. Once you stick a few hundred miles on they free up, but i had to get new cassette/freewheel, BB, chain, and gear cables. Now they both go better than when new .

Wow, look at that, I remember these very well. A pal of mine had one of these, and I bought the pink and grey 653 version when raleigh were selling them cheap (only £100, but then i was a saturday boy in a raleigh '5 star' bike shop at the time!). I would strongly advise you to cycle up Alpe d'Huez on it - but get the biggest dinner plate sprocket you can!! I dug out my old racer and did something very similar. Was very inspirational in a mid-life crises kind of way - since lost about 4 stone in weight, joined a club, now roaring round the countryside as fast as I ever used to (all on retro bikes of course). If you say you'll do it i'll sell you some athena calipers for £20 !

You're on, I'll do it!...can you PM me some photos please?



I have been thinking about gearing for the mountains too, my target weight will be 11.5 stone and I am not looking to race up so do you reckon 39 front and 28 rear will be low enough? My companion has a swanky (read ugly) Scott CR1 Comp Triple and his lowest gear is 30 front 28 rear but he weighs 16 stone and is built like a brick s*** house.

Cheers, Martin

very nice bike Martin, the 89 tour was a very exciting race, right down to the wire. still have an old Castorama top myself

get those calipers, seat pin, some ribbon bar tape. i've recently pulled out my roadbike and filled in the groupset gaps, you'll get alot of pleasure doing it.

I've a set of athena (perhap chorus) gear levers, however some of the washers are missing but you're welcome to them - if you're considering replacing the victory/triomphe levers.

GL
G..

Put the 28 39 on there and see how you go, it's the lowest combination you can get without changing major parts (mechs, chainset, etc), you may even find the 28 a bit of a push and that a 26 is the max your mech can comfortably handle.

Reading some Campy info in an older version of Sutherlands my Athena mech can handle a 28T sprocket so that's what I'll go for. Found a rare Campagnolo crank set on Ebay today, 1990s but with a 110mm BCD, from one of their ill-fated MTB groups. No chain rings but it would be easy to find a generic 34T and 50T chain ring, whip a link or two out of the chain and Robert is your mother's brother.

I'll take some pictures of the calipers - they are well used (hence the low price) but quite presentable and fully functioning, and match your other kit perfectly.

Good luck with the mountain climbing - it'll be great fun. I suppose it depends how fit you are, but even 39x28 might be a little high, believe it or not. Sounds like a campag mountain bike chainset aka compact chainset will be ideal.

I've just checked the front mech capacity and the one I have can handle a total chain ring difference of 18T so a 34/50T set up would work fine. I reckon I could get away with the current rear mech too if I was careful with the chain length.

Sounds like a great idea!

Ah lovely frames! here's a bad picture of a scan of my old one circa '89-'90.



It was fitted up with gp4's and ultegra/dura ace