Carlton Pro-Am - worth a repair/restore?

Add a couple of chain links and stick the wheel further back in the dropout


Shaun

just looked in 1982 Carlton brochure and it shows pro am's having 700 wheels , not 27"

if it was mine i would just get it rideable and go from there . never seen rear drop outs spread like that before ?

Is it some kind of Raleigh / Carlton hybrid ?- sorry if revealing my ignorance on cycle history!) - it definitely always had the 27 wheels - but, as you can see, says Raleigh on cranks - and on e.g link between shifters - but still says suntour power on the shifters themselves and carlton worksop on the frame ...

From memory isn't that a 1978 frame number......... ?

oops, that has already been said. as such would have had 27" wheels and a smattering of Raleigh labelled items........

Shaun

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Carlton-Pro-A ... 43b5348a68

if any of you want to have a look on ebay

Didn't realise there was an older Pro Am that looks so different from my Polar Blue Pro-Am 12 model, bought new in 1983. My bike has "Carlton Cycles, Worksop" on the foil stuck on badge, but I suspect this is not exactly true. I think the Worksop factory was closed when this bike was built. Raleigh stickers on the chainset and on the 700c rims. I've had this bike from new and fortunately it has always been kept in the garage built onto the house so it is rust free. Only non-original parts are the tyres. The original Michelin Elans (no longer available) eventually perished so they were replaced by Vittoria Rubino's a couple of years ago (blue walled to match the frame). Still has the original innertubes though (with a couple of historic patches). I'm thinking of replacing the original black suede leather saddle which has now faded to an unattractive brown shade.
Frame number WH0004283 (with a letter 'S' stamped sideways below it).

WH0004283 Frame number relates to June 1980 .......... As the last frames were made in May 1981 then it looks like a Worksop frame.

Shaun

Interesting Shaun - I bought the bike new, around 1983. So I guess that fits in with the production date. Tried to post a photo, but jpg is too large - will have to compress it so the site will accept it.
Thanks for the quick reply.

Re:

It really brought back memories seeing this bike.

I had one of those from new as a schoolboy and rode it to extinction. I used to do club rides and even used it for road races. Pretty early on I swapped out the 27" wheels for 700C which the standard brakes were able to cope with without issue.


Later in life it became my cyclo cross bike and I even rode the three peaks on it. By this time the paint was in a pretty sorry state and front fork was quite rusty so a rattle can respray and new fork spruced it up a bit. [resprayed below]



It finished it's days as a fixed gear commuter and rode as well as it did the day it was born. I sold it in 1997 and really regret doing so. I must have done over 30,000 miles on it and had no drop out issues at all.

Great to see those pictures!