eBay find of the week... a Raleigh with 531 tubing

My initial thoughts were correct, I've taken a look through a few Raleigh brochures (hardcopies) and the Classic 15 first appears in 1985 and does not appear in 1987 (Randonneur appears in 1987).

And for the benefit of other posters, if you know your Raleighs (or think you do), then you should know the Royal does not have a half chrome rear triangle or fork - neither does the Randonneur.

The chainset, correct again: Sugino PX, a TA lookalike...final thought - frame number will almost certainly begin with a W.

Very good frameset, and a very good bicycle when new.

Jon.

roadking":2wpe9ope said:

Sure the Classic 15 was catalogued for only one year - definitely 1980s.

I'll check.

Jon.

Click to expand...

The Reynolds decals fit that era too. Early 90s 531 transfers were yellow/green rather than gold/green. Also, from the late 80s onwards, 531 Raleighs tended to come with 2 sets of water bottle mounts rather than just the one.

David

Joy! It is indeed a Raleigh Classic 15.

Frame number WP4 00121, from what I can tell scraping away the dirt. So a Nottingham-built lightweight from 1984, then?

Cinelli stem and Giro d'italia bars (a little scratched, but I'll tape them up anyway), Shimano levers and Raleigh Weinmann 610 centre-pull brakes (hmmm), Suntour Power shifters and Suntour AT1000 rear mech, Sachs Huret front mech. The chainset is indeed Sugino. Not sure about the cranks and pedals but they look original.

The frame and forks are Reynolds 531 - the only problem is that the front forks are, as I thought, quite badly rusted.

I'll post some pics as soon as I can.

And even if the forks make it uneconomic to repair, even a novice like me knows the Cinelli bars and stem will fetch more on eBay than I paid for the bike itself.

Sounds good so far!

And for the benefit of other posters, if you know your Raleighs (or think you do), then you should know the Royal does not have a half chrome rear triangle or fork - neither does the Randonneur.

Click to expand...

That's beautiful - and in very much better condition than mine, which I think is going to have to be a bit of a long-term project...

Thanks.
I bought it a few weeks ago. I cannot find any evidence that it has been used.
Indeed the bottom bracket was almost solid. When I eventually got into it, I found the grease had turned into a tar like substance. Once cleaned up the ball bearings showed no wear at all.
I first rode it yesterday. Beautiful to ride. Glides along almost silently. At the moment I can't see anything I would change from the stock setup.

Re:

Well, the long-term project has sat in my friend's garage for a while and it's high time I started to think about doing something about it...

Here are some better photos - I've already binned the wheels, the hubs had had it, and even the skewers were bent.

But it seems to be (or have once been) a decent frame. The main worry is how corroded the front forks are.

Re:

Is that rust anything more than just surface rust?

Doesn't look that bad.

Bargain find!

Thank you... I suppose I ought to have a go at it with some emery paper and find out just how deep it goes.