Spotting a bonded Raleigh MTrax?

LittleSkink

Retro Guru
I have a black M Trax 1500 from the 1990s which has always been a "spare bike" - living near the Peaks my mates used to visit from far and wide and it was great to have something they could use to get out riding. Its my occasional commuter these days

Anyhow, its showing its age a bit and I figure a Powder Coat would be the respectful thing to do. But I need to check its not a bonded frame

The lugs etc do look a bit like my bonded Dynatech but I haven't found any direct reference to bonded on the stickers - so how do I tell?
 
if it's an M Trax 1500 then it should be bonded. Look at the joins between the main tubes of the frame - are the joins welded, or lugged (which looks like one tube goes inside another, fatter tube)?

The exact form of the lugs varies from year to year, but this is what you're looking out for:
dynatech_steel.jpg
 
But correct me if I am wrong, werent the all steel m trax frames lugged and brazed, not lugged and bonded? If the frame is brazed, you can powder coat no problem.
 
one like this? viewtopic.php?t=166959

he had it powdercoated. I'd be inclined not to though.

the first m-trax were just the dynatechs rebranded. After a couple of years they shifted to conventional welded frames. As far as I know they didn't do any conventional lug-brazed construction
 
I thought the 1994 to 1995 range of all cromo M Trax frames were brazed? The head tube lugs don't look bonded to me. I could be wrong though.
 
Back
Top