Bling bling Raleigh Record Sprint

First ride on the RRS.....



It went well.

Last night I spent a while tightening a few spokes on the rear wheel and truing it up. A couple were really really loose.....I think someone had been dabbling with a spoke key! It's close enough but could probably get better with a few more turns of the spoke key.

Other than an occasional (annoying) ting/click type noise it's riding like a new bike. And fits me so well too.

One niggle I noticed - some play in the rear wheel hub. Need to turn my attention to that with the cone spanners later to see if it can be improved.

At some point I'll treat the bike to a complete strip down and deep clean/polish/lube/service etc.

To do list:

Gold cable outers/cable end crimps.
Black stem
Black clip-in pedals
New stainless spokes - to replace the "rustless" ones
Deep clean/service/re-lube

Gold (more like yellow) Jagwire cable turned up yesterday......



Nothing screams the 80's more than fake gold bling, space shuttles and what feels like a cynical sticker-based marketing exercise to flog British goods from a once great company that's seen better times.......and I love this bike because of it. It's certainly "of the era"

So - starting to dig into some detail on the ol' RRS......I noticed that there was a load of play in the rear wheel.....like the bearing cones weren't tight. So after riding home last night I whipped the wheel off and guess what! The bearing cones weren't tight.

Cue full on strip down. It's a Maillard helicomatic rear hub which has the slightly quirky helical grooves that the freewheel locates on. Luckily I have the lockring tool (from owning a Peugeot!)......which has a bottle opener and spoke tensioner built into it. More lovely quirkiness there from the French.







Stripped the cones/spindles/bearings/seals etc and gave everything a good clean



Bearing surfaces look great in the actual hub......but just noticed a bent spoke!!





Reassembled with fresh grease......



Adjusted the cones to take out play.......but unfortunately there is a slight grumble. Looking at the surfaces of the cones again there is a little bit of damage to one of the cone surfaces. I've reassembled and I'm riding it as it's close enough - at least all the play has gone now.

I've got a few spare Maillard hubs so hopefully there'll be a decent cone in there somewhere that I can swap out in the future.....

Not my bike but another has turned up on eBay in Scotland. Looks original.

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/RALEIGH-RECO ... SwKLZck3Eu

I had one of these as a teenager. I remember black hubs but not the helical one. What I do remember is that the spoke holes weren't countersunk and I started snapping spokes behind the freewheel at their necks. I dismantled and rebuilt the wheel having countersunk the hubs which makes me think I would definitely remember a different freewheel. I'm sure mine was a standard screw-on one with a two pin remover.

Lovely bike it was, as yours is too. I didn't realise at the time I was slightly spoilt in getting it.

Supratada":1ih8dybm said:

I had one of these as a teenager. I remember black hubs but not the helical one. What I do remember is that the spoke holes weren't countersunk and I started snapping spokes behind the freewheel at their necks. I dismantled and rebuilt the wheel having countersunk the hubs which makes me think I would definitely remember a different freewheel. I'm sure mine was a standard screw-on one with a two pin remover.

Lovely bike it was, as yours is too. I didn't realise at the time I was slightly spoilt in getting it.

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I also had one of these and it didn't have Helicomatic hubs - it was a standard freewheel, as you describe. They came with a Shimano 105 Golden Arrow rear derailleur and a silver stem (the black stem arrived with the newer iteration of the RS - I know, because my brother had one of those, without the 'Aerospace' tubing).

Yeah, mines a bit of a franken-bike of a mix of bits from the various years of RRS.

The frame came with the Golden Arrow rear derailleur but had silver Weinmann brakes. I was fortunate enough to find a complete gold groupset from a slightly earlier RRS which had Campagnolo derailleurs and gold Maillard hubs - which are standard threaded freewheel. As you say - the black stem is from the last of the RRS - with non-aero tubing. (a mod that I'd like to do at some point).

Thanks for the comments guys - it's got me all enthused to dig it out the shed and ride it again (it's been a while).

Hello .. do you still have your Sprint? .. I bought one today and can’t wait to give it the golden touch. Any help sourcing a few bits would be a great help if you can spare the time .. Cheers

GatecrasherUK said:

Hello .. do you still have your Sprint? .. I bought one today and can’t wait to give it the golden touch. Any help sourcing a few bits would be a great help if you can spare the time .. Cheers

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Hiya, yep still got it. Haven't ridden it for a few months - took it out for a few long rides earlier in the year. As for parts - the only spare record sprint part I have is a rear wheel - black weinmann rim built onto a gold maillard hub. Will be dusting off the RRS for a ride out in the next few days hopefully.

No twee farm gates with the setting sun behind in your parish? I seriously love those urban shots. They seem to suit the bike.