New purchase - but what is it? Opinions?

I spotted this in a local secondhand shop, and as I don't have a running modern road bike (why am I trying to justify it...) I succumbed to temptation. Seems good value, although not astounding at £150, plus they chucked in a set of spd pedals for me.

Spec is mainly Shimano 600, with cranks from a different groupsed (105?) and a set of STI levers (don't know what group they are, as the bike is 7 speed, any ideas?) Mavic rims and a Reynolds 653 Rourke frame. The bike is basically in very good condition, although there has been a heavy handed welded repair to the seat binder area, strong, probably much more so than the original joint, but could be prettier, you may be able to see it in the last pic.

I've never ridden with STIs before, only downtube and bar end shifters, so I'll probably be reaching for the wrong place to shift for a while. Anyway, I'm looking forward to putting a few miles on it.

Anyway, on to the pics

I'd be over the moon with an Ultegra equipped 653 Rourke for £150! Nice

The STI's are probably RSX OR Sora.

i'm not an expert by any means but the shifters look like more modern 9 speed ones to me, maybe tiagra? They're not Sora as Sora shifters are different to other Shimano ones, with a thumb lever like campag ones. somewhere on the lever there should be a serial code of some sort which will indicate the group

The decals are newer than the frame which would suggest its been back for Julian to respray at some point. Great buy!

i had noticed the decals appeared newer. My only worry is that it doesn't appear to have his trademark seat stays. I don't know whether they made frames without those?

£150 :shock: well done. bargain

Roukes will respray and fit their decals to other brand frames, maybe they did the frame repair?

The wrap over seat stay is his trade mark.

So I e-mailed Brian Rourke cycles, and it appears that without the wraparound seatstay, it is not a Rourke.

I have done some searching online, and it seems they may put their own decals on refinished frames by other manufacturers - and it certainly looks like a pro refinish.

However, I would like to know what it is. The serial number starts WG6, which would suggest a high end Raleigh or Carlton, and the style looks very similar to late 80's Raleighs and Carltons I have found online. I'm by no means an expert though - anyone got any ideas? THere are some pics below, sorry for the blurryness on some, the camera I was using is not great at macro work.

Clunker - just noticed your post as I was writing this - They didn't do the frame repair, that has been done since the refinish, and it's not tidy enough to be a pro repair. I don't mind particularily what frame it is, I didn't know who Rourke were until I bought this, but it would be nice to know.

I believe the style of top eyes (top of seatstays) on the frame; with a slightly overlapped edge, is common on Raleigh frames. I've read that it originated from a Dutch framebuilder who built Raleigh team frames in the 70s.

If it's a Raleigh (which it looks like) and it's really 653 then it can only be a Record Ace Moderne or a 'special' (frameset only).