newbie from edinburgh

jaylynchkane

Retro Newbie
found this old beast outside a house clearance shop. bunged the guy 20quid and took it home. fancy singlespeeding it of fixedgearing it. started giving it a clean up. need a set of wheels for it as theres a bit of play in them. looking at a set of red velocity rims with fixedgear on ebay. gonna try and give it a cheeky modern twist.

if anyone knows anything about these bikes I'd love to know more.

Cheers

Jay
 
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I know that my mate Lappo had one the early eighties while the rest of us were getting into BMX. They stand up to jumps and bunyhops remarkebly well!! :cool: and with slick tyres he could out skid all of us. :LOL:
enjoy it.
 
SNAP :D
although yours is rather tidier than mine, mine's currently stripped and nude ready for some nice new paint, I like your pics, I can see what mine should look like, thanks

You can find your bikes age by checking the serial number (top rear of seat tube) on this site http://www.jaysmarine.com/TH_raleigh_serials.html

mines was made in Nottingham, May 1976
 

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I remember those, the local shop had one when I bought my first road bike. They had the Raleigh, a Vindec and a Peugeot. They were all the same price within a fiver. The Raleigh seemed poorly finished compared with the Vindec and was a couple of pounds heavier so I discounted the Raleigh. To be fair the Raleigh was the cheapest of the three. The Pug weighed about the same as the Vindec and if anything seemed even better finished, however I discounted it on the grounds that Peugeot made cars and therefore knew nothing about bikes. Ahem! I've learned a lot since then.

I did have miles and miles of fun and freedom with the Vindec so I never regretted buying it, but once I learned the truth about Cycles Peugeot I did kick myself for not choosing the Pug. Never bothered me that I didn't buy the Raleigh though.

Back then riding a Raleigh got you sneered at in the school cycling club. Even had you had top of the range the opinion seemed to be that Raleigh made kids bikes and grandad bikes not proper road bikes. A silly opinion I know, but there tended to be a bit of "have you come on your Grifter?" or "you borrowed your grandad's shopper?" whenever anybody showed up on a Raleigh. My Vindec was nowt special, but it did look a bit retro fifties clubman so it had a little cachet, especially since nobody else in the club had one. Once it was fitted with a set of tubs and sprints that I bought from one of the teachers for a fiver it was assumed that it was a proper serious bike. Shows how much people know doesn't it?

GJ
 
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