Help identify my 1984 Raleigh 531ST?

[fishwinker]

I bought this a while ago, and the seller told me it was a Grand Royal. I think he told me that it was bought in New Zealand, and the frames sold there were slightly different than the ones built for England. It looks like a Royal, but it has a half-chromed rear triangle, and the tubeset is 531ST, rather than the standard 531. The serial number looks like it's WP460166, which would make it a 1984 frame. I've searched online several times, but I can never seem to find any information about it - has anyone seen anything like this?



Apologies to the purists, but it's not period-correct at all! I built it up as a sort of touring bike, but since I moved to Turkey I haven't used it very much - the roads in Ankara are downright terrifying! I have it set up with some Albatross bars with bar-end shifters, a pair of Shimano wheels, long-drop Tektro brakes, a lovely Brooks saddle I was given a long time ago and a few other bits and pieces. It rides absolutely beautifully - comfortable and fairly fast, with plenty of hand positions on the bars. The photos make the bars look like they're at a strange angle, but they're not!

 

[KermitGKona88]

It looks very much like a Gran Tour, in the UK they were sold in a black and gold livery with half chrome forks and rear. As you mention it does look like a Royal and it seem to have the same decals and paint colour, it might have been a special order, W denotes the Nottingham lightweights division so it defintely is a frameset only model as denoted by the frame sticker. P would be November, could have been someones Christmas present in 1984.....

 

[fishwinker]

It looks very much like a Gran Tour, in the UK they were sold in a black and gold livery with half chrome forks and rear. As you mention it does look like a Royal and it seem to have the same decals and paint colour, it might have been a special order, W denotes the Nottingham lightweights division so it defintely is a frameset only model as denoted by the frame sticker. P would be November, could have been someones Christmas present in 1984.....

Thank you - that makes sense. I hadn't realised that the W prefix meant that it was built to be sold as a frameset rather than a complete bike. I guess that explains why there aren't any catalogue entries from the time or details of the original setup. It would have been quite a Christmas present!

 

[KermitGKona88]

Sorry you have slightly misunderstood me, W means it was built in the Nottingham lightweights department where the top frames were built at the time. The faded sticker on the downtube says it is a frameset.

 

[KermitGKona88]

Here is a picture from the catalogue

 

[fishwinker]

Sorry you have slightly misunderstood me, W means it was built in the Nottingham lightweights department where the top frames were built at the time. The faded sticker on the downtube says it is a frameset.

Ah, okay. Thank you. I think I had seen the Gran Tour photo somewhere, but the script of the Raleigh logo on the downtube is different - did that depend on the model, or perhaps the year it was built?

The tubeset sticker says 531ST and specifically lists the stays as well as the main tubes and fork blades, whereas the standard Royal didn't use 531 for the rear triangle. I'm assuming that means the rear triangle definitely is 531, although somebody could have done a cheeky swap at some time in the past!

 

[KermitGKona88]

I believe the Gran Tour frameset would have been 531st, Raleigh were notorious for swapping specs, I worked at a Raleigh 5 star dealership for 5 years and saw some myself... I believe for an extra fee you could get 'Custom Paint' so the buyer may have had it sprayed to look like a Royal at the time.

 

[KermitGKona88]

I actually believe that Reynolds 531 turned into 531st in 1984.