Raleigh Moonshine rescue project..

[sparkybhp]

So this was actually posted on here for sale a while back, I must have missed it but it came up on eBay last month and was local to me so I thought I’d grab it - for spare parts if nothing else.

A young lad had been using it and had run the stem too high in the steerer resulting in a snapped thread on the steerer..

Well it yielded some tasty parts, XT brifters, Pace chainrings on MT60 cranks, DX mechs/brakes, so well worth the purchase price.
But I wanted to see if I could save the 531 frame/forks.. So I cut a decent thread off an old scrap fork I had and after a bit of measuring fired up the welder, fingers crossed..

Hopefully it’s a save, it seems lined up nicely and it’s certainly not going anywhere.

Next step will be a clean and polish of the frame and fork and I’ll be trying to re-spray the faded pink parts without sacrificing the original decals and purple areas which are mostly pretty good.
I’ll keep this thread updated as I go..

 

[Jamesbike]

Rubbing t cut into the pink parts might replenish the colour.

 

[sparkybhp]

Rubbing t cut into the pink parts might replenish the colour.

Sadly not, although I did give it a quick try, but she’s got some serious tan lines this one..

And after my paint touch up efforts:

Admittedly not perfect by any stretch, but I’m happy enough with it for now. Just need to decide on what components to put on it and crack on..

 

[Graham_hkr]

Good work so far!

 

[sparkybhp]

Managed to spend a bit of time on this this afternoon.

Original cranks were polished and I had some non biopace chainrings to fit, I went 2x7 in the end - left the granny ring off.

Went with some MT63 levers on DX brakes and these sweet Suntour thumbies I had. Found some Suntour mechs in my spares stash to go on…


All ready to ride now, can’t wait til it stops raining here and then I’ll take a spin out on it and report back..

 

[sparkybhp]

Managed to do a few miles on this over the weekend. I’m overall really pleased with it, the Suntour thumbies are a joy to use and the 531 frame/fork give a really nice rides - especially over graded trails I’m likely to mostly use it on.
I altered it to 3x7 before I went out on it (well it’s actually an 8 speed cassette atm), but next step will be to fit these wheels and get it on a 7 speed properly:

These Deore lx 560 were karma’d to me a while back and they should fit it better.