Raleigh 8803 poor man's SBDU

[Ecurie Peril]

Just picked this up on route to the Portsmouth ferry. I saw it some weeks ago but the asking price and cost of a return trip to Guildford from Derby made it uneconomical.
Move on a few weeks and some haggling with the vendor got the bike secured for a pick up en route to France.
A very quick look reveals a bad case of teenage acne on the frame but the Shimano 600 groupset and Mavic wheels look in pretty good nick

 

[Ecurie Peril]

Point of note, as we got off the ferry in France this morning there was a reasonable amount of cyclists doing the same. One guy stood out as he appeared to be on a Raleigh Quadra. Small world! Is it anyone off this forum?

 

[Ecurie Peril]

A couple of days ago I got around to pumping up the tyres. The rear Hutchinson had split severely so I replaced it with a spare used zaffiro I had lying around. The front Hutchinson, although cracked Holdsworth pressure. So having swapped out the pedals for clipless I decided to take it for a ride...

 

[Ecurie Peril]

Don't be alarmed I didn't end up in a ditch! The bike ran sublimely. The rear block indexed well and it rolled sweet as a nut. I did about 30km all of which were joyful. Some more cleaning of parts whilst I'm in France and contemplation of a paint job. A Team Castorama is my current choice

 

[Ecurie Peril]

Another 30km today and the start of a rub down with the rag.

 

[Ecurie Peril]

As mentioned above cycle parts look very good, it just appears that things were so desperate at Raleigh the paint coverage is minimal.

 

[Ecurie Peril]

Back in the UK and still pondering the frame finish. On inspection i noticed a couple of pin holes on the inside of one of the fork legs. Are they drain holes?

 

[pwebb]

its fine, that frame looks in great condition for the age - shimano 600 parts are very solid and yet sleek - those hubs should be super smooth for years to come. Vent holes and or weep holes are normal on fork legs and elsewhere - I heard tell these are needed to let gases escape during brazing not just to let water out thereafter - more knowledgeable folks on this forum will doubtless enlighten us.

 

[pwebb]

PS - love the concept of buying a bike on way to or during holidays btw - I would probably be murdered for daring to even suggest such a detour, however, it does give me an idea for a good RB photo thread "Bikes I bought on holiday" hoho

 

[Ecurie Peril]

Not quite the first time . A year or so ago I picked up a Raleigh SBDU track frame from Lesterama of this forum on my way to catch the boat...it appears to be always Raleighs atm