1985 Raleigh Competition 12

[chickendrumsticks]

One small quirk of this bike is that it is definitely a 1985 model, as it has both chrome forks and the Reynolds '1935-1985 Winning on 531' decal. It's also the nice 'Ambassador Blue' colour of that year. However, the frame number starts 'WL4......' so it's definitely a 1984 built frame. I imagine it would be common for frames made near the end of the year to be for the next years models, but from what the internet tells me, 'L' means August, so I'm a bit surprised in this case – if that information is correct. I know there are many Raleigh experts on here who may know better.

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My frame also has Campagnolo dropouts rather than the Giepiemme ones from the catalogue spec, but again, I imagine with such high-volume frame building this sort of thing was pretty commonplace.

I will be going for the white bar tape (the catalogue spec say 'beige' but I can't find any beige tape that looks right), and hopefully gum hoods for the levers. I'm not sure about the white (or beige) saddle, simply because I have loads of black ones already, but I might succumb to the need to get this nearer to original spec if I do keep it.

Tape: use white cloth and then dye it with some weak tea (no milk or sugar).

 

[sjcprojects]

Tape: use white cloth and then dye it with some weak tea (no milk or sugar).

Ah, that’s a good idea. As it happens I’ve already ordered some tape, and it’s not the cloth kind. But if I had a beige saddle I’d go down that route.

 

[chickendrumsticks]

I probably watch too much Repair Shop! They seem to use it lots.

 

[sjcprojects]

I've dug out a Rolls saddle which was on another bike until recently, and put some leather dye on it to freshen it up a bit. It's got just the right amount of wear to fit quite well with the patina of the bike. Can't really go wrong with a Rolls, in my opinion. I've also polished up the nice aero seatpost, and given the chainset and brakes a proper clean/polish. It's going to share these wheels from another one of my bikes, for now, at least.

I've not cabled it up yet, this is just a mock-up until I sort out the final position of the levers. The white bar tape will make a big difference once it's on, I think. I'm happy with the colour match of the touch-up paint, but I think I'll leave the decals off for now, as if I do keep this I might well get it repainted at some point anyway.

Meanwhile, the Record Ace is also coming along. This one has needed quite a lot of cleaning, mainly. I'm also waiting for a few parts to finish it off.

 

[sjcprojects]

Finished, for now. Hopefully the weather will allow for a short shake-down ride soon. Obviously I won't ride it through winter, but I might decide whether to keep it or not depending on how it rides. One issue is that the stem is stuck, and it's a bit low for me, really, but we'll see. One thing I've learned is that you never can really predict the condition of a bike before you've actually started working on it – the frame on this is really in a bit of a rough state (it looks better in this photo than in the flesh, really), but all the parts on it were actually in decent condition and seemed either quite lightly used or well looked after. I wonder if this bike was never actually used that much, but it can't have been stored in very good conditions, unfortunately. But who knows?

Anyway, I think it's looking okay. I must say I'm not really a big fan of this bar tape – not only is it rather thick and therefore chunky-looking when wrapped (which will mean it's comfortable, I guess), but it is the sort that seems to actively attract dirt. That's the problem with buying online, I suppose. It was also a pain to wrap around the hoods.



The RRA is done apart from the tyres, which are coming later this week, thanks to @Takingabreak

I bought some new hoods for it, which are a massive improvement over the black ones it came with (which were not original, of course, these aren't either, but are a very good fit). It still sometimes surprises me how details like that can really lift the whole look of a bike. Having never wrapped cotton bar tape before, I'm happy with how the right side came out, but the left side for some reason was a struggle and it's a bit creased it places. Maybe I just wasn't in the correct zen-like state required when I was doing that side .



I've been catalogue-correct with the cable routing for the RRA, but for the Competition I've put them in front of the bars as I actually prefer that when riding as it keeps them out of the way of the bars a bit better, seeing as I ride with my hands on the top of the bars quite a lot.