1988/89 part lugged, part fillet-brazed Raleigh frame

I'm trying to decide what I am going to do with this. I have a few build ideas, but I'm not sure there's any way to build it to make it big enough for me.



😉
 
Hahah, I still probably couldn't get a long enough seatpost.

I didn't ever have a BMX, so I don't really have that urge. The closest to a cruising style bike I have had was my Diamond Back Ridge Runner. I sold that beause it felt a bit small and slow.

Hmm, I won't rule it out yet though. I have some nice ideas for paint and components, so I'd like to build it if possible.
 
Warning: from this point, some of the images may be NSFW.







She has started to undress for me:

Paintstripping (3).JPG Paintstripping (4).JPG

The paint was is in poor condition and the red at least was flaky in places, so I decided to start removing it to see if I could uncover anything else of interest.

There's hints of blue under the top black/red/cream fade. I don't know whether that is from previous paint or just some basecoat:

Paintstripping (1).JPG

Inside the bottom bracket shell, there is some fluoro orange overspray:

Inside BB shell (2).JPG

The seat tube reveals this could have been faded into a yellow:

Paintstripping (2).JPG

Given the location of the paint in the BB shell, I would be tempted to say it was the original colour. However, the frame number shows it was built in 1988 and I haven't seen any evidence of Raleigh using fluoro colours before the Lighweights in 1990.

Hopefully, someone else can provide some more insight.
 
Still pondering over questions raised by this. I don't think I'll ever have an answer for the biggest question, which is: Why did someone go to so much effort/pay someone to go to so much effort to make this Raleigh frame into a smaller frame, rather than have a custom frame built?

The colour is puzzling me though. The frame was built in December 1988, so I assume it was a 1989 model. However, I can't find any examples of Raleigh using fluoro colours before 1990 ... and even if they did use them a bit early, you would expect that to be towards the end of 1989, rather than a bike built at the end of 1988. The orange inside the bottom bracket is very bright and matches the fluoro they used on the White Lighning in 1990. It's possible it was professionally painted after the modifications were made, but the orange looks very much like original paint, with no evidence of any previous paint.

I was thinking about the missing RALEIGH stamp on the top of the seat stays. I don't know exactly the process a frame builder would use, but I assume this would be from shortening the seat stays. That leads me on to another question: If the frame builder was shortening the seat tube anyway, why have the arrangement with the extra triangle to reduce standover height, rather than just have a shorter seat tube?
 
I'm still having a dilemma about what to do with this. In theory, it's much too small for me, but I keep being tempted to try building it up anyway.

Any ideas about seatpost size? Does 27.0 or 27.2 sound right? If anyone has an Avanti/Ozark and could confirm that would be helpful. I only have a 26.8 to hand and that's a little too small.

I did buy this Fisher with a view to using it as a donor.

1988 Fisher Hoo Koo E Koo (2).JPG

However, having test ridden it I don't think the stem/bars are going to give me enough reach forward, so I'd probably only end up using the derailleurs and brakes, which doesn't seem worth spliiting it.

I may move that on complete instead, but I could possibly throw everything across to the raleigh just to test it and get a feel for how feasily it's going to be - assuming I can find a very long seatpost in the correct diameter.
 
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