Anyone know the Romany brand?

[zerogravitas]

Hi all, wonder if anyone can shed some light on this Romany branded tourer. It's my partner's dad's old bike, mid 80s I believe. The frame is 531ST, nicely built if showing some patina after some years of hard use!
The group is a mix of early Deore and Suntour, with "Red S" cranks and brake levers. Anyone come across this brand?
I have it for a bit of basic maintenance and to pop some mudguards on but I'm itching to give it a full stripdown and rebuild.

 

[pigman]

I think they were the in-house brand for freewheel, the early 80s cycling catalogue guys.

 

[ferrus]

Yeah, IIRC ‘Revell’ was the Freewheel brand name and Romany were their touring models
Red S was also Freewheel’s line of components

 

[zerogravitas]

Fantastic, thanks for the information both.

Any thoughts on a suitable rubber hood to replace these old ones?

 

[vcballbat]

Fantastic, thanks for the information both.

Any thoughts on a suitable rubber hood to replace these old ones?
View attachment 607308

Maybe these ..

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Dia-comp...2349624.m46890.l49286&mkrid=710-127635-2958-0

 

[zerogravitas]

They look pretty good to me, ta!

 

[hamster]

Yes, Revell / Romany later became Orbit. A classy touring frame.

 

[zerogravitas]

I finally got round to doing the bits and bobs I had to do on this frame, some rust treatment, new hoods, tape and cables as well as fitting a set of mudguards. It's now back with it's happy owner and ready for more miles. The more I worked on it the more it cried out for a full sandblast and respray... Maybe next time.

The Dia Compe hoods were perfect with a minor trim for the levers, thanks @vcballbat for the tip.

Whilst cleaning and working on the frame I found this odd cable guide under the downtube. There is a cable entry just behind the lower headset cup and an exit port just in front of the BB. It has a liner tube in it too. The owner has never used it, wondered if anyone here knew what it was? Dynamo light cable guide?

 

[pigman]

Yeah, probably dynamo cable.
Back then the trendy dynamos used sanyo bottom bracket mounted dynamo wheels. So, cable entry near the BB, exit up top for a fork mounted headlamp

 

[zerogravitas]

Fantastic, thanks for that. Looks exactly right after looking up the Sanyo type dynamos. What confused me was there is only room for one wire.. but they just used the frame as ground. Ingenious!