Back to the 80's i shall go.

[Spanky22b]

All the way from it's beginning at Gloucester Cycles to now making it's final journey to Newcastle (i'll never sell this) we have the 1989 Raleigh Avanti which has taken me 36 years to finally own one. Back in 89 there was alot to choose from but there was really only two bikes for me, the 89 Explosif which i could actually see because Denton cycles had one and this the Raleigh Avanti which i only ever seen in the catalogue until now.
There was a Raleigh stockist close to me but they only ever really had Mustangs and road bikes so it was just looking at the catalogue and imagining what it would be like with full Reynolds 531 and full Deore XT ll. Something i always wondered was why Raleigh could do full XT ll but Kona only went with full Deore ll, maybe it's a Joe Murray thing because the 88 Pine Mountain only had Deore not Deore XT, could it of been the cost of using full Tange Prestige tubing
I've got high hopes for this Avanti because overall it's in really good condition with only a few areas which will require a few touch ups of black paint, it was clearly looked after or had an easy life.
So now to give it a bath and give it a good clean and polish and take it from there.

 

[Spanky22b]

Frame and forks washed and first coat of polish on one of the fork legs says this paint should come up a treat.