For Sale Raleigh sbdu/special products division tig welded optima tricolore

[bikeworkshop]

A friend just dropped this in to see if I'd sell it for him - just thought I'd offer it here before taking it to the shop and get it cleaned and serviced - plus replace the rsx stis with the correct 600 dt shifters. looks mostly in good order but proper barn find. Unused 25 years. £440.

 

[pigman]

That really doesn't look like SBDU, but someone more qualified can confirm or not

 

[bikeworkshop]

Good point - I'd never noted the difference between SBDU and special products division.

Sbdu moved from Ilkeston to Nottingham in 1987, renamed the special products division, sometimes using sbdu name still iirc.

Optima was the reynolds tubeset developed for tig welding, early 90s?

Here's another one:

Raleigh Optima Special Products Division ( med)

For sale in fantastic nick a highly regarded Reynolds Optima ( somewhere between 531 and 631 ) bike in orange/red with Cinelli Bars & Stem Mavic cpx 10 rims continential sport tyres Based In Sheffield £210

www.retrobike.co.uk

 

[Guinessisgoodforyou]

@vcballbat

 

[vcballbat]

 

[vcballbat]

Here's the rest of the catalogue. Can you post a picture of the underside of the bottom bracket, if it has an SB or SC prefix frame number then it would be a custom built frame

 

[bikeworkshop]

Were raleigh trying to keep manufacture (perhaps just higher end? Although their last output was aimed squarely at the lower end of the market iirc) In Nottingham, a new tig-welding facility, circa 1992?
Wikipedia puts Optima at 1995, but surely this is a few years earlier?

 

[Guinessisgoodforyou]

A is 1990 I think.