501 frame

marshman777

Just cleared my mums garage out to house my classic car for the winter, and there sat at the back of the garage covered in dust was my trusty old race bike from the mid 80's. It is a raleigh of some kind forgoty the model. It is a steel frame and i know that it was a fairly good bike in its day. My dad was a very keen cyclist and a great climber by all accounts, and he wanted me to follow in his footsteps so he bought me a good bike to start me off.
The question is is it worth restoring the frame, i ride entry level bianchi at the minute and am due to upgrade next spring. Was thinking of having a go at it but if the frame is not worth the effort can you let me know.
Sorry about the length of the post, but wanted to pass on the fulls story.
Thanks Guys
Andy

HebdenBiker

Whether it's worth it depends on what you want.

People restore steel bikes because:

1. They like the ride characteristics of steel tubing
2. They like the look of steel tubing
3. They want a bike that is individual and different from modern mass-market offerings
4. They like the process of restoration and the technical/artistic challenges
5. They're skint and someone gives them an old bike for nowt
6. They're loaded and want to build up a custom dream-machine

...any combination of the above.

Whether your restored bike would be "better" than your Bianchi is a hard question to answer.

Personally, I would restore a 501 frame if it didn't cost me anything in the first place. But that's because I like old bikes. It won't be the lightest bike around, but might make an acceptable tourer/audax/commuter/winter/fixie/hack bike, depending on what you built it up with

Tail end Charlie

Agree with the above post. Convert it into a fixed/ singlespeed (because the gears will probably be shot) but first get it powder coated and you'll have something which looks really good and is easy to maintain and will take a lot of bad weather. Great fun building up aswell.

rolf_f

Tail end Charlie wrote:

Agree with the above post. Convert it into a fixed/ singlespeed (because the gears will probably be shot)

Why on earth would you assume that?!!! In the unlikely event that parts of the gear mech need replacing, there is a lot on ebay for buttons and you end up with something far more interesting than a SS if you make the effort.

marshman777

If i need to replace the gears and bits, will modern systems fit or will i have to search the web for old stock. If so are they available still and where should i look?

Andy

SamWise72

An SS is fun, but yeah, chances are white spirit and a toothbrush, followed by a drop of oil will be all that's required. Pre-indexing mechs are very simple things and almost indestriuctible. The deraileur on a 501 bike won't be anything exotic, just about any mech of that age on eBay will do, and you'll probably pay less than. Fiver.

rolf_f

SamWise72 wrote:

An SS is fun, but yeah, chances are white spirit and a toothbrush, followed by a drop of oil will be all that's required. Pre-indexing mechs are very simple things and almost indestriuctible. The deraileur on a 501 bike won't be anything exotic, just about any mech of that age on eBay will do, and you'll probably pay less than. Fiver.

The cage spring in the Sachs derailleur of my old 501 tourer packed in a while back so, after I got back from the ride (didn't actually stop the bike from working of course!!), I logged on to Ebay, found an old Shimano rear mech finishing that day and bought it for £3 plus postage. Almost needless to say, a bit of GT85 on the Sachs mech got the spring working again (since done a good 2000 miles more on the bike) and the Shimano mech lies on a shelf waiting its turn (probably about 10 years away!!).