Raliegh Elan.....

welkman

After a bit too much to drink on Friday I have discovered that a new bike is sitting in my garage. Ebay confirms that I did infact pay for it, so all is good on that front, its just what to do with it next???

It's a early 1990's Raliegh Elan with exage 'biopace' gear on it. As far as I can tell it has sat in a garage as there is no wear on anything, even the original handlebar tape and frame mounted pump are in good nick.

I have three options:

1: New wheels, strip frame, remove braze-ons including shifter mounts on the downtube and the rear mech hanger, powdercoat baby blue, silver stem bars and seat post, brown saddle, single speed.

2: As above but leave the braze ons in place.

3: Strip, powdercoat blue and leave everything as it comes with gears and all.


What would you do???


W

Monkeypump

If it's not broke... etc.

Revel in its retro "greatness".

The Rookie

Seconded, its 100% retro, leave it that way!

Simon

welkman

Do I need some flying googles and tweed or was it more shell suits and neon lycra at the time???

rolf_f

Option 1) Bleagh, bleagh, bleagh
Option 2) Bleagh, bleagh
Option 3) Bleagh.

Option 4) - leave it as it is. It's managed to last a long while looking smart and tidy so why turn it into a moose bike? Retro original is cool. Retro hipster is just bleagh (see - you've made me say it again!)

rolf_f

welkman wrote:

Do I need some flying googles and tweed or was it more shell suits and neon lycra at the time???

Naaah, that was the fifties! As for the lycra, it wasn't as bad as the current stuff!

welkman

im thinking neon pink lycra shorts and a lime green tie tie top?

8)

Confusedboy

Please, please don't single speed it, or, if you must, do it in such a way that the bike can be restored to it's original basic configuration. Every day I see lovely old bikes irreverseably mutilated in this drive for coolness which is easily satisfied by buying a single speed/fixie new bike, and I hear them sobbing in thier misery and begging for the merciful release of death. It is truly heartbreaking.

My pub bike is a 1980s Raleigh Arena, the classic schoolboy workhorse. It has it's original wheels, transmission, and brakes and is unrestored and a bit scruffy (like it's rider), but I love it. It is fun to ride, suprisingly comfy with it's steel frame, I can wear ordinary clothes and shoes on it, and it's plenty quick for local journeys. The 26" wheels and teenager frame suit my oddly shaped body (I have normal legs but the distance from the top of them to my neck is unusually short, and I fall short of touching my toes without bending my knees by about 10"). It's only real drawback is that, with it's steel rimmed wheels, the brakes don't work in the wet.

The (original) bottom bracket is terminally ill though, and when I eventually have to replace that I may try to get suitable modern wheels for it. This will be a problem, as I am determined to keep the original brakes and 5-speed cassette, and few 26" wheels are easily available for anything other than fixies and MTBs these days. Come to that, I am expecting trouble getting a bb that can be used with the cotterpin cranks.

Old skool is cool!!!!

welkman

It is definatly going to need a new wheelset. The old ones are looking quite shagged. I did take it for a ride the other day and it was quite good fun really. I think maybe it will look cool in a few years time, you see it is quite ugly with a weird white and grey spotted paint job . I will try to work out how to post some pics to illustrate!

rolf_f

welkman wrote:

It is definatly going to need a new wheelset. The old ones are looking quite shagged. I did take it for a ride the other day and it was quite good fun really. I think maybe it will look cool in a few years time, you see it is quite ugly with a weird white and grey spotted paint job . I will try to work out how to post some pics to illustrate!

If the wheels are alloy they could be worth cleaning up. It can be done with a bit of patience and plenty of cups of tea. Just need some rags and some metal polish or T cut. Try it on a short section and you'll soon know if it is worth doing or not. That obviously assumes the hubs are OK - whip the bearings out, check them and the surfaces and see how it all works with new grease in.

welkman

Im more worried about the serious lack of spoke tension really. The wheels themselves are true and bearings are good but the spokes are so loose they feel like they may buckle over the smallest lump.

welkman

Confusedboy wrote:

My pub bike is a 1980s Raleigh Arena

Is it this one?

http://velospace.org/node/22216

If it is I think you stole my orginal idea

t4tomo

How's your DIY wheel rebuilding skills? If rims are true and hubs are good, then some time and patience with a spoke spanner (and probably new spokes) would be well spent.

http://www.sheldonbrown.com/wheelbuild.html

My Mrs's original Puch (I see you read my posting ) has rims so out of true I decided I needed a new base to start from.

Wallace1492

I had the same bike in my garage. Lovely retro colour.
However after a year on the Tricross, could not get used to the downtube gears again.

So...... decided to SS speed it, and must say it is a perfect lease of life for the old nag. It now ploughs up and down Maryhill Road laying many a roadie to the sword. It has helped me gain fitness, and strength, and was very cheap to convert.

Sure, if you want to keep it geared go ahead, nowt wrong with that, but also nothing wrong with converting. However, I do love the original colour, which I have retained, and now got on jazzy handlebar tape and just stuck on an orange charge saddle.

Love the beast!

welkman

Wallace1492 wrote:

I had the same bike in my garage. Lovely retro colour.
However after a year on the Tricross, could not get used to the downtube gears again.

So...... decided to SS speed it, and must say it is a perfect lease of life for the old nag. It now ploughs up and down Maryhill Road laying many a roadie to the sword. It has helped me gain fitness, and strength, and was very cheap to convert.

Sure, if you want to keep it geared go ahead, nowt wrong with that, but also nothing wrong with converting. However, I do love the original colour, which I have retained, and now got on jazzy handlebar tape and just stuck on an orange charge saddle.

Love the beast!

Some balance to the thread!

Can I see a pic of yours?


W

welkman

The bike that is :oops:

rolf_f

Wallace1492 wrote:

I had the same bike in my garage. Lovely retro colour.
However after a year on the Tricross, could not get used to the downtube gears again.

Heathen! There's absolutely nothing wrong with downtube shifters. I tells you now, after the apocalypse you'll wish you had nice, simple downtube shifters instead of those fernickety STi shifters

Wallace1492

welkman wrote:

Wallace1492 wrote:

I had the same bike in my garage. Lovely retro colour.
However after a year on the Tricross, could not get used to the downtube gears again.

So...... decided to SS speed it, and must say it is a perfect lease of life for the old nag. It now ploughs up and down Maryhill Road laying many a roadie to the sword. It has helped me gain fitness, and strength, and was very cheap to convert.

Sure, if you want to keep it geared go ahead, nowt wrong with that, but also nothing wrong with converting. However, I do love the original colour, which I have retained, and now got on jazzy handlebar tape and just stuck on an orange charge saddle.

Love the beast!

Some balance to the thread!

Can I see a pic of yours?


W

Will take a pic of it tonight and post.... can you link to a Facebook pic?

welkman

No idea at all. I will try posting a pic of my beast as well.

W

Wallace1492

Rolf F wrote:

Wallace1492 wrote:

I had the same bike in my garage. Lovely retro colour.
However after a year on the Tricross, could not get used to the downtube gears again.

Heathen! There's absolutely nothing wrong with downtube shifters. I tells you now, after the apocalypse you'll wish you had nice, simple downtube shifters instead of those fernickety STi shifters

Nothing wrong with them at all... personal choice, and so glad I have a lovely retro single speed to blast up and down Maryhill road. Looks good, feels a joy, and so simple and easy to use. Just a pity I got a flat on way home last night.....

The Rookie

Wallace1492 wrote:

Will take a pic of it tonight and post.... can you link to a Facebook pic?

No idea, I use http://www.photobucket.com add a pic to an album, hover over it and you get a box that gives you automated insertion links.

Simon

secretsam

Confusedboy wrote:

Please, please don't single speed it, or, if you must, do it in such a way that the bike can be restored to it's original basic configuration. Every day I see lovely old bikes irreverseably mutilated in this drive for coolness which is easily satisfied by buying a single speed/fixie new bike, and I hear them sobbing in thier misery and begging for the merciful release of death. It is truly heartbreaking.

+1

Trendy newly single-speeded steelies are generally horrid, and they usually use some dreadful gas-pipe steelie rather than something nice (531/753, Columbus SL, Tange, etc)

rjsterry

There are enough bastardised FG/SS hatchet jobs around. Instead of following the herd, ride it as it is, or if you must go SS, keep the bits in a box for that inevitable moment when you come to your senses . From the description, it doesn't need much bar a clean and lube, so why muck about with it? If it was an old wreck with no paint on the frame, then fair enough, but as it is, it sounds lovely.

welkman

Heres my first attempt at uploading images:







So hopefully here is the culprit!

rolf_f

Wheels look a lot better than the ones I cleaned up for my Raleigh Record Ace. Eyeleted too. Stem isn't the prettiest but I'd have thought a bit of a clean up is all it needs. You could strip it and lubricate it but that would only attract Hambones to the thread.

welkman

Yes I should probably prize off the rings, remove the axles and lube up the bearing races. Oh and after that I might sit back, polish my stem and worry about the state of my nipples......

Wallace1492

Confusedboy

welkman wrote:

Confusedboy wrote:

My pub bike is a 1980s Raleigh Arena

Is it this one?

http://velospace.org/node/22216

If it is I think you stole my orginal idea

You monster. There should be a law against that sort of thing. But the poor mutilated victim beneath the paint job (nice, btw; kudos....) looks like it was indeed an Arena once. How it must dream of those halcyon days!* And put a front brake on it!

I keep planning to rebuild mine (as a 5-speed road bike, not anything like your abomination), but every time I work out the likely cost of new 26" alloy or ally rimmed wheels of that thickness so I could stop in the rain which would probably have to built to order so as to accept the new cassette and freewheel, then new bb, cranks, chainset and chain, saddle, and headset, I realise that I am well on the way to paying for a new entry level road bike, e.g. Boardman, which would go better. And I would still need a scruffy pub bike that I would not break my heart over if it was nicked or vandalised outside the scruffy pub.

In the real world, my Arena will be used 'as is' as a pub bike until some component packs up, at which point I will probably use it to hang plants off in the garden.


*all criticism unconditionally taken back with full apologies if you have in fact left the braze-ons on so that the bike could be restored to it's original format. Otherwise, go to your room and think about what you have done, young man..... and then fit a front brake.

Confusedboy

rjsterry wrote:

1985 Mercian King of Mercia - work in progress.

Get Offa that thing!

Aw, c'mon guys, we don't have enough Dark Ages Anglo Saxon Kings based humour on here. Does Offa's Dyke belong in the Lesbians thread?

Wallace1492

Now with orange saddle..... will stick up new pic later. And does still have the braze ons.....

welkman

Diid you find it a pain to get the chain taught without the tensioner? Just thought there would be enough movment in the drop out to not need one.