Old skool! Raleigh pro race. Classic or heap of sh..?

bails87

Anyone know anything about these?

Someone at work is selling a Raleigh Pro Race for £50, apparently it's sat in a garage for 10 years so needs a bit of tidying up. I've asked for pics and a bit mroe detail, but I'm thinking it could be good as a pub/town bike.

Is it a decent retro frame to use, or should I not bother?

Ta

Ben6899

What are you looking to hang on it? You'll need to bear in mind the rear drop-out spacing when choosing your drivetrain.

bails87

Ben6899 wrote:

What are you looking to hang on it? You'll need to bear in mind the rear drop-out spacing when choosing your drivetrain.

I'll just leave it as is probably, possibly make it SS, my current hacking about bike is my old MTB, which (although a bit crap in reality) looks shiny and worth nicking. I want something that I'm not scared to leave locked up, basically.

What is the rear spacing likely to be on an old road bike? Not 130mm?

mudcow007

bails87 wrote:

What is the rear spacing likely to be on an old road bike? Not 130mm?

120mm i think

you can have a go a "adjusting" it though

EKE_38BPM

mudcow007 wrote:

bails87 wrote:

What is the rear spacing likely to be on an old road bike? Not 130mm?

120mm i think

you can have a go a "adjusting" it though

120 sounds a bit too narrow. 126mm is floating around in my mind. I think my no-handed automatic left turn problem is related to this size discrepancy. I shall be re-spacing my rear hub to try to correct this and when I do I'll also measure the distance between the dropouts.

bails87

I'm not planning on buying it as a proper restoration/doer-upper type project. Just something I can put new brake pads, cables and tyres on and use to hack about town on.

If it's so bad that it'll require new wheels, rather than a tweak of the current ones then I may as well buy one of those £160 Viking fixie/SS things, as it'll be more economical.

If all it needs is a good clean and a de/regrease then I'll get it.

I'm going over to have a look at it tomorrow morning.

bails87

Well it wasn't in bad nick at all.

It's got a 501 Reynolds steel frame, is pretty light and had obviously been used but there's no wear on the jockey wheels, the wheels are true, the tyres were flat when I got it but they're holding air now. It would benefit from new brake and gear cables and new brake pads as the current ones are like hard plastic! But other than that, and needing a new, longer (ie, more than 15cm!) seatpost, it's good.

supersonic

Bargain, even Mr 'I hate road bikes and especially drop bars Sonic' would have bought that!

itboffin

nice but please check those rims are meant to have 2 grooves before you ride it

daviesee

Bargain.
Tyres are shot though.

bails87

Good point about the rims. And yep, the tyres are perished, when I put my new wheels on the CX I'll put new tyres on them, so the gatorskins off there will go on this.

Corporate Camper

I've got one of these lurking in my garage. It's not that colour though, it's the same as the one shown here:
http://www.fixei.co.uk/blog/entry/raleigh-pro-race

It's a bit too big for me really and I haven't taken it out of the garage for years...

welkman

I've got my Raleigh Elan in the shed (see previous thread) and have found that it shifts gear when I stand on the pedals even though it is made out of steel! Looks cool though.

rjsterry

welkman wrote:

I've got my Raleigh Elan in the shed (see previous thread) and have found that it shifts gear when I stand on the pedals even though it is made out of steel! Looks cool though.

Sounds like you just need to tighten the bolt up on the (friction) shifters.

bails87

I replaced the cables, the brakes now move! But the pads are still plastic, £3 for a pair from Wiggle should solve that though, and the rims aren't grooved, the picture just made it look like that....somehow :?

Halfords also had a £12 27mm seatpost, for some reason, so it's now tall enough for me to ride.

EKE_38BPM

bails87 wrote:

needing a new, longer (ie, more than 15cm!) seatpost

bails87 wrote:

Halfords also had a £12 27mm seatpost, for some reason, so it's now tall enough for me to ride.

My Banana and Moonio's 'Harry' Mixte both had/have really short seat posts. Maybe Raleigh were running out of seat post material in the 80s?

anonymousblackfg

Thinking of my spacing on my pro race 12 vitesse, the seat stay went snap when using a 120mm track wheel in it, so i'm guessing it was 130 rather than 126.

kieranb

odd looking headset, doesn't look like a typical threaded headset, and maybe its the photo or just me but it doesn't seem to lie correctly (at right angles to the head tube) in the head tube?

rjsterry

kieranb wrote:

odd looking headset, doesn't look like a typical threaded headset, and maybe its the photo or just me but it doesn't seem to lie correctly (at right angles to the head tube) in the head tube?

Yeah, it does have a bit of a 'Plumbase' look about it - no flats on either part, as though it is just finger-tightened :? Fork crown race looks normal though.

Lossie Loon

Just noticed this thread - I have a Raleigh Pro-Race as well, I use it as my road bike when on holiday at my folk's place in Lossiemouth to save hauling my regular bike up and down the country. Like the one the OP bought, mine was lying unused/unloved in my folk's garden shed for over a decade (I left it there when I moved to Coventry in 1998) - but when I got back into cycling I took it out and had a look to see if it still works. And by in large it did - I am in the process of doing it up, but have managed to do 300 miles on it since I dug it out at Christmas time, replacing the usual consumables on it and adding clipless pedals. Still some things to sort out though, but it has been a learning experience for me to find my way round the mechanics of a bike so I get more confident with doing that sort of thing.

Decent bike though, so the OP has done well out of it. My one is closer to Corporate Camper's colour scheme though, but the brake cables in it are all routed through the bar tape.

bails87

Well, seeing as someone else dug the thread up, I'll reply!

I've put the gatorskins off my CX on it. They were replaced with GP 4 seasons when I put the new wheels on the CX. It's also had new brake pads, bar tape and....that's it.

It runs fine, for £50 plus <£25 on a seatpost, bar tape and brake pads (I already had the cable lying around) it's great. Could probably do with some better pedals though. It won't be used with SPDs so I might put the MG1s that I used to use on my MTB on it.

I can't figure out the headset, but it works so I'm not going to touch it!

elcoline

Bargain. Frame alone is worth that.

secretsam

EKE_38BPM wrote:

bails87 wrote:

needing a new, longer (ie, more than 15cm!) seatpost

bails87 wrote:

Halfords also had a £12 27mm seatpost, for some reason, so it's now tall enough for me to ride.

My Banana and Moonio's 'Harry' Mixte both had/have really short seat posts. Maybe Raleigh were running out of seat post material in the 80s?

It's simpler than that - back in the day, bikes generally had longer seat tubes than is currently the fashion (although the more compact frames a la Giant seem to be disappearing, which is a shame as I have stupidly short legs...) - and sizes typicall went up to 25" (62.5cm), so long seat posts weren't needed.

That bike is a pretty boggo job, I'd say, 501 was the equivalent of 520 these days, OK but not great. The forks and stays would have been just gas pipe steel.

Source: I have a bike from that era (full 531, currently being sprayed)

u33db

bails87 wrote:

Well, seeing as someone else dug the thread up, I'll reply!

I've put the gatorskins off my CX on it. They were replaced with GP 4 seasons when I put the new wheels on the CX. It's also had new brake pads, bar tape and....that's it.

It runs fine, for £50 plus <£25 on a seatpost, bar tape and brake pads (I already had the cable lying around) it's great. Could probably do with some better pedals though. It won't be used with SPDs so I might put the MG1s that I used to use on my MTB on it.

I can't figure out the headset, but it works so I'm not going to touch it!

I also have a Pro Race - http://www.bikeradar.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=40044&t=12844087

It had the same headset which i've since replaced

If you want pictures of how its built up i think i have the old bits lying about still.

jopari

Saw this outside local bike shop for £70, so bought it for station/shop/pub rides (i.e. not too nickable)



I had this model when i was a teenager, so couldn't resist it

Needs tyres and I guess brake blocks, otherwise in great condition. Not gonna do much to it as don't want to worry when leaving it locked up.

mtb-idle

you can get these in Ev*ns now

Raleigh curb crawler

itboffin

EKE_38BPM wrote:

bails87 wrote:

needing a new, longer (ie, more than 15cm!) seatpost

bails87 wrote:

Halfords also had a £12 27mm seatpost, for some reason, so it's now tall enough for me to ride.

My Banana and Moonio's 'Harry' Mixte both had/have really short seat posts. Maybe Raleigh were running out of seat post material in the 80s?

Both of you are far to young to know back in the day the norm was an almost level seatpost to stem height set up so in most cases 1-3" and larger frames, its only now pros ride the smallest frame they can fit on with 8' of seatpost to make us all feel like bojo bike riders ...baStards! :evil:

Big_Paul

Looks pretty much like my Record Sprint, Mine is an SS now but it's actually pretty nice to ride, it feels very comfy, not light but it goes well enough for 25 years old. The old raleighs are making a bit of a comeback locally, a few old gaspipe 18-23 framed jobbies have been on Gumtree for well over £100.

jopari

So, any idea on age of my Pro-Race?
Seems to be a bit different from the one I had in the '90s.
I'm pretty sure my original one had shimano rear mech, and the shifters were curved plastic too (probably shimano) where as this one is suntour (and original according to the chap in the shop). So I'm guessing it's older model.

t4tomo

itboffin wrote:

EKE_38BPM wrote:

bails87 wrote:

needing a new, longer (ie, more than 15cm!) seatpost

bails87 wrote:

Halfords also had a £12 27mm seatpost, for some reason, so it's now tall enough for me to ride.

My Banana and Moonio's 'Harry' Mixte both had/have really short seat posts. Maybe Raleigh were running out of seat post material in the 80s?

Both of you are far to young to know back in the day the norm was an almost level seatpost to stem height set up so in most cases 1-3" and larger frames, its only now pros ride the smallest frame they can fit on with 8' of seatpost to make us all feel like bojo bike riders ...baStards! :evil:

Indeed bike fitting was a matter of seeing which frame /cross bar would comfortably support but not crush your gonads when you stood over it. The fashion for showing a long seatpost is a recent thing.

daveski12

I had one of these last year as my first road bike.

Bought it off a chap at work. Think I did about 1500 miles on it before I bought something else and now my dad has it.