Raleigh airlite 100

poggit

Hi all-new to BR so thought I would kick off with a pic of my recently acquired Raliegh Airlite 100. In these hard times my cycling has to be within a tight budget. Happily the colour schemes of Lidle and Aldi cycling clothing match my new Sir Walt perfectly This might be one of the last British Raleighs-I belive they are about to be acquired by a Dutch company.
I am by and large very happy with the bike-its certainly a revelation after the ancient Dawes Galaxy. Problems so far-back wheel( 450 miles) two spokes loosened and last week (600 miles) clunking from block when under high load. Sun Tour 'perfect' freewheels (anyone remember them?) used to do this in the 80's before they disintegrated! I have a good friend who has all the wheel building gear and has correctly re-tensioned the spokes on both front and back. As for the clunking freewheel that can hopefully be swapped by the shop I bought it from-as it is not a proper bike shop I wouldn't trust them with sorting the the soggy wheel TBH..

gabriel959

That is a nice starter bike, a kid in the club has one and he is quite fast. It isn't about the bike!

If I was to upgrade something it would be the wheels though, even after the retensioning

velogee

Nice pic

harrydaisy

Advised my brother to buy one of these, he got a virtually new one off the bay for 260 quid. It's in white and looks great, fantastic first road bike...

poggit

That sounds like a great deal! The white colour scheme makes it a 2011 model;the 2012 one is only available in the red/black livery. They've tweaked the frame slightly to loose a little weight on this years model .
I got mine on the bike to work deal-£ 500. Raleigh have been trying hard to get back into making quality road bikes but have their work cut out competing with the likes of Specialized, Cannondale et al in what has become a very marque conscious market.
Personally I'm proud to own what is one of the last UK Raleighs. I just hope the new owners respect the heritage and build on the road focus efforts of guys at Raliegh these last few years.

poggit

gabriel959 wrote:

That is a nice starter bike, a kid in the club has one and he is quite fast. It isn't about the bike!

If I was to upgrade something it would be the wheels though, even after the retensioning

Thanks for the input Gabriel. The old Dawes is sorely in need of some new wheels so it might be an idea to follow your advice and upgrade the hoops on the Raleigh. Im a bit out of touch with modern kit; I'd apprecaite what you, and indeed others on this forum, would recomend as a value for money wheel upgrade?

rolf_f

poggit wrote:

Personally I'm proud to own what is one of the last UK Raleighs. I just hope the new owners respect the heritage and build on the road focus efforts of guys at Raliegh these last few years.

I like it but the last UK Raleighs were made almost 20 years ago

Maybe the new ownership will see some of the nice bikes Raleighs American side has been producing in recent years like the new Record Aces become available here.

Incidentally, where did you take the pic?

poggit

The lettering under the down tube states 'Designed in Nottingham England' which seems to imply that Raliegh UK now consist of a few offices. But at least it was a UK company based operation-looks like that will end soon.
The pic was taken near my home on the summit of the Waddinton/Newton road - one of the many excellent hill climbs on the flanks of the Ribble Valley in Lancashire.

Ron Stuart

Check this out... http://www.jejamescycles.co.uk/raleigh- ... 64270.html

poggit

Excellent price-but again they are selling off the 2011 frame models. The bike to work scheme I'm in stipulates that you have to buy the bike at full rrp-not sure why -so it denies you access theses bargain deals .