Raleigh Mirage - Sold :(

gt-arrowhead

So i got bored just sitting at home, and im getting some extra money from selling stuff and fixing my mates bikes. So i decided id invest in a can of paint and rebuild my Raleigh Mirage.

This was actually my first 26 inch bike. And i actually loved it. Looked after it for over a year before i moved on to another bike. Then this got lobbed in the corner of the garden and it was sort of forgotten about. A couple months later i started riding it again after my other bike got nicked, and i converted the old style pull brakes to V brakes. First ever time i did a full change of brakes to a bike.

Anyway, this is what it looked like before i started the build:


Stripped:




This was a somewhat poorly planned build because i just jumped straight into doing it. I didnt even have a clue what colour i was going to spray it until i got to the shop!

After not too much thought i bought a can of what looked to be "chrome effect" paint. I knew it wasnt going to have the exact same effect as chrome, but when i got home and tried it the outcome was completely different to the colour demonstrated on the cap. Yes i know its not always going to be the same, but bloody hell...



Sprayed one tube to get an idea of what it might look like


I was actually going to carry on with this colour but when i got around to spraying the fork with lacquer it went all retarded! The paint itself was completely dry. I have no clue why it ended up looking like this...



Was properly pissed off. had to strip the fork down again! The one tube on the frame was alot easier as i only sprayed one very thin coat.

I bought "Ignition Red" instead, and this was the outcome. At first i was like "noooo i dont like it! " But i soon changed my mind.



This is it finished now, really really happy with it. Stayed up until 10 putting it back together last night. I managed to get the front brake on and i couldnt be bothered to do the rest that night so i went out on it with just the front brake and no gear cables to select gears It rides like a dream, really comfortable. This will be the bike i ride to school next year i think!






And my fave

pesky_jones

Your bike is.... nice! Were you a bit worried there? Nice job, if I were to ever venture over to the other side I'd ride an old retro raleigh I reckon.

*AJ*

Should have done the fork red too!

Looks tidy though! is the GT still complete?

gt-arrowhead

Pesky Jones wrote:

Your bike is.... nice! Were you a bit worried there? Nice job, if I were to ever venture over to the other side I'd ride an old retro raleigh I reckon.

Thanks! I havent converted to the other side though, i just need something for the road aswell as off road. I had enough of swapping tyres around and stuff, so i built this purposely for commuting.

*AJ* wrote:

Should have done the fork red too!

I would have done but i ran out of red, and i didnt think it was worth paying £8 for another can just for the fork. So i went for the white To be honest i think i might have prefered the white anyway

*AJ* wrote:

Looks tidy though! is the GT still complete?

Im going to put it back together tomorrow. I cant decide weather the Raleigh or the GT should have the rims (the ones in the pictures). They look great on both bikes. I have another pair of rims but they dont look half as nice as these ones. Didnt put it back together today because ive done enough bike work already. Need a bit of a rest! Plus it gives me something to do tomorrow GT will be much more offroady. Ive got some fresh Maxxis rubber to go on too.

keh87

Looks good! what tyres are they? I'm new to biking haven't got a clue just bought a Marin palisade off a colleague (1991 model I think) and want to convert it to a road bike best I can? Any advice on a decent set of road mtb tyres. (Newbie question)

gt-arrowhead

Cheers. They are Michelin Wild Run`rs (1.4) I recommend them. They are quick and very light. Havent got a single puncture on them in about 4 months now either. They cost something like £11 each on Amazon IIRC.

gt-arrowhead

The bike was unrideable with the original chain, it kept jumping on the cassette. I had to ride in 5th gear as that was the only one that didnt jump for some reason. I took the chain from another bike and now it is perfect.

The only thing is that i fitted the brakes the wrong way round. Im used to having my front brake on the left. I cant ride it properly with the current setup. I got lucky today. Squeezed what i thought was the rear brake on the damp grass and my front locked up causing the front to sort of fall over to one side, luckily i just jupmed off. Need to get that sorted.

More of a clear picture:

Kowalski675

Stayed up until 10 putting it back together last night

"Stayed up" until 10? What time do you go to bed normally, lol?

gt-arrowhead

I meant as in i worked into the night to try and get it done. I go to bed later than that, im making the most of my holiday!

Kowalski675

That's not working into the night, lol - I did loads of twelve hour days building that silver Bandit, and have often worked well into the early hours of the morning in the garage when rebuilding my bikes. I was just as bad when i was a kid and raced RC cars - I remember working all through the night one time to get my car rebuilt for a club championship meeting, finishing just in time to set off for Scarborough, then falling asleep in teh car and missing my first race, lol. Once spent a full day and then all through the night until next morning masking and airbrushing an RC car bodyshell too. When I'd finished I washed the overspray off my hands with thinners (not healthy, I know, but then neither's breathing paint fumes in a garage all night, lol). At that point I realised my right fingers were covered in tiny cuts from holding teh scalpel blade cutting the masking design - it stung, lol.

felix.london

Awesome! Good job. I like the white fork. I'd ride that 'round town happily

Kowalski675

felix.london wrote:

Awesome! Good job. I like the white fork. I'd ride that 'round town happily

Ok, who's hacked Arrowhead's account (and toolbox, lol)?...

rgliniany

GT-Arrowhead wrote:

I meant as in i worked into the night to try and get it done. I go to my room later than that,then stay up to 5am watching babestation and the 900 channels on sky im making the most of my holiday!

FTFY

gt-arrowhead

felix.london wrote:

Awesome! Good job. I like the white fork. I'd ride that 'round town happily

Cheers

rgliniany, epic fail. I dont have sky. And babestation isnt much good.

holiver

Looking pretty cool for a commute type bike. Get some SPDs on it and it will be perfect!

gt-arrowhead

Thanks. The pedals are rubbish, they are the stock ones. Wont get SPDs. Dont like them and would be really inconvenient for my purposes.

mcnultycop

I like that.

Kowalski675

GT-Arrowhead wrote:

Wont get SPDs. Dont like them and would be really inconvenient for my purposes.

Your mum likes being clipped into restraints, but that's different...

tarbot18

Nice ride arrowhead i think the forks look good in white id leave them as is .

rgliniany

GT-Arrowhead wrote:

felix.london wrote:

Awesome! Good job. I like the white fork. I'd ride that 'round town happily

Cheers

rgliniany, epic fail. I dont have sky. And babestation isnt much good.

bugger....... been away too long .............. :roll:

The Rookie

You don't mention changing the forks yet they have morphed from threaded to ahead......

Twelly

The Beginner wrote:

You don't mention changing the forks yet they have morphed from threaded to ahead......

There is also no top cap above the stem... I sense some bodgery going on here...

*AJ*

Still looks like a threaded headset to me!

I sense one of those quill to ahead adapter stub things!

gt-arrowhead

The Beginner wrote:

You don't mention changing the forks yet they have morphed from threaded to ahead......

The reason why i didnt mention the fork changing is because it didnt...lol.

TwellySmat wrote:

There is also no top cap above the stem... I sense some bodgery going on here...

No bodging here whatsoever. I wouldnt be able to bodge it anyway, threaded forks dont extended past the headset. Well not on any that ive seen anyway.

AJ is spot on. Im using the original Tioga threaded headset and ive got one of those adaptors. They are a great IMO. You get a spacer for fitting it to 1 inch and 1 1/8 inch headsets. Quillls look much more ugly in comparison to aheadsets. Plus i wanted to use this bar + stem combo.

This is the one off my GT, got the exact same one installed in the Raleigh.


Proof of no bodging, and that there is an adaptor...

gt-arrowhead

Nothing too intersting. A new wheelset locally from eBay. I was missing a set since ive got a new build going, picked up these with a pair of tubes and tyres (not these tyres). Still loving this bike.

WillBrett

Hi there, nice job on the revamp looks great.

I was wondering if you have any links to the headset adapter stuff because I have the same raleigh bike and want to change the handle bars but have never messed with a threaded fork bike before.

Cheers

W

gt-arrowhead

Hi, thanks.

I bought this one for i think it was £8 directly from the store. God knows why its £24 now!

http://www.halfords.com/webapp/wcs/stor ... yId_230508

97th choice

Nice work GT, spuds and a single speed conversion would be sweet on that I reckon.

gt-arrowhead

Cheers, looks like i will be going SS on this, since it didnt work out on the old GT as i wanted. Not too sure though yet. This has sliding dropouts so it will work.

gt-arrowhead

I bought a handful of new parts for this, after making a bit of money from selling another bike.

All i wanted to do with the limited funds i had was replace the rear V brake as it wouldnt adjust. I bodged it when i first built the bike and used 2 different arms. It was fine but after i replaced the wheels i needed to readjust and i couldnt, so a new v brake set was needed. I also took the opportunity to get some new pads too.

I also decided that the stem was far too long, so i thought it buy a cheap stem that was shorter, and slap on a pair of old Planet X riser bars that i had. I was intending to make the bike more comfortable, as i felt a bit stretched on the bike when sitting down and riding.

Well, all of the bits arrived at the same time, apart from a pair of grips, so i decided to get cracking on the weekend and swap out the old for the new. I noticed that the outers i had on there were beginning to rust up, so i changed the black outers for a full set of red outers that i had. I sorted of messed up on that bit, i cut the front mech cable, thinking it was the rear brake cable, so the left over red cable wasnt long enough to be a front mech cable, so i kept it black.

Anyway, i put it all together and it felt like a completely different bike. Very very weird feeling. I didnt like it! It just felt like i had no front end grip, and since i had new pads and a very good setup on the brakes, the front just locked really easily. I decided i would give it a trial run on the way to school and back today, and i still wasnt getting used to it, just felt...weird. And i had a massive loss of confidence on braking and fast cornering, especially because the road was a bit damp.





So... the first thing i did when i got home was change back to the 3km long stem with the flat bar and titanium bolts. Now this bike is pretty much exactly as i want it, just wish the stem was a tad shorter, but i wont be replacing it i think. Im really happy with handling of the bike with this stem and bar setup. The braking on it is fantastic aswell.



Next up is a pair of red pinned wellgos, as ive had a few slips on these plastic wellgos. And a new saddle. This saddle is extremely uncomfortable after riding for around 20-30 minutes. I think the people who designed it looked at a brick and said "yes! perfect!" :roll: Red charge spoon is the seat ill be getting. Ive been wanting one for a while.

Well, this is how the bike looks now. Im happy with it!






Excuse the wood in the photos!

rockmonkeysc

Looking good but you really need an original metal Raleigh head tube badge to finish it off.