Raleigh Mirage - Sold :(

gt-arrowhead

Thanks!

Yeah i was thinking that back when i was putting it together for the first time. It will probably be hard to get one though, since they may have different ways of attaching to the frame. Mine has two small holes that i assume you push the badge onto and it clicks in.

Saying that, my first ever bike was a Raleigh, and thats still sitting in the back of the garden. It has a metal badge on it. Not too sure it would fit on here. But i might give it a try. If not then its nothing really wasted.

rockmonkeysc

There's loads on ebay. Just glue one on.

gt-arrowhead

With my dedicated offroad ride currently out of action, and having not ridden offroad for a month, ive decided to use my Raleigh to get some XC miles in.

I gave it a good service last week, adding new grease to the hub bearings. Totally overkill Loctite 8102 grease. Very thick, melted cheese like consistency, designed to withstand high loads and temperatures of up to 200 degrees C.

Also made the brakes extremely powerful with very little lever movement. Reason being is that i am expecting that very short lever travel to quickly get longer when i start wading through all the mud. So i have tried to adjust to compensate for this.

Changed the "H" screw on the front mech as mine was getting rounded, and made sure that i can get nice reliable shifting when on the smallest cog on the front. After half an hour of adjustments, i have made sure that it shifts nice and clean and with no rubbing.

I cracked my seat post from behind with a football of all things. The bike was laying down behind the goal, and i took a shot from a bit wide, and it hit the saddle from below and cracked the seatpost. This seat post is a two piece type one, so it was loose due to the crack. Had to drill a hole through, add a stainless steel bolt + nut and trim the excess off the bolt with a hack saw. Did the trick!

I have taken the plasitc Wellgo pedals off and put on the pinned Wellgo ones that were off the cranks of my Arrowhead.

Swapped the seat for my red Charge Spoon of the Chucker so i dont crack my pelvis during riding XC.


The bodge

Also wrapped my lid, the before and after:

gt-arrowhead

Messy pictures tomorrow and my verdict on how i get on with it tomorrow after its maiden ride.

buddy_club

Just wrapped the fender bender on mine with the exact same stuff, looks fantastic, I would love to do my helmet but it's quite angular so woul be hard to get all the bends. Maybe I'll do it iffy next helmet is a bit rounder lol.

gt-arrowhead

Well its had a rather large change in the colours department for sure. The old red paint job was chipped in places and i was getting bored of it, and i was just bored in general so i wanted something to do, so i gave it a new paint job. Went for a gloss white finish as that's what was in the shed.

This is probably the best paint job ive done finish wise. I sprayed alot closer this time, and that makes the paint alot more glossy. I think on previous occasions i was spraying from far away, so the finish was a bit more rough and not as shiny.

Once i finished the paint job and put it all back together it looked amazing. Looked really "clean". I then put a Mobil 1 decal on either side of the downtube which i think made it look better. Looked simple, but not plain. I didnt get a picture of what it looked like with the old saddle and black Michelin tyres unfortunately.

I had a fair bit of money from doing some work in the summer, so i decided to get it a new set of Curio UK full red tyres and grips. There was nothing wrong with the tyres. I just wanted to get a red pair

They were cheap as chips anyway, and are puncture proof whereas the Michelins werent. I desperately needed new grips, as i literally wore mine all the way through the plastic of the grips. On both sides I ended up getting sent the wrong colour though... :roll: I ordered red with black rings, and i got black with red rings. Not a problem really, as im just going to switch with the Chucker, as that has red grips.



I also got some Halo hex bolt skewers, in red anodizing ofcourse. Dont know if i should put them on here or on the Chucker though. And finally i did a switch with my Chucker for the saddle, as the red will go nicely with the grips pedals and tyres. A black Charge Spoon for the Chucker is needed for the Chucker i think!


I havent really put the new tyres through their paces yet. But initial thoughts after a gently ride in wet weather is that they dont feel as good as the michelins for some reason. I may have to play with the tyre pressures, im running them quite high at the moment (to get rid of the bumps you get from how they are when you get them through the post) But then again this bike isnt really a "performance" bike. Its more of an A to B bike. But having the confidence to do Marc Marquez-MOTO GP-esque leans into corners as i did with the Michelins is obviously good

I dont think it looks all too bad. But im sure most people will disagree. Manage to turn a great deal of heads when going for a short ride with it 8)

pesky_jones

Nice Gt where you been hiding

CitizenLee

I was thinking girlfriend or recreational drug use... the two usual things that part teenagers from their hobbies

Good to see you back, and the bike is looking great!

pesky_jones

Or being the operative word. Ive had to cut out the recreationals since ive aquired a girlfriend. Sad times

gt-arrowhead

Pesky Jones wrote:

Nice Gt where you been hiding

Cheers, just been using the computer alot less recently, so less Bikeradar.

CitizenLee wrote:

I was thinking girlfriend or recreational drug use... the two usual things that part teenagers from their hobbies

Good to see you back, and the bike is looking great!

Neither of those Thanks

Still doing my hobby, as you can tell from the bike

twonks

Looking good. I had the Raleigh Montage as my first real MTB when it was released.

Well, I had two as the first one got stolen.

Is your front brake pad still set up as below, as you seem to have it towing in the wrong way?

It should toe in at the front so the movement of the wheel pulls the pad against the rim when moving. (If it needs to be)

gt-arrowhead

Cheers.

Yeah thats how its supposed to be, toe in at the front, but ive set the toe in reverse on several occasions and it works really well. I get a good lever feeling and a strong front brake. I dont know why. The first time i did it was by accident, when i was trying to steady the pad as i was tightening it up. It worked, so i did the same every time I dont know what sort of toe im using at the moment, ill check tomorrow.

gt-arrowhead

Well i managed to bend my rear wheel while playing football. Had the bike leant against the edge of the cage/pitch. No where near the goal, and the ball dropped quite nicely for me to have a right wallop of a volley. It went completely wide at quite some speed and hit my rear wheel. I later found it was bent when i felt a dodgey feeling from my rear brake on the way home. (My cyclist thighs give me quite a powerful shot obviously 8) )

My dad sorted that out as i dont know how to. One of the only things i cant do yet

I had a loose bearing in the hub, i could hear it bouncing in the middle of the hub, so i removed the axle and put the bearing back where it belongs and put the axle back on. And i seriously cannot understand why, but the spacing on the axle is not how it was before. It doesnt sit tight in the frame anymore. Im sure i put all the spacers back on the axle. I looked allover the garden and i didnt find any stray spacers that i missed out. Completely baffled!! Anyway, i had to add some huge spacers as you can tell from the picture. Look quite retarded but none the less... its a nice fit now. Have to push the frame apart a tiny bit which is how it was before. So thats all good. But i am going to change the bearings completely now though as mine are a bit worse for wear now i think. I havent looked at them yet, but when adjusting the bearings its either loose and spinning nicely or a rough feeling spin with no wobble. Could not get it spot on for the life of me. I think i am going to try some brand new bearings which i found in my shed.



Changed the grips also. Look at the bloody state of those old ones! :shock:

gt-arrowhead

Two pretty good changes made to this now.

I literally never ever use anything up front other than the 52t, and the chain line has always been mental on this, so some times a big bump can get the chain to drop onto the 2nd sprocket. Can be dangerous sometimes, as you end up pedalling like crazy all of a sudden and start to go left and right. Not good when you are on the road.

So i reserved myself a 68 x 113 Shimano BB from Halfords. Picked it up today and fitted it. The old BB is actually excellent. It was literally faultless. Just wanted to run a better chainline as i only use the largest ring. I have never taken the bottom bracket off this bike, and i was surprised to find one of these bad boys in there. Its been excellent. Bit of a cnut to remove though. The grease and bearings were still in prestine condition. It hasnt been maintained in literally 10 years, by the very least.



The rear wheel was just getting ridiculous. The vibrations coming from the hub were just really annoying. And a bearing got into the middle of the hub again and i could constantly hear it bouncing around. The vibrations were so violent, that im sure the QR would have completely loosened itself after not much more riding. I found a load of bearings in my shed in a small box, and among them were caged bearings that were mint. So it was about time i changed bearings.

I was properly shocked at the state of the bearings when i took them out and wiped the grease off them. Only 3-4 of the bearings were still in good condition. The others had flat spots on them, and a few of them literally looked like boulders!!! That explains why i couldnt adjust my bearings properly. As soon as the bearing race would touch the bearings, the bearings wont spin.

Here are the three worst bearings. Look at the state of them. Haha!
The other ones werent far off being this bad.



The non drive side bearing race (if thats the proper term) was quite badly corroded too. Had loads of dimples on it and stuff. So i found a donor axle, and i took one of the races off that one.


I sorted out the spacing for the non drive side and got it all locked up, then i gave the hub a proper nice cleaning with some WD and a rag. Got rid of all the old grease. Then i packed it full with some quality Loctite grease and i put in these bearings. The old bearings were just put in there and thats it. These ones are cages, so they are better.



I then put the rest of the axle back together, without those stupid huge spacers from the post above. I then ran some Castrol engine oil into the freewheel through the seal, and its spinning a bit nicer now.

The test ride was very good. Really chuffed with the rear wheel bearings now. They are perfect, and the bike feels a million times better without the horrible vibrations.

The new BB is good too. I adjust the mech to be a sort of chainguide over the 52t. The chain wants to jump down when i go to the biggest ring. Not a problem, as i never use it. And if i want to use it on a big hill or something , i can just make a few turns on the barrell adjustment and it wont jump off anymore. Then wind back in, as it rubs a bit on the other gears.

gt-arrowhead

Just sold this for £50. Its been in my house for well over 10 years, and ive had ALOT of miles on it and spent many hours building and maintaining it , so it is quite sad to see it go.

I dont have time to ride properly anymore, and i commute by bus now (too far to cycle) so it was time for it to go unfortunately.

Glad i repaired all that time ago rather than selling it/throwing it away. Turned out to be a really great bike!

rockmonkeysc

Someone actually paid money for it???

gt-arrowhead

Its not that bad, it looks great and its quick

rockmonkeysc

It is that bad.