Swap news!

Got a message from Harry that I swapped the MTB wheel with for the frame, He's done a seriously impressive job with it.

Hi,

nice to see someting happening with the old Raleigh. Funnily enough I have a Raleigh 20 frame and forks that also came from the Dublin factory. I'm hanging on to them in the hope of getting enough money to make a nice fixed 20!

I've laced up the rim to my disc hub and fitted it to the bike. This one's my winter commuter (I'm working on it whilst using my Elswick as my "summer" bike). The chainline is 54mm so I had to make a nylon spacer to fit between the disc mounts and the cog. I took an 18t cog out of an old Shimano cluster and drilled 6 holes in it. I'm quite pleased with the outcome but think I'll invest in a proper bolt-on cog as it's ever so slightly off-centre. I think I'll probably fit a 19t cog so I can cope with heavy winter head winds.

Good luck with finishing the Raleigh,

Regards,

Harry

I have been doing a bit of detective work about the bike itself the frame was built in the Dublin. You can see the badge is different, It doesent have the more usual "made in nottingham" but instead has two stripes.

I found this picture of an irish built raleigh record from 1972ish. Same colour and looks very like the original frame.

Apparently the Dublin factory in hanover quay burnt down in 1976 and whilst another factory was built it really amounted to a distribution centre more than a factory, in effect production ceasing with the fire.

The serial gives the date of manufacture as either 1979 or 1969, Im starting to drift towards 1969 as raleigh ceased to used cottered cranks in england in 1977 which my bike has the fire in 1976 also factors in.

I also found a place that will sandblast and powdercoat frames at a good price, I wont be stripping a frame in a hurry again lol