After taking the bike apart and rebuilding it, I've been using this 1988 Raleigh Gemini as a winter bike, riding it 2-3 times a week on 30-80 miles rides, it works well. Originally, it was a hybrid like this one below.
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I seem to have joined the 531 club myself. Stuck a cheeky low bid on a Gemini 18 in the last few minutes of the auction. No-one else bid at all, so with a few pennies change left over from £20 I've now got a filthy dusty example in an unusual 22 1/2" frame size (I'd prefer 23 1/2" but beggars can't be choosers!) that looks original right down to the Michelin World Tour 35mm front tyre. I can't be arsed with hand cleaning badly soiled bikes so it's still in the back of my motor and I'm just off to use the wash facilities at work to get the couple of decades worth of storage filth off it so I can see it properly and touch it without getting black hands. The Raleigh catalogue blurb suggests the Gemini was built using the main tubes from a Reynolds 531ST tube set, as it has "touring" geometry. It feels impressively light in weight, can pick it up with one finger, maybe even a pound or so less than my 501 framed Pioneer. The seller also had a 23" Halfords Apollo that no-one had bid on, and when I lifted that up to compare it's weight to the Gemini, it felt like a tank. It certainly wasn't a one-finger lift!
they're a good, inexpensive bike, I use my Raleigh Gemini every week in winter, my rides are all over 60 miles. It's basically a Raleigh touring frame without the drop handle bars and down tube shifters.You can change the complete Uniglide hub body/cassette to a modern Hyper glide hub body/cassette without any issues.
The 'Pioneer' just had a longer model/name run than the Gemini, there are a lot of different specs over the years for the Pioneer.It was very inexpensive to me in 2018, but I'd imagine it had at least a £200 price tag new back in 1988 or so, given the frame material and decent quality component set. These actually seem to be quite rare bikes -. do an eBay search on the Pioneer and you'll get 60-70 listings but search for the Gemini and you'll come up with either zero or maybe 1 listing! Big difference in secondhand numbers!!. Are you saying yours has a freehub/cassette arrangement rather than a conventional freewheel? I haven't looked that closely, but the gears seem in good condition with minimal wear so I won't be needing to replace anything yet.
Are you saying yours has a freehub/cassette arrangement rather than a conventional freewheel? I haven't looked that closely, but the gears seem in good condition with minimal wear so I won't be needing to replace anything yet.
The Gemini with 531 would have been a bit more expensive too even if it's standard thickness tubing i.e. not butted it is a more prestigious tubeset.Guy, thanks for the helpful info regarding the gears, I've certainly learned something I wasn't aware of. Funny thing is, I don't even regard a 1980's bike as "old" and I'm surprised there would be any spares availability issues with things like the rear cluster. I assumed pretty much all 6 speed clusters are the same and therefore readily available as replacements.
Biggs682, although I've not done much mileage on my Gemini, I can understand why the old boy liked his one so much. It seems to be a nice comfortable, docile ride and doesn't try to suddenly change course or throw you off every time you go over a bit of rough surface. I've had a ride on borrowed bikes in the past with pretty racy geometry that I just found way too twitchy and unpredictable, because you had to really concentrate on anticipating what the bike would do over every bump and change in road surface in order not to get caught out. That to me is just hard work and not my idea of fun cycling!.
Raleighnut, I became aware of the wide range of specs on the Pioneer range when I got mine and discovered that by pure chance, I had acquired a really nice Trail model with a 501 frame. Even allowing for the longer production run, the Gemini seems a much, much rarer bike, as there are loads of Pioneers about but there aren't loads of Geminis. I suspect the frame geometry is also very slightly different from the Pioneer, as to me, the two bikes do ride a bit differently although outwardly being very similar. Both nice rides but I'd say the Gemini is perhaps a bit more relaxed. It certainly feels a little lighter due to being 531.
raleighnut said:The Gemini with 531 would have been a bit more expensive too even if it's standard thickness tubing i.e. not butted it is a more prestigious tubeset.
The Gemini with 531 would have been a bit more expensive too even if it's standard thickness tubing i.e. not butted it is a more prestigious tubeset.