Noob with a Pioneer Trail

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Ruraldean

Regular
Hi. Joined yesterday after a couple of days lurking. Lovely place. I'm Paul, a fit 65 year-old, married, kids, grandkids. I recently decided to dig out my Raleigh Pioneer Trail from the mid 90s, clean it up and see whether I could still stay upright on a bike.
It's been in a clean, dry environment and was mainly just dusty, so no great effort tbh.
I did 10km on day one, and I've been trying to do the same every couple of days. So far, no problems to report.
After a couple of weeks Idecided to research my bike to see if it still held some ground in the world of lightweight, modern bikes. It was that research that brought me here and I was impressed with the equality of the posts, and mainly the people.
For the record my bike is a 21 speed Trail with mudguards and a 21" 501 double butted frame. My research. led me to conclude that as I'm not going to be time trialling or uphill racing this appears to be a decent, if retro choice of bike, and I confess to loving it. As it suits me so well I've decided to spend some money and attention to preserving this old friend, rather than deserting it for some modern floosie.
That's me, and my old but immaculate bike.
 

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Cycleops

Legendary Member
Location
Accra, Ghana
Hello and :welcome: to the forum.

Thats a very nice bike and in great original condition. I don’t believe I’ve ever seen the ‘Trail’ version before, so maybe something of a rarity. The Thr Pioneer gets a lot of love on here as it’s a versatile do it all bike of some quality. I even see a lot of them down here still goi strong.

Good luck building up the miles and enjoy.
 

fossyant

Ride It Like You Stole It!
Location
South Manchester
Great condition. I have similar STI gears on my old MTB. Given how you have it set up, with tyres with knobbles, it will do fine on road and tracks/canal, so ideal for go anywhere. You've got plenty of room to fit mudguards should you fancy it (you might if you want to ride over winter).
 
Location
London
Welcome ruraldean - you'll find @SkipdiverJohn on here knows most things there is to know about Pioneers I think.
Good call to stick with your old love and give it some care if you like it.
Can't see that you'll have any great problems keeping it running with help on here.
edit -I see that skipdiver liked your post so he's already on your case.
 

SkipdiverJohn

Deplorable Brexiteer
Location
London
Keep hold of it, they are really good bikes, and of course sadly no longer made.
I have an 18-speed model from 1995 (yours is probably around '92) and overall it's still my favourite bike despite me having a shedful of machines to choose from.
They are definitely more versatile if fitted with mudguards and rack though, and they roll easier if more road-oriented touring/commuting type tyres are fitted.
The fact that the Pioneer has been around for 30 years now, and a large number of the earlier multi-coloured ones are still in existence tends to prove that they were well built and useful machines, and in my book are better bikes than any modern alloy framed hybrids.
 
OP
OP
Ruraldean

Ruraldean

Regular
Great condition. I have similar STI gears on my old MTB. Given how you have it set up, with tyres with knobbles, it will do fine on road and tracks/canal, so ideal for go anywhere. You've got plenty of room to fit mudguards should you fancy it (you might if you want to ride over winter).
Thanks. I have the mudguards and will be fitting them today! You may notice that the bike has replacement front forks. This is because it is difficult to do jumps when you're 45 and 16 stone, as I was...
 
OP
OP
Ruraldean

Ruraldean

Regular
Keep hold of it, they are really good bikes, and of course sadly no longer made.
I have an 18-speed model from 1995 (yours is probably around '92) and overall it's still my favourite bike despite me having a shedful of machines to choose from.
They are definitely more versatile if fitted with mudguards and rack though, and they roll easier if more road-oriented touring/commuting type tyres are fitted.
The fact that the Pioneer has been around for 30 years now, and a large number of the earlier multi-coloured ones are still in existence tends to prove that they were well built and useful machines, and in my book are better bikes than any modern alloy framed hybrids.
Nice to hear from an aficionado. Yes, it's a great bike and I've not seen a sufficient reason to change it for another. I'll improve it as I go.
 

SkipdiverJohn

Deplorable Brexiteer
Location
London
This is the later version of the Trail, the very last of the lugged Reynolds 501 frames, with mirror red paint. The bars were swapped on from an old scrap 3-speed, as they are more comfortable on long rides than the original flat MTB bars. Apart from that, mine is as it left the factory. I've done daily distances of up to 40 miles on mine. It's not fast, but it does the job very well.
551926
 
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