- Location
- London
Make em jealous, sneer, weep, as is their wont, skipdiver, how much did you get it for?
All the best.
All the best.
Show us your Raleigh?!?
- Thread starter *Dusty*
- Start date
Page may contain affiliate links. Please see terms for details.
SkipdiverJohn
Deplorable Brexiteer
- Location
- London
Bike itself was £15, plus I've also spent a fiver on top sorting it out, so it owes me £20 in total. Not exactly extravagant for a 501 frame with 200GS mechanicals. Gearchange and indexing is silky smooth. 26" steel rigids seem to be out of favour these days, some don't attract a single bid even at a low start price. No-one else bid on mine. I won't own any other type of MTB personally. Simple, bomb-proof, no suspension to wear out, cost peanuts to run.
- Location
- London
Must admit have been wondering whether to get one myself, and have let several go, but probably shouldn't. Already lots of bikes and I already have a 26 inch wheel bike - Ridgeback Expedition.
SkipdiverJohn
Deplorable Brexiteer
- Location
- London
I started messing around with two cheapo hack MTB's that were pulled out of the bin jobs, and although fitted with budget mechanicals they serve a purpose, principally that of being utility transport not worth stealing so can be safely left in high risk locations.
I've since given some more thought to the types of rides I do and the optimum sort of bikes. For decent road surfaces, my Pioneer or Gemini hybrids with 700c wheels are the obvious choice as they go faster for less effort.. However, I sometimes ride on some pretty terrible tarmac which is still unpleasantly jarring on 700c's even with 35mm tyres, plus I like riding gravel/dirt tracks where a 26" will turn that bit easier than a 700c.
Bad potholed tarmac calls for a sturdy wheel with enough air volume in the tyres to be comfortable, but it needs to be easy-rolling and not too draggy. Basically an MTB without the MTB knobbly tyres.
Gravel and dirt needs a sturdy wheel fitted with a tyre that offers decent traction, even if at the expense of some extra drag.
A few months ago, I got, essentially FOC, a slightly scruffy '91 Raleigh 21 speed MTB with 501 frame but in the biggest 23" frame size made, not ideal for off-road in case you come a cropper on the crossbar. I've swapped the MTB knobblys for Delta Cruiser+ and the dragginess has gone, but the comfort of high volume MTB tyres remains. It laughs at potholes.
The Highlander pictured is also a '91, 21 speed, very similar in mechanical spec to the other Raleigh but a smaller 21" frame, so better suited to off road use with knobbly tyres.
Now I suppose I could make do with one MTB frame and just swap wheelsets from road to knobbly as needed, but that means faffing around, and if I can pick up a fully functional bike for £20 then I might as well keep a dedicated one for really bad tarmac and another for messing around off road on loose surfaces. One of the original hacks that I used off road, is getting chucked in the back of my van so it can be used at work.
Obviously if I was one of these people who have to buy shiny new bikes, I'd end up with a shed load of cash tied up and it would be uneconomic to have several dedicated bikes, but when you get them for £20 or less and never spend more than £50 on getting them sorted, you can have one for every type of use you put them to.
Illaveago
Guru
- Location
- Chippenham,Wiltshire.
Sadly this isn't mine, but I thought I would show you this model I spotted at Sammy Miller's Motorcycle Museum in New Milton yesterday. It is a lot different to the Raleigh Runabouts that I can remember seeing in the 60's/70's.
SkipdiverJohn
Deplorable Brexiteer
- Location
- London
Fitted a Cateye 'puter to the Gemini 18 today, as I wanted to log the mileage it does and see how well it goes compared to my Pioneer and Highlander MTB. Road tests today shows that it's actually the fastest of the trio on a straight road and makes marginally better overall time than the Pioneer, which is slightly odd as it has identical gearing and identical Schwalbe tyres inflated to the same pressures - and the riding position is even slightly more upright due to the type of bars fitted. Being Reynolds 531 not 501 like the other two old Raleighs, it is just a little bit lighter, but the difference still cannot be as much as a pound. It went very nicely, and was good for a steady 19 mph on one clear flat section of road, I was pleasantly surprised considering it's got flat bars and isn't exactly "aero"!.
- Location
- London
Nice, but if you don't need to carry a lot of stuff I think I'd maybe change the rack to something like a tubus fly.
BSAMase
Active Member
- Location
- New zealand
Captainwull
Senior Member
- Location
- Scotland
SkipdiverJohn
Deplorable Brexiteer
- Location
- London
If you just want to see eye candy Raleigh bikes, look away now! This one is not for you.... 
I've been threatening for months to upgrade my pub/utility transport from 26" MTB to something a little faster and easier-rolling - but something still not worth a thief nicking, and, because I'm old-fashioned it must be lugged steel and British-made. I already have a Pioneer, but a nice 501 framed one I've posted up previously, so a not-so-nice one would seem to fit the bill this time round......
So I picked up a couple of large cannibalised frames plus a too-small donor in a job lot and set to work. The frame I chose to use was a properly battered early 23 1/2" 18-23 Hi-tensile that would have looked just like this back in 1991:--
Not being a huge fan of early 90's multi-colour Raleigh paint jobs, I lashed a couple of coats of red enamel brushing paint over it, regreased it's bearings, then built it up using the 700c steel wheels, Chinese tyres, canti brakes and gears from the small donor. For simplicity, I'm running it as a six-speed, so I fitted a smaller front triple from a scrap BSO with a 42T large chainring and resized the chain length for that. Wellgo resin MTB pedals came courtesy of another scrapper, as did the front Halfords mudguard. The SKS on the rear came off one of the donor Pioneers but the front one was missing. Saddle & seatpost came off an old MTB wreck I found dumped not that far from Harrods!. Bar & stem are original to the 1991 frame.
Looks a right mongrel, because it truly is, but it's a real Nottingham Raleigh underneath and it rides just how it should - comfortable and predictable. Those very early frames have a BB an inch higher than the later ones, and the standover clearance doesn't give much room for dismounting mishaps! As a means of worry-free utility transport for taking to those dodgy places where a nice one will get stolen or smashed up, it does the job nicely.
I've been threatening for months to upgrade my pub/utility transport from 26" MTB to something a little faster and easier-rolling - but something still not worth a thief nicking, and, because I'm old-fashioned it must be lugged steel and British-made. I already have a Pioneer, but a nice 501 framed one I've posted up previously, so a not-so-nice one would seem to fit the bill this time round......
So I picked up a couple of large cannibalised frames plus a too-small donor in a job lot and set to work. The frame I chose to use was a properly battered early 23 1/2" 18-23 Hi-tensile that would have looked just like this back in 1991:--
Not being a huge fan of early 90's multi-colour Raleigh paint jobs, I lashed a couple of coats of red enamel brushing paint over it, regreased it's bearings, then built it up using the 700c steel wheels, Chinese tyres, canti brakes and gears from the small donor. For simplicity, I'm running it as a six-speed, so I fitted a smaller front triple from a scrap BSO with a 42T large chainring and resized the chain length for that. Wellgo resin MTB pedals came courtesy of another scrapper, as did the front Halfords mudguard. The SKS on the rear came off one of the donor Pioneers but the front one was missing. Saddle & seatpost came off an old MTB wreck I found dumped not that far from Harrods!. Bar & stem are original to the 1991 frame.
Looks a right mongrel, because it truly is, but it's a real Nottingham Raleigh underneath and it rides just how it should - comfortable and predictable. Those very early frames have a BB an inch higher than the later ones, and the standover clearance doesn't give much room for dismounting mishaps! As a means of worry-free utility transport for taking to those dodgy places where a nice one will get stolen or smashed up, it does the job nicely.
Alwaysbroken
Well-Known Member
Frame is in excellent original condition, the heavy chrome plated 26”wheels have been replaced with 700c aluminium rims & stainless spokes on nexus dynamo front hub & nexus 7 speed rear with upside down grip shift to keep bars clutter free.
Original pressed steel clippers replaced.
Schwalbe Delta Cruiser 1.1/2 wide.
Rat traps & champagne cork bar ends next on the list & maybe work on losing some cabling. 50/50 on the chain guard?
May fit a bright chain & chrome or black rack?
Last edited:
raleighnut
Legendary Member
- Location
- One of the 'Elite'
SkipdiverJohn
Deplorable Brexiteer
- Location
- London
What size tyres are they? I run 35mm/ 1 3/8" on all my flat bar 700c and 26" roadster wheels.You're definitely pushing your luck with the clearance. You'd better hope your wheels don't go out of true or you'll be in real trouble!
Alwaysbroken
Well-Known Member
What could possibly go wrong?
I’ve fortunately got a few other bikes, this will be a summer ride along ex rail cycle track to the pub, I’ll be on an old Defy or Trance for anything else.
Last edited:
SkipdiverJohn
Deplorable Brexiteer
- Location
- London
Surprised they're only 35's, they looked bigger than that. I run black reflex (not pimp ones like you ) Delta Cruiser+ 35's on my Raleigh hybrids and there's loads of clearance. I'd be interested to know how the puncture resistance of your non-plus version of the tyre compares to the plus. I got a whole year out of mine without The Fairy visiting, and some of that was gravel & canal towpaths.
) Delta Cruiser+ 35's on my Raleigh hybrids and there's loads of clearance. I'd be interested to know how the puncture resistance of your non-plus version of the tyre compares to the plus. I got a whole year out of mine without The Fairy visiting, and some of that was gravel & canal towpaths.
