1940's Raleigh with 531 tubing?? What would that be?

[tee-one]

Rode to my grandads this morning on my claud butler, And while he was looking he noticed the 501 Tubing sticker. And told me about his old bike.

He remembers it being late 1940's that he was given money by his grandad to buy his first real bike. It cost him £25 then, Was a raleigh with 3 speed, But had 531 tubing and dropped bars. He bought it new and remembers it vividly having a grey saddle bag too.

He later converted it to a different gear set up that had levers in the ends of the handlebars? ???? (any ideas on this too?)

Trying to gather some information on it. As im sorta thinking if its do-able i might make it my next project to replicate it.


Any ideas guys?

Dont wanna keep asking him about it, As he knows what im like with bikes, and would know what im up to

 

[legrandefromage]

Might be early Campagnolo bar end shifters, and my neighbour still has his Dad's 1939 Dawes with 531.

 

[tee-one]

Not sure, Dont think it was campag. He did say but i stupidly forgot while sorting their laptop out. Its one of those names that id remember if my memory was jogged....

As for thr 531. anyone got any ideas what sorta stuff raleigh were offering in say 48? As thats the year he thinks he bought it. And hes usually realy good with dates. He can remember the exact dates things happened in korea when he was out there....

 

[tee-one]

Just been googling and found that a 1948 raleigh record ace (rra) would have had 531 and the option of SS or sturmey archer 3 speed. It cost £39 which was a bit more than he paid. But im wondering about the possibility of a slightly lesser model?

 

[playford]

http://www.sheldonbrown.com/retroraleig ... ohler.html

clubman?

 

[desmondo]

The bar ends would of most likely of been these

 

[tee-one]

Just looked on that site above... Looked thru the list of names. He said they were benelux iirc

Edit.. Just looked at the cyclo one you had shown. Which is benelux too. Cheers

 

[spark303]

I think the only bikes with 531 frames that Raleigh made in the late 40's were the Record Ace, the Clubman and the Lenton.

 

[tee-one]

I think its more likely to have been a clubman at a guess. The record ace was more money than £25 at the time... And im pretty sure id have remembered lenton....

The reason i dont remember the name is possibly because its clubman? Just very common name and not something you feel the need to remember...

 

[spark303]

I'm building up a 1948 Lenton Clubman (as it was called in 1948 - after which it was just called the Raleigh Clubman) at the moment. The Clubman was a slightly more upmarket version of the regular Lenton. There wasn't a great deal of difference between them though. Both nice bikes but notthing special.

The RRA was in a different league...