1976 Raleigh catalogue

Catalogue 1976 Raleigh catalogue

Wow, I didn't realise the grifter was introduced as early as 1976. My brother had a secondhand one in the same metallic blue as one in the scan.
Thanks fo sharing.
 
Great viewing.

Tensor Cycles Warehouse in I think Co.Durham, they'd be cool brochures to view if anyone has them. Kalkhoff, Schauff and other odd brands for the time
 
My first proper road bike in 77 was a second hand Raleigh Europa 5 speed…..from 76..
 
Excellent. Bought back happy memories going to Halfords and dad buying a Arena for me. As some point I got a Sun 'GT' it was black. Perhaps 77? Love some of the sale talk in the catalogue. Didn't we love big frames !! I bet they weren't light. Had ten speed!! So why did it take MTB's to get 10 so long?
 
Great viewing.

Tensor Cycles Warehouse in I think Co.Durham, they'd be cool brochures to view if anyone has them. Kalkhoff, Schauff and other odd brands for the time
I went to buy a Tensor Darlington if I remember right. In there advert it showed a real good bike but the one you got was a load of crap mainly mail order but we went to the warehouse to collect it
It had crazy bottom bracket system at he time and kept failing
 
About 3 months ago I saw a black bike leaning up against a trash dumpster, didn't think much about as I drove by, but then I suddenly got the odd feeling to go back and check it out, so I did. Turned out to be a 77 Raleigh Competition GS, in excellent condition with all the original components, saddle, even the pump, but it was busted up inside, even the chrome wasn't pitted which is more than rare where I live, the only thing wrong with it was the headset was frozen; the weird thing was, whoever owned it put brand new low-end Bontrager RL tires on it? Why pay the money to put tires on it and then discard it without ever using the tires?? the little nubs were still on the tires, that's how I knew they were brand-new tires. Another odd thing, the Brooks B17 looked original, has some hairline cracks in it, but there are no butt bone dimples in it? Like it's never been ridden or not ridden very much.

The bike came with Campy Nuovo Gran Sport derailleurs, which I swapped for Nuovo Record I had setting brand new in boxes since the 70's; took the wheels down to a bike store in town and had them rebuilt with Nuovo Record hubs and DT Comp double butted spokes to lighten the wheels set a tad. Took off the funky bar tape someone put on and bought Brooks leather tape to match the seat better, I'm seriously considering twining it and then shellac the twine and tape; and I want to buy a set of tires with tan sidewalls, haven't decided which ones, but probably Conti Grand Prix Classics. The Nuovo Record derailleurs look a bit nice than the Gran Sport, I think the Nuovo's are either made in 1975 or 76, I don't recall what they said, just that they were a year old.

The long story on why I would have Campy Nuovo Record stuff brand new in boxes since the 70s, I know some of you were scratching your heads on that one. In 1976 I bought a 1976 Trek TX900, back in those days Trek only was sending out frames and forks with no components, so I had Campy Super Record put on it, but the shop had those Nuovo Records on sale, so I bought them, I was single, had money, and no wife to yell at me. I was going to buy another lower-end Trek and put the Nuovo stuff on it, but never bought that other frame, so all these years those components have been following me around. The box they were selling only came with the front and rear derailleur and hubs, nothing else, it was supposed to have a brake set, headset, and crankset, but they had to break the box up to fix a bike earlier that year, so they had the remaining parts for super cheap.

I remember hearing stories that the Nuovo gran sport and the Record did not shift well, and it's true but not as bad as I've heard, but I'm not going to be racing this bike so I don't care one bit about the shift quality. Heck, I remember the Super Record didn't shift all that well either, nothing like Suntour Superbe that's for sure, heck the Record didn't shift as well as Suntour V GT did!
 
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