1980's Raleigh 531 bikes

tagnut69

Dirt Disciple
Hi I am thinking up my next project and have settled on a Raleigh with a 531 frame from the 80's. My google-fu has let me down and cant find catalogues but if I remember correctly there was the Avanti, Ozark and Maverick, essentially the same frame just different paint and components
 
Maverick was a bit of a low end/ ultra high end mid 80's model. There was a very nasty cheap version, a mid range model and a rare SBDU version

The Ozark and the Avanti were a few years later and probably the better ride. There was the Thunder Road in there somewhere too

...and the Moonshine!
 
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I had a Raleigh Chinook in 1988 - was purple / white two tone

Had a 531 sticker although not sure whether it was 531 throughout tbh

Shimano U brake underneath that was effective as hell but clogged up with mud - I think the drivetrain and brakes were exage but it was a long time ago, Araya grey rims

Once the awful tyres off it and some ground controls it it looked a lot better!
 
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I had the 'cheap and nasty' maroon coloured Maverick, 1986 approx. My first MTB, or ATB as I think Raleigh called them. Weighed a ton, but introduced me to mountain biking, and plenty of good memories .

I recall having a mountain bike magazine, can't remember which one, but it was a review of the Avanti, 531 frame and Deore components, U Brake, I think. Daley Thompson was the celeb tester as far as I remember. Would love to have a read of the article again if anyone has a scan copy.
 
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I have to say I loved mine. Wobbly chainrings - it got a lot of use.

Then I got a 1990 fisher Al-1 second hand in 91 which I am still riding.

This lockdown has got me looking for some of those dream bikes I couldnt afford. I am a bit worried I am starting to look too closely at Klein Attitudes and trying to imagine telling my wife I have acquired one.........
 
tagnut69":m1577p0f said:
Hi I am thinking up my next project and have settled on a Raleigh with a 531 frame from the 80's. My google-fu has let me down and cant find catalogues but if I remember correctly there was the Avanti, Ozark and Maverick, essentially the same frame just different paint and components
If your google-fu had thought to look in the Archive & Gallery section on here you might have had more luck.

http://www.retrobike.co.uk/gallery2/v/M ... 9.pdf.html
 
This was tidy ridin' iron

file.php
 
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jwh12":2glrwlgx said:
This lockdown has got me looking for some of those dream bikes I couldnt afford. I am a bit worried I am starting to look too closely at Klein Attitudes and trying to imagine telling my wife I have acquired one.........

I did that few years ago and bought 1990's PACE RC200's my poster on the wall bike... turns out it was possibly the nastiest bike I've ever ridden...I was pretty disillusioned wished i'd just kept it hanging on the wall.

After getting a 1990 Raleigh Marauder for christmas and coming in the top ten at a race in Yorkshire Sherwood pines i think. a year later my parents saved up and got me a Kona fire mountain..still to day racing 4k plastic bikes nothing pleases me more than riding on the 1991-1993 konas they hit the nail on the head with steel
 
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I started with off with a scaffold pole at23-framed burgundy Maverick. Then bought a Montage after the Maverick got nicked. Then decided my paper round money could stretch to something a more upmarket...

I got a Thunder Road, not the green and black one, the first one (a 90 model?), which had been reduced by about £100, because Fosters in Rotherham couldn't shift them. I think it was mostly white, with black, yellow and red bits. At 23" it was far too big for me at only 5'4. I had it for about 4 months and sold it on to get something smaller, much smaller. I thought it was really cool as did most of the other local kids, a couple of whom followed me home to try and lo-ball me out of it.

This was when Raleigh fell a bit behind and were still making mountain bikes with frames in racer sizes. It was the last Raleigh I bought until the Mtrax 500 frame last year.
 
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My first proper mountain bike was a Raleigh cajun. 531 frame and forks, exage mountain groupset. Lovely paint job, white to turquoise to dark blue. Only ever seen one other, sold on Ebay quite recently.

If I ever did feel the urge to do a full retro bike for nostalgia, I'd probably go for that but I have my dream poster bike, a gt team RTS, though that's far from catalogue, only frame and shock are original, but I did buy it as a nos frame and have built it up in various guises but never original.
 
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