1982 Raleigh Record Ace - A Fixed Gear Dirt Tourer

[caemis]

It all began with my 1970s Gazelle Sprinter I found abandoned on the street in December 2020. Despite it was to large for me, I used to ride it quite often during last that year, till a back injury kept my arm numb for months and me basically off any bike activities.

Since, I was drawn to the idea of a fixed gear dirt tourer. Of course the American influence of a certain Ronnie Romance didn't help and neither did the digital archive of the RSF. But the Gazelle was not only to large, its already very low BB prevented any modification like a 650b conversion. So I began to search for a successorr. With a very limited budget due to a sudden unemployment, I couldn't go for any readily avaiable 650b builds I found, but eventually a nice looking and reasonable priced Raleigh Record Ace showed up in my neighborhood ...

Of course the heritage of the RRA with Booty and the other Raleigh riders gave me some inspiration and although the 1980s Aces weren't any longer produced as track bikes, I at least hope that they manufactured my frame in Nottingham with some of its history in mind.

However, the frameset was quickly build and ridden on some shorter trips. It was beginning of July when I took her out to a first longer off road tour.



After this I decided not only to put all other bike projects a side and concentrate soley on the Raleigh, I decided as well it was time for a 650b conversion. Surprisingly frame and fork can handle 42mm tires and a new set of Mafac Raid brakes arrived just a few days ago to kick off the build.



Now its only a fixed gear rear hub I need to find, which is not as easy with 32° spoke holes and 126mm spacing in the rear.

Further plans are a small front rack brazed by a friend and a second set of cage mounts. I ponder over the question of light and if I should get a dynamo hub or just use the classic dynamo...



And I would love to have some idea of what camping gear the Rough Stuff Fellowship riders were using on outings, especially the tents...

Cheers and best wishes from Berlin!

 

[Mickeyspinn]

Interesting! Fixed gear...very committed
Not period correct to your build but I'd personally look at disc brake hubs and see if you could do a bolt on cog set up?

 

[hookooekoo]

Surly used to sell a product called a Fixxer for converting Shimano freehubs to fixed, but they stopped selling them. There is now a similar product made by Walker Brothers, but it is rather expensive. There are plenty of track hubs, but many will not be the right width for a bike that is being converted from multi-geared to fixed. Or, as Mickey suggested, buy a cog that mounts to a six bolt disc hub.

 

[Jamesbike]

View attachment 648347

It all began with my 1970s Gazelle Sprinter I found abandoned at the street in December 2020. Despite it was way to large for me, I used to ride it quite often during last year till a back injury kept my arm numb for months and me basically off any bike activities.

Since I was drawn to the idea of a fixed gear dirt tourer. Of course the American influence of a certain Ronnie Romance didn't help and neither did the digital archive of the RSF. But the Gazelle was not only to large, its already very low BB shell prevented any modification like a 650b conversion. So I began to search for a successorr. With a very limited budget due to certain unemployment I couldn't go for any readily avaiable 650b builds I found, but eventually a nice looking and reasonable priced Raleigh Record Ace showed up in my neighborhood ...

Of course the heritage of the RRA with Booty and the other Raleigh riders gave me some inspiration and although the 1980s Aces weren't any longer produced as track bikes, I at least hope that they manufactured my frame in Nottingham with some of its history in mind.

However, the frameset was quickly build up and ridden on some shorter trips but it was only beginning of July when I took her out to a longer off road tour.

View attachment 648361

After this I decided not only to put all other bike projects a side and concentrate soley on the Raleigh, I decided as well it was time for a 650b conversion. Surprisingly frame and fork can handle 42mm tires and a new set of Mafac Raid brakes arrived just a few days ago to kick off the build.

View attachment 648362

Now its only a fixed gear rear hub I need to find, which is not as easy with 32° spoke holes and 126mm spacing in the rear.

Further plans are a small front rack brazed by a friend and a second set of cage mounts. I ponder over the question of light and if I should get a dynamo hub or just use the classic dynamo...

View attachment 648364

And I would love to have some idea of what camping gear the Rough Stuff Fellowship riders were using on outings, especially the tents...

Cheers and best wishes from Berlin!

Vango force 10!!!

 

[Joe_Rides]

Believe quite a few of the early RSF campers used a lightweight tent called an Itisa

 

[Guinessisgoodforyou]

Cool bike

 

[caemis]

Believe quite a few of the early RSF campers used a lightweight tent called an Itisa

Thanks! The Itisa looks good and according to the classic specs it is reasonable light weight indeed. Hard to find though, but maybe sewing something myself would be an option...

As for the hub recommendatiobd, with 126mm finding a disc hub might be a long search. I wonder what might be less stressing for the frame: a 120mm hub and pressing the rearend together a few mm or using a 130mm wide hub and spread the frame...

Cheers!

 

[RetroDavy]

Very nice frame, bike and concept .

If you get a 120mm oln hub with a solid axle that has at least 6mm 'spare' thread beyond the axle nuts, could you add a spacer to make it 126? Or change the spacer in a 130mm oln hub for one 4mm shorter?

 

[jim haseltine]

In my box of bits I have a 32h flip-flop hub which I gained because I wanted some particular rims and buying then stripping a pair of wheels was considerably cheaper than sourcing the just the rims. The hubs were red anodised and of unknown quality but as I wasn't going to ride them it didn't matter.
Over lock nut is 120mm but the full axle length is 164 so unless the frame has really thick dropouts or you're using deep track nuts adding a 3mm spacer to each side of a similar hub wouldn't be an issue in my opinion. The axle is stepped for bearing seating so any offset to adjust chain alignment would be minimal as the axle can't be moved through the hub.
A silver version of the rear hub is available here.

 

[caemis]

Well, after gettin a 650b wheelset and a fixed hub, which I could easily convert to 126mm I build a new rear wheel and failed - actually not me but the rim... A massive radial turnout couldn't be trued and given the tight clearance in the rear, I decided to go with my 700c wheels.



I took the RRA to a 200km trip over night into the northern woods of Brandenburg.

I realized that the toptube is actually more thann an inch higher (34") than my inseam (32.5") which made it bit scary in the woods and more so difficult to get on the bike. One could argue the frame might be to big for me...

But looking through the Rough Stuff Fellowship book, I saw a lot of bikes with only a tiny piece of seatpost visible. What you think - gettin a smaller frame or keepin this one? I like how it rides, the patina and the long headtube...

Cheers