1986 Carlton Carrera 531c

[RadNomad]

Re: Re:


Marvellous to see that old advert! Marshalllucky would you mind sharing which issue of Winner has the advert and maybe posting a pic of the cover? So i can look out for it. Or... is yours for sale by any chance..?

I wonder which original sales catalogue would show this model, whether they would've included Carlton models in the Raleigh catalogue or printed a separate Carlton catalogue..?

 

[KermitGKona88]

Re:

Lovely bike, sold s couple of these b.i.t.d.

Raleigh produced a separate catalogue for the Carlton models

 

[kingbling]

Very nice bike, I remember Dees of Amersham too used to pop in there occasionally

 

[RadNomad]

Re:

I noticed a few loose spokes and on inspection some of the eyelets had fatigued inside the rim beneath the nipple (socketed eyelets in a double walled rim) and broken up leading to loss of spoke tension. I wondered if the otherwise faultless rims could be re-eyeletted but i couldn't find any info about doing this (anyone?). An experienced old mechanic said he'd never heard of such repairs and i ought to fit new rims. Hmm there goes the bikes originality i thought :-(
The nice Golden Arrow hubs are laced to decent Belgian made double wall Weinmann 513 rims but with unimpressive plain guage dull steel spokes (clearly the spokes is where Raleigh chose to save a few bob).
Not expecting any joy i started looking around online for old Weinmann rims. Incredibly i found a pair of period correct NOS rim hoops of the exact brand and spec! Never even been laced. I couldn't believe my luck. I pulled the trigger and they should arrive this week.
I also bought some DT Swiss Competition butted stainless steel spokes for a better-than-new rebuild, a quality level the bike frankly should've been built with in the first place.
I tried to upload pics of the fatigued eyelets but cannot load, not sure why. May try again later.
I need to decide on period correct chrome plated brass nipples or maybe alloy to save weight..

 

[RadNomad]

Very nice bike, I remember Dees of Amersham too used to pop in there occasionally

Cool.. yes back in the mid '80s we used to ride to Dees across the Chilterns from Wendover where we lived at the time. Happy days..

 

[highlandsflyer]

Looks very similar to the Raleigh Classic I just picked up.

 

[Jamiedyer]

It a very smart looking Carlton, and as others have said, it's always nice to have that personal background to it.
New rims should be even better than the originals and if ridden regularly rims are consumables anyway so I wouldn't worry about it affecting it being original.
Look forward to seeing it with it's new wheels.

Jamie

 

[kingbling]

Very nice bike, I remember Dees of Amersham too used to pop in there occasionally

Cool.. yes back in the mid '80s we used to ride to Dees across the Chilterns from Wendover where we lived at the time. Happy days..

Used to ride over from Aylesbury were you in the Aylesbury CC

 

[z23]

Re: Re:



Marvellous to see that old advert! Marshalllucky would you mind sharing which issue of Winner has the advert and maybe posting a pic of the cover? So i can look out for it. Or... is yours for sale by any chance..?

I wonder which original sales catalogue would show this model, whether they would've included Carlton models in the Raleigh catalogue or printed a separate Carlton catalogue..?

Just in case you are still looking for a scan of a Carlton catalogue with the Carrera (though it's from 1979 so considerably earlier than your model) , I actually just stumbled upon one here (pdf also attached) having been pointed towards the Isca 407 saddle by @KermitGKona88 in my first post to these forums, which in turn led me to look up the Carlton Carrera which brought me to your beautiful specimen of a bike here

Funnily enough I also used to ride a Dawes Lightning back in the day which I was then looking to replace with a Carlton Kermesse but in the end I opted for a Peugeot Aravis (also 531c) which I still ride to this day though it's far from in such pristine condition as your Carlton pictured.

But being originally from the East Midlands myself and now living abroad for over 25 years, a part of me somehow always regrets not buying that Carlton. Would be lovely to have had that and the Peugeot! But there were simply never enough paper rounds