Raleigh 531c Race
Could not believe it when I found a nearly duplicate what I was riding late 80s early 90s even down to the shimano 600 gears.
This is the only frame I have purchased but then its been over 25 yrs since I have started to cycle again.
Before that as a teenager I campaigned on another 25 yr Pennine frame which was too big, but was donated by my grandfather at the time.
Started cycling again last year & its amazing how the old training routes start flooding back, but forgot about how steep some of those hills are in south devon.
I have entered the Dartmoor Classic this year so thought I would respray the frame. I wanted to modernise but keep the retro look, but cost & comfort was the first priority so last year I invested in the Campag Centaur Groupset.
The bike weight dropped from a respectable 22.5 pounds to 19.5 pounds, admittedly I did replace stem & bars with nitto items, but had real difficulty finding 40cm shallow drop bars in alloy as opposed to black anodized which is what I could find.
Oh the other interesting stuff is the wheels. All those years ago i built a pair of Mavic Gel 280 28h tubular rims on Suntour hubs, but were only used for time trailing then. With the 10 speed kit, had to spread the frame a bit. I rebuilt the wheels with Miche Racing box hubs, had a few problems initially by not putting enough tention in the spokes, but they run really well now.
Just had the frame resprayed as Subura metalic blue , so now would like to share my excitement
Oh the frame number is WK7000641
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