My Beautiful Bike...

[upstream]

Hi all,
I'm new to the forum so my apologies in advance if this post is in an incorrect spot.

As a youngster I was into road bikes however for around the lat 20 years I had only ridden mountain bikes. That is until recently when I had the idea of getting a road bike again.

Unfortunately I wasn't having much luck because I had a relatively small budget and as I'm over 6ft (and over 40 years old) a lot of the modern bikes didn't seem to have a large enough frame that would mean that I could have the seat nice and high, yet the bars not too low. Hence my search for a retro bike from the ear of my youth commenced...

Anyway the long and short of it was that I was able to find a beautiful road bike which I think is circa mid 1980's, it had a 25inch frame AND looked as if it had been sitting in the back of a bike shop unsold for all of that time.

I'd welcome any thoughts / comments.

Thanks.[/img]

 

[cellsite60]

Beautiful bike, and as you said:

looked as if it had been sitting in the back of a bike shop unsold for all of that time

I can only agree, looks brand new.

 

[zotty]

i love those frames!! yet another bike i dreamt of! shame theres a lack of the 'gold' bling the sprints are known for but none the less,,, nice machine duder,, certainly does look new!!

 

[hunterst]

Really elegant looking bike. I know exactly how you feel, i was into road bikes when i was younger too. Have been thinking lots about getting another recently. Thanks for the inspiration.

 

[1970sframe]

stunning!

 

[ianfoot]

lovely example - so clean

 

[Agency_Scum]

My only complaint is there's only one photo. Stunning bike.

 

[Old Ned]

At last, a giant framed Raleigh that looks as if it's actually near enough the correct size for the rider!

Most of them have the saddle resting on the top tube.

Looks good.

 

[531 pro]

I cut the rear triangle off one of these...sorry

Wow, that's a cracker. Looking at the size of it, no wonder it sat at the back of the shop! When I were a lad I worked in a Raleigh dealership. We used to get quite a few of these back for warranty (the frame used to crack along the right hand chainstay, where the mudguard bracket was fixed - top tip - cut through the mudguard bracket on one side!). We had a few of these cracked frames kicking around, all virtually brand new. I remember one year I cut the rear triangle off one of them with a blunt hacksaw in order to make a window display for bike lights! Makes you weep looking back ha ha

 

[Midlife]

Looks like a Raleigh Record.....they even did one with all gold "groupset" IIRC. 1984 ish

I'm 6 foot and raced a 24 1/2 inch Falcon in the 70's......the one in my avatar

Shaun