My Irish made 1987 Rapparee SLX with Record Ergopower.

[GazelleCMondial]

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[Rapparee87]

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One of the guys in my club had a Tommy Donaldson from north of the border but I don't know if they were built up there or not.

Donaldson frames were built in Northern Ireland, Lurgan. We also had Eddy Rafter made frames from Belfast, Gordon frames built in Hillsborough and a builder I don't know so much about who built under the frame name "Stone" - although I think his frames were mostly for the track.

Same as your situation, these frames are quite rarely available now although I know a nice older guy who has a number of them in his own collection.

We also had the imported English frames rebadged under local bike shop names, Madigan badged frames seem to be particularly nice.

I hadn't heard of Rapparee until today so cheers for sharing your bike, I'm very jealous.

Thank you! It's a shame these frames have been overlooked, the guy who had the Donaldson in our club was fairly handy. He had a win in the first open race I ever rode, Traders Cup in Dundalk, April 1981. I was U14 and he was a junior, he won a sprint from a small break and crossed the line with both hands off the bars and was promptly disqualified! :facepalm: They were happy days though.

 

[jamesdak]

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Great story and pics. Looks like a sweet ride!

I love getting the story and history behind the old bikes I find and ride now. Part of the fun is learning about the builder.

 

[Rapparee87]

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Great story and pics. Looks like a sweet ride!

I love getting the story and history behind the old bikes I find and ride now. Part of the fun is learning about the builder.

Thanks! Yes that's so true, some of the framebuilders have probably gone to the great workshop in the sky by now so it's great that their work lives on.

 

[Rapparee87]

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The Record chainset is NOS from Nigel at campyoldy.co.uk again, he is recovering from serious injury at present according to his website so I wish him well.

It's a 10 speed chainset 52/39, I got it as an incentive to get that seized fixed cup out, it lay in the box for 3 years though.

The fixed cup was 80s Shimano 600 and it being Shimano was massively over engineered, I wasn't going to let anyone near my frame with spanners or a blowtorch, as if it was damaged I wanted nobody else to blame but myself. I'm not mechanically minded though so I wasn't that confident about it.

Tried filing it, hacksaw, drilling even but it made zero impression on the cup. Finally thought of getting a Dremel multi tool at it and that did the trick quickly, amazingly after all that abuse the threads survived intact and I was able to get a reconditioned Chorus B/B from ebay into it.

 

[Rapparee87]

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In 1987 Stephen Roche won the Tour, Giro and world title on Columbus SLX, so there was no other choice for this young Irish cyclist.

 

[Rapparee87]

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The Record Ergopower 9 speed Titanium shifters I got NOS still boxed from Campyoldy again.
It was my dream since the 90s to have a pair, I got a seconhand pair online here in Ireland in 2013.
They worked excellently.

Saw the NOS pair with Nigel in 2017, I thought he was looking silly money for them, so dismissed it.

A few months later they were still there and then I thought that overall over the 30 years I'd spent very little money on my bike, some components having been on for nearly all that time. So I bought them.
Also when would I ever see another NOS pair again? Never probably.

The slight blemish on this lever was my own silly fault! Beautiful shifting action. They are 9 speed, the chainset is 10 speed, the chain is 9 speed and the cassette is 8 speed, (I'm a wild one me) but they all work great together.

 

[Rapparee87]

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Chorus seat pin, I got it in about 1992 I think, my memory is a bit hazy at this stage.

 

[Rapparee87]

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Mavic CD2's, 36 hole, Campag hubs, not sure if they're Record or Chorus as it doesn't say. Bought them secondhand on adverts.ie, the guy was changing to clinchers and just wanted rid of them, so I got them for a very low price going by what I see for sale elsewhere, threw in 2 Vittoria Rally tubs as well. Happy days.

Cassette is 8 sp Campag, 13/21, it doesn't say if they are Record or Chorus again.

Vittoria CX's on. I used to wait until Autumn every year and pick them up for about 30 euros a piece from Ribble etc. I wouldn't have been able to afford CX's when I was racing,I had Wolber Neo Pro's a lot or whatever else was a basic price and I was glad to have them.

 

[GazelleCMondial]

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