Mystery Raleigh Frameset

[Guinessisgoodforyou]

I've had a 531 Touriste, Royal, Rando. Sold them all and kept the 708 Royal and Randonneur.

 

[fossala]

I've had a 531 Touriste, Royal, Rando. Sold them all and kept the 708 Royal and Randonneur.

Interesting, my 708 randonneur had a bottom bracket shell that was super flexy. The 531 royal was so smooth.

 

[Guinessisgoodforyou]

Interesting, my 708 randonneur had a bottom bracket shell that was super flexy. The 531 royal was so smooth.

Oh, that doesn't sound great? I found my 531 bikes quite flexible when loaded. The 708 bikes I've got are much stiffer loaded, I put this down to the oversize top tube. I can understand why you didn't like that.
The Royal you had was a thing of beauty. My Royal was burgundy all over, the only one I've seen without a contrasting head tube. Trying to find a picture, keyword trying

 

[Harril]

Thank you all for the helpful replies, it is much appreciated. I have posted a slightly better picture of the frame number, but it's still quite obscure. I read it as: WD9001633. What do others see? Any advice on how to interpret those letters and numbers would be gratefully received as I am struggling to make any sense of the explanations I've seen on other websites.

Also, the pivot bolt on the rear derailleur has seized, a few week of plus gas has had no effect on it, and of course I've managed to strip the head. Can anyone think of another way of removing it other than drilling or cutting? TIA.

 

[Midlife]

Regarding the frame number...

W = Worksop (I'll come back to that as the frame was made in Nottingham)
D = March
9 = 1979 or 1989. In this case 1989

The rest of the numbers are just the serial.

Back to the W. This stands for Worksop and normally means that it was made at the Carlton factory there. However the Carlton factory had closed by 1989 so the W prefix was "nicked" by Raleigh Nottingham and used to mark the better Raleigh frames made in Nottingham. Normally Raleigh Nottingham frames were prefixed N

This is always intrigued me. I worked in a Raleigh Dealer in the 70's and Raleigh were anal about numbering and coding everything down to the smallest washer.

Why they stole the Carlton W frame number prefix for a few years is all a bit strange.

 

[Midlife]

Stuck bolt.... I'd try drilling through it and using an Easy-Out. Or smacking a torx bit in (my fave)

 

[Harril]

Thanks, Midlife, much appreciated.

 

[Swallow]

You'll find that with the 531ST rando's such as pictured above, the spoke holder is on the drive side. This was changed for the 708 rando's and the 708 variant of the Royal had non-drive side spoke holders also.