kermisking
Old School Hero
I have tried to take a closer look of the Raleigh 40th complete bike . If the bike was designed to take the Campagnolo centaur brake callipers from the outset then the rear brake pads seem to be at the lowest possible point in the slots. This means to make the rear brake bridge higher ie 50mm instead of 45 mm the brake blocks would miss the rims !. Regarding frame geometry if for a given frame size you higher the bottom bracket height then this will increase the head tube length just as lowering it will decrease it.
Looking at the close up shot of the rear drop outs , the plain drop outs seems to be Tig welded I think I can see the weld ripples very nasty in my opinion and a total clash with the original aesthetics of these frames . The drop outs remind me of the mass produced replicas that Raleigh produced for the schoolboy/teenage market with the stamped drop outs and gas pipe tubing that the only thing in common with the team bikes is that it was made by Raleigh and had the team colour scheme.
Anyone looking at the new Taiwan replica on the Raleigh website who knew what the real thing looked like must have had an inkling that it would be a big throw of the dice to get something in the same league as the original. If someone wanted to have a replica made I am sure they could get something closer to the 1980 frame made for less than £1500 .
Looking at the close up shot of the rear drop outs , the plain drop outs seems to be Tig welded I think I can see the weld ripples very nasty in my opinion and a total clash with the original aesthetics of these frames . The drop outs remind me of the mass produced replicas that Raleigh produced for the schoolboy/teenage market with the stamped drop outs and gas pipe tubing that the only thing in common with the team bikes is that it was made by Raleigh and had the team colour scheme.
Anyone looking at the new Taiwan replica on the Raleigh website who knew what the real thing looked like must have had an inkling that it would be a big throw of the dice to get something in the same league as the original. If someone wanted to have a replica made I am sure they could get something closer to the 1980 frame made for less than £1500 .