Raleigh Banana lo-pro re-pro

[Cossington]

Quite the array of lovely frames and bikes.

I like what you did with the 853 frame - I've been considering doing something similar, but redoing an 853 frame in the earlier red/black/yellow Raleigh team colours.

Good luck with the Lo-pros,

David

 

[garethrl]

Bikemeister, would you be able to put a rough figure on how many Team Dyna Tech road frames were actually made in this colour scheme? I'd dearly love to find one in regular road geometry in the 56-58cm size range to add to my collection of Raleigh team frames. I'd originally planned to look for this design in an mtb frame, but the more I think about it I just conclude that I ought to hold out for a roadie.

Cheers,
Gareth.

Nice frames.

I worked in Raleigh Special Products for many years and was there at the time these were made. Gerald did indeed privide the centreline drawings for the frames.

However, the actual cutting, cleaning and bonding was carried out by Preston Dickman and Dave Brown. These two guys built all theam frames and indeed, built the Dyna-Techs that were used by the Castorama team.

 

[bikemeister2000]

Bikemeister, would you be able to put a rough figure on how many Team Dyna Tech road frames were actually made in this colour scheme? I'd dearly love to find one in regular road geometry in the 56-58cm size range to add to my collection of Raleigh team frames. I'd originally planned to look for this design in an mtb frame, but the more I think about it I just conclude that I ought to hold out for a roadie.

Cheers,
Gareth.

Which ones, Castorama ?

 

[garethrl]

No - the blue/yellow ones as pictured above. I've seen many more pictures of the mtbs as ridden by the likes of Adrian Timmis and David Baker but all the same there's often a road bike in the same colours just nudging into the corner of the image. Just like this one here from sinnett177's thread:

Cheers,
Gareth.

 

[Allshownogo]

Well the first frame is away at the painters, so today I've been attacking the forks of the second frame.

The second frame has been well used and therefore had a fair amount of corrosion on it, least of which was one seized bottom bracket plate, and the worst was the stem........the wonderful world of galvanic corrosion!

BF&I (Brute Force and Ignorance) managed to get the BB plate off, but the stem refused to budge. At this point every trick that I could remember came out to play?
After:
1. Smacking it with a wooden hammer
2. Smacking it with a metal hammer
3. Smacking it into the steerer tube to try and break the seal
4. Leaving it over night with thread release soaking inside (an ammonia based solution that actually breaks down the Aluminium Oxide that's caused by the galvanic corrosion).
5. Hitting it from the crown end with a blunted chisel
6. Pouring boiling water inside and the allowing to cool (to again try to break the seal)
7. Heating it with a blow torch
I then decided to give up and simply hacksaw the stem off just so I could get the forks out of the frame, and remove the headset.
This left me with the forks free of the frame (as in the first pics) but with a section of aluminium stem still stuck in the steerer tube, where it has stayed put until today's efforts

So a couple of piccies of today's process

This first pic shows the two 3mm grooves I cut into the top remaining portion of the stem. These grooves were cut all the way through the aluminium until the bur I was using touched the steel steerer tube of the forks. The idea here was to a. give me a good key to get some turning purchase on the stem remains, and b. remove some material from the stem so that I could compress it a bit to make it smaller, and hopefully allow it to release from the inside of the steerer.

I then got hold of our gas and air torch in our lab, and fired up the air to get a serious blue flame before cooking the top of the steerer tube lightly to heat it up again to try to help break the aluminium oxide seal between the steerer tube and the stem insert. After cooling the stem I then clamped a metal bar into the vice and inserted the keyed grooves in the top of the stem into this bar and tried to twist. It didn't give, so I turned the forks upside down and inserted the remaining stem (about 5mm) into the vice. I then turned the vice until it compressed the two grooves closed and then gave the forks a twist........

And voila........

One pair of forks ready to be inserted into the frame again. I've cleaned the threads up a bit since that pic, and will try to polish up the inside of the forks to tidy up the mess from the corrosion before I stick a new stem or adapter in there.

 

[Allshownogo]

***Update***

Came back from the painters yesterday with a full boot of the car.

And this is what the bike looks like now

I have decals on the way from H Lloyd Cycles for proper reproductions of the Special Products Division badge, the Gerald O'Donovan badge, the Raleigh SBDU (Special Bicycle Developments Unit) badge, and the correct Reynolds 753 logos for the forks.

A friend of mine who does sign work and decals is also currently working on a full set of special Raleigh Banana decals, complete with a special one to tie the Banana to the original Ian Cammish bike underneath! He's also doing me a 'Raleigh Banana' in black lettering to go on the front wing of the now yellow Cinelli Angels as a finishing touch.

 

[Allshownogo]

And so tonight's mission - after the regular turbo session - was to spend an hour or so sanding down the frame prior to getting busy with the superb decals that Andrew Shore of Shore Design has knocked out for me.

The 'Banana Dyna-Tech' on the top tube is my favourite. The original Bananas had 'Banana The Energy Snack' on the top tube, with banana in black and the rest in red, so Andrew took my idea of having the 'Banana' maintained, but blending it with a 'Dyna-Tech' just to tie the two paint schemes together.

The original Dyna-Tech 2325 frame decal will go back on tomorrow, and then I will break out the black paint and the steady hand to pinstripe the lug margins on the yellow sections just to add my own touch to the bike. All I have to do then is hope the decals from H Lloyd cycles turn up soon to finish the job off so the frame can return to the painters for the clear coat.

 

[Allshownogo]

Frame, forks, bars, and chainring back from the painters this morning.

So last weekends mission was to go down to Pedal Rev to borrow their headset tool (too damn expensive to buy one of those for my own tool cabinet!) to fit the new Miche headset complete with its old school conical needle bearings.
Now with the headset fitted it now looks like this alongside the other Banana.

A technical hitch has now stopped play as I can't do any more without the correct front wheel.
The front wheel I purchased and used in the mock-up pic prior to painting was actually a 26" and not a 650c. I need to now find a proper 650c Spinergy to finish off the bike, prior to hopefully racing it in anger on New Years day!

 

[Allshownogo]

And so it now needs a tiny bit more work (new wheel bearings, debadging the wheels, and some bar tape), but it's now been test ridden!

 

[Old Ned]

Looking very good but please, do tell us you don't actually ride it with the saddle in that position?