Raleigh Criterium

[SMD]

I bought this Raleigh Criterium off EBay a couple of weeks ago and It's cleaned up ok.

I bought a second hand rear wheel from LBS, and put a new tyre on.
Fitted new chain and bar tape.
Saddle from my spares box.

Does anyone know what year its from?
I would like to return it to standard.
How could I find the original spec?

 

[KermitGKona88]

Re:

Hi

Nice looking find

Possibly a 1986 model as the 87' had different graphics and it is not in the 85' catalogue

 

[MrW]

Nice

Is it Black or Blue, I can't tell from the pics?

Criterium's had twin bottle mounts if my memory serves me correctly

Can you see a frame number? That will date it approximately

 

[MrW]

I've had a look at the brochure's and the frame (not forks though) rear chain stay decal and seat post would suggest it is one of these:



A 1983 Record Sprint

However, the components are 'normally' gold on this bike!

The brake calipers and chain set look to be the correct ones, albeit they aren't gold

The downtube decal is from a 1984/5 Raleigh Competition

Curious

 

[Bats]

Rear dropouts are wrong for an 83 record sprint, unless raleigh did a weird transitional thing? Mine had a normal horizontal one on the driveside, this has the one the Aerospace bikes had.

All the rest of the frame details fit though, same lugs, clamp on front mech, bloody awful seat clamp bolt, etc... No idea where it got chromed forks from though.

Chainset is def not the Record Sprint one in silver.

Friday Afternoon Special?

 

[MrW]

Bats, apologies, I've just looked again at the chain set, my mistake

The chances are it could be a transitional model indeed.

Raleigh made a Record Sprint SE when the aerospace contour model was available, which was the same frame but with all silver components, including the lesser specified Custom steel chain set. The decals were the same, albeit finished in silver instead of gold.

This could have been something similar

 

[Bats]

Never heard of an RRS SE! But that it existed explains a few things, like why I can only find silver decals.

Either way I quite like the look of the chrome fork on this one. SMD what are the frame angles?

 

[MrW]

This is a RRS SE (picture 'stolen' from google, apologies if it is someone's on here)



It had the Sachs Huret Eco S Front & Rear Mechs, alloy handlebars, Weinmann 500 calipers and Weinmann Levers in Silver, Weinmann Alloy Rims on Maillard Hubs, again in Silver. Finished off with the 'standard' Raleigh Custom Chainset

I have a NOS set of decals for it, in the original bag with factory tag, hence I know it is called the RRS SE. (if you remember Bats, I PM'd you a year or so ago, pointing you towards the guy who made me a set for my '87 RRS finished in gold, using my silver ones as a template)

I don't ever remember seeing one back in the day, it could have been a 'Catalogue Special' and only available via Kays and the like.

In 1985 I had a Raleigh Pursuit for Christmas, and that came with the Weinmann 500 QR calipers finished in black, and a set of Weinmann QR wheels, again in Black. This bike never featured in the Raleigh catalogue, and was explained by the Raleigh dealer to my dad as a 'Friday afternoon special' So it's clear that Nottingham occasionally knocked out the odd bike or two.

There have been a number of Team Cadets both on eBay and on here that have Reynolds 501 tubing, although this never featured in the brochure, so I think we have British engineering and ingenuity to thank for these bikes!

 

[SMD]

Re:

Thanks for the replies.
It has a small faded "Criterium" decal on the top tube. Looks like it was gold.
The paintwork is black.
The brakes are Weinmann "type 500" , brakes are Shimano EX500, front mech is Suntour 7, rear is Shimano RSX and wheels are odd 27 x 1 1/4 !

 

[MrW]

Any pics of the Criterium decal?

I'm pretty sure it's been re-decaled at some point during its life...