Raleigh Dynaflite SBDU 753.... 'Manager Special'

[zerogravitas]

Fantastic! Good luck, I am just taking the same plunge for my Denti project with the same bible. Thus far I'm very impressed with the clarity of the book.

 

[TheD245]

I admire your dedication to this restoration. As much as i understand what the other poster meant when they said they 'didn't fully get this bike', you can't help but love that someone has the time and patience to see something like this through.

I may have missed it, but i promise i've read the whole thing... is there any evidence of this being a manager special or is it still just a gut feeling? Appears to be a very expensive Raleigh based on nothing more than a hunch, no?

 

[Peachy!]

I admire your dedication to this restoration. As much as i understand what the other poster meant when they said they 'didn't fully get this bike', you can't help but love that someone has the time and patience to see something like this through.

I may have missed it, but i promise i've read the whole thing... is there any evidence of this being a manager special or is it still just a gut feeling? Appears to be a very expensive Raleigh based on nothing more than a hunch, no?

@vcballbat will correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't think a racing bike would have details such as the double set of braze on stops & narrow rear spacing specific for a 5 speed Sturmey, or such super long old school drop-outs or such a massive space for large mud guards and all season tyres?

 

[vcballbat]

I admire your dedication to this restoration. As much as i understand what the other poster meant when they said they 'didn't fully get this bike', you can't help but love that someone has the time and patience to see something like this through.

I may have missed it, but i promise i've read the whole thing... is there any evidence of this being a manager special or is it still just a gut feeling? Appears to be a very expensive Raleigh based on nothing more than a hunch, no?

From page 4 of this thread... sometimes you just gotta have blind faith and go for it..

Doing research on my lugged Dynaflite frame something that I read on Neil's blog always stuck in my mind and when I saw the picture of the complete machine on eBay it clicked....

"Apart from the image in that Raleigh brochure, I’ve only seen one other picture of a Dynaflite, that was in the article below. I’ve also heard recently from Mike Mullett, a former workshop manager at the SBDU, who mentioned a Dynaflite that was built for the Chairman of Raleigh, together with 2 others that he recalled. In the article written for Cycling Plus in January 2007 by Hilary Stone, he mentioned that there may have been no more than 25 Dynaflite frames built – that isn’t many! Adding together the Raleigh brochure image to the Dynaflite in Hilary’s article, the 3 mentioned by Mike, and mine, that is 6 frames that I know of."

 

[vcballbat]

I admire your dedication to this restoration. As much as i understand what the other poster meant when they said they 'didn't fully get this bike', you can't help but love that someone has the time and patience to see something like this through.

I may have missed it, but i promise i've read the whole thing... is there any evidence of this being a manager special or is it still just a gut feeling? Appears to be a very expensive Raleigh based on nothing more than a hunch, no?

If you read this blog post on another 'Manager Special' built 76-77 judging by the components and decals you can see that there are some striking similarities between the two bikes.... Often its what's not been said that speaks volumes..!!

https://raleigh-sb4059.com/2020/01/...-ti-raleigh-1976-team-road-frame-new-arrival/

 

[vcballbat]

Rear wheel built up 3x using Sapin Stainless Double Butted Race spokes 2 - 1.8 - 2mm... just needs a slight dish after trying in the frame..

 

[zerogravitas]

Top job, looks fantastic!

 

[Nob]

That wheel - Cleaned up well

 

[vcballbat]

The Campagnolo Gran Sport Tipo was in great condition with it's original skewer which I've decided to swap out with the better looking though a tad heavier Record CSPC version. It's now ready for lacing up after being striped, cleaned and greased, finishing with a good Solvo buff it's looking brilliant and super smooth...Shhh... don't tell Peachy..

 

[vcballbat]

Front wheel built 2X using the same 294mm spokes as on the rear. Really rewarding building my first pair of wheels both spinning nice and true and ready to roll.. almost there for the build up..