Raleigh Randonneur

[retro-rich]

Some pics of a second hand randonneur I picked up with the intent to do up a bit.

It had already had a respray when I got it, and there are a couple of oddities with the frame such as a serial number that doesn't conform to normal Raleigh type, and narrow rear drop outs of only 120mm. Although it has all the expected braze ons such as spoke holders, canti studs and rack mounts. Original owner says was purchased in about 1988, and has seen some of the world since.

There seems to be a ding behind the bb on the chain stay, but the consensus seems to be there is nothing to worry about.

I've had it powder coated and fitted some decals supplied by h lloyds, although he thought I might struggle fitting them to a powder coat they seem to have gone ok for a first attempt, although a little squiffy and not too many bubbles underneath, ah well can't expect to be perfect first time. Need to sort out a coat of lacquer now.

I did think about getting a proper paint job done with the original grey white scheme, but would have been more expense, so I went for the powder coat in blue which has turned out quite nice I think.

Some pics, and I'll post some more as it progresses.

 

[otherself]

Nice bike. Are you sure it's a 1988 model? They would have 126mm rear spacing in that year. Seems earlier.

 

[retro-rich]

Thanks

No I'm not certain, that's only going on what the previous owner told me. As the serial number doesn't conform either it's difficult to tell the real age.

I don't think these came out till about '86 or so, and I think it's the only Raleigh model to have canti studs and spoke holders so I don't think it can be any earlier than about '86.

Does anyone know when the change to 126mm happened at Raleigh?

The wheel it came with is 126 and it springs quite easily, but I doubt its the original wheel, it's a mavic rim on a 105 hub.

 

[was8v]

Nice!

I had a Brown 1991 Randonneur 531ST with full Deore DX / 105 groupset. If it wasn't so small I'd have kept it. It has the spokes on the stay too

 

[ForestHill]

I have a green one as well, 1990ish I think.
Built it up with XT/Mavic A719 rear, LX/Mavic A519 front wheels, XT mech, stronglight cranks (from a Galaxy of the same period...), random cantis and old levers.
It rides like a Volvo drives, but once it gets rolling it's magnificent. Not ideal for commuting though..

Did my first 'proper' ride (45 miles out to Surrey) and it was awesome, might swap the bars for something a bit narrower and period correct though.

I paid £40 for mine off a forum, as it has a couple of spots of rust and the BB is truly stuck on the drive side, but it's a great frame.

Here it is, 30 or so miles into a ride at the weekend, next to Fairoaks Airport.
http://i.imgur.com/XVo0R.jpg

 

[ForestHill]

Oh, and bar end shifters! Love those things so much, especially in wind with full panniers.

 

[retro-rich]

Nice!

I had a Brown 1991 Randonneur 531ST with full Deore DX / 105 groupset. If it wasn't so small I'd have kept it. It has the spokes on the stay too

Unusual, most old bikes seem to be built for giants, seems so to me anyway as i like to be more upright.
This one has 105 hubs and had a 105 headset and shifters, scrapped the headset when I stripped for the respray but had a game getting one shallow enough to replace it with as the tube was cut quite short, now has a Tange Passage on it.
The rear mech had been changed to a black Altus (scrapped ) and the front was DX I think but the chrome was rusted so that went also.
Not too sure what the chainset was, but rings were bent and it looked in a sorry state so for now will be replacing with a cheap set i got off ebay.

 

[retro-rich]

I have a green one as well, 1990ish I think.
Built it up with XT/Mavic A719 rear, LX/Mavic A519 front wheels, XT mech, stronglight cranks (from a Galaxy of the same period...), random cantis and old levers.
It rides like a Volvo drives, but once it gets rolling it's magnificent. Not ideal for commuting though..

Did my first 'proper' ride (45 miles out to Surrey) and it was awesome, might swap the bars for something a bit narrower and period correct though.

I paid £40 for mine off a forum, as it has a couple of spots of rust and the BB is truly stuck on the drive side, but it's a great frame.

Here it is, 30 or so miles into a ride at the weekend, next to Fairoaks Airport.
http://i.imgur.com/XVo0R.jpg

Yours looks nice, has that been resprayed from original also? The green on mine looked rough up close and had rust patches, hence the new respray. £40 is a bargain though. Would love to see more pics.

I hate to even suggest it so please forgive me, but you know the bb drive side is reverse thread?? I spent a good hour trying to remove a bb cup with stripped threads only to realise that because of the missing threads it was allowing to keep turning it the wrong way, when i realised I turned it the right way and kept outward pressure on it and it started to unscrew. Doubt I'll make that mistake again

The look of mine is somewhat determined by what i have in the shed and what I've been able to get for decent prices. As mentioned above I scrapped a lot of it as it was in pretty poor condition cosmetically. So I have a new Zenith stem, some Velo Orange Rando bars I fancied, Shimano 2300 sti's (was going to go for rivendell bar ends but got the sti's barely used for same price), i have some black tektro canti's and black sissy in line brake levers, black fizic bar tape, deore rear mech second hand, new cheap 2303 front mech, chainset is a truvative triple silver cranks and rings except the black outer. i have some silver sks mudguards but not sure if black would be better in this combination, will try them first before buying anything else. I'll be using my brooks which is dark brown so doesnt really match anything else. I won't refit the rack just yet as will use my saddle bag.

So it will be a mixed bag but i think it might come out looking ok.

 

[ForestHill]

Thanks. When it's 'finished' I'll take some decent photos, I should really just take a camera on a ride with me to get some shots of it in its natural environment.
It's original paint as far as I can tell but is pretty tatty, and I've had to sand it back to get rid of surface rust, particularly round the BB.
I've not paid much for mine, I think wheels were about £40 each, frame was £40 and the rest was bits I had lying around. I think the XT mech was £5 from the Brick Lane bike market!
The thing that took longest to get for a good price was actually the bar end shifters, I still can't see why they're so expensive!

Thanks for the advice on the BB, I've removed a few stuck ones in my time, usually using the "get a 10mm bolt, stick a nut on either side of the BB cup and tighten. The tightening of the bolt will take out the cup, because of the reverse thread" technique but had to give up after shearing two bolts!

One thing I struggled with when building was finding an M4 Barrel adjuster for the brake bridge. Realised that these are used in most shimano derailleurs though, if you were wondering where to find one! (Could just have been me!)

All in all though, it's a lovely ride, and after commuting on it over the past week or so and then moving back to the SLX racer/audax, I'm suddenly aware of every bump in the road that was soaked up by the Randonneur.

 

[was8v]

One thing I struggled with when building was finding an M4 Barrel adjuster for the brake bridge. Realised that these are used in most shimano derailleurs though, if you were wondering where to find one! (Could just have been me!)

For anyone else - they are quite common on front canti hangers and side pull brakes. I bought one for my Mongoose IBOC from here:

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/230540642817#ht_1234wt_1022

"Side Pull Cycle Brake Calliper Cable Adjuster Old Style" £1.55