Raleigh Record Sprint vs Carlton Corsair

Bit steep isn't it...

I won this the other for £88 as you can see, lovely bike and is a 531 but the seller was being an idiot and sold it to someone else on the bid as I wanted it to be collected by a courier and pay over paypal rather than cash in hand.

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll? ... 500wt_1413
 
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Siguros":2lotmisi said:
Haha, I am a giant! I have super long legs. It's only 23.5 " :p I was going to buy that Carlton which was 25"!!

What do you reckon its worth? I've never heard of the raleigh éclat, can't find any info on it.

Aopologies - its just that Im height jealous!

didnt think the bike would go for that much either
 
Siguros":3vq0vw50 said:
Bit steep isn't it...

I won this the other for £88 as you can see, lovely bike and is a 531 but the seller was being an idiot and sold it to someone else on the bid as I wanted it to be collected by a courier and pay over paypal rather than cash in hand.

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll? ... 500wt_1413

That Dawes looks really nice.
 
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sisyphus":2dkfeghh said:
Siguros":2dkfeghh said:
Haha, I am a giant! I have super long legs. It's only 23.5 " :p I was going to buy that Carlton which was 25"!!

What do you reckon its worth? I've never heard of the raleigh éclat, can't find any info on it.

Aopologies - its just that Im height jealous!

didnt think the bike would go for that much either

It's ok lol! If I could trade some of the height I would.

I guess I'll have a bash at this 531 framed Ace :D
 
I've recently renovated one of those Carltons for a mate. The geometry is a little odd - the top tube is half an inch higher than my Dawes for the same top tube length so they do look more like gates than you'd expect for the size.

As for what it is - the frame is 531 main only and the forks are not stickered. The one I have has pressed dropouts though the Ebay one had decent cast dropouts. The chainstay mounts for the rack are just bits of bendy metal welded on and the brakes are the Weinmann Centre pulls made of cheese which can be interesting in hilly West Yorkshire.

Even the bottle cage is held on by flimsy alloy clamps with no bosses present.

That said, the Suntour gears are excellent (with the front reverse throw which is a bit odd to my eyes). It's alright but has a feel of a bike that has been cheapened unnecessarily. It's certainly not in the same league as my Raleigh Record Ace which was made almost alongside this particular Carlton in late 1980. I reckon RRAs are normally better Ebay value for money - usually they seem to go for less than £150.

P1080820AL.jpg
 
Cheers for the info Rolf! That's a lovely Carlton you renovated if it's the one in the picture.

So you believe the 531 Record Aces are much better? Were the Aces better quality than the Sprints then? The sprint is a 501 so I imagine the Ace is a lot letter, and bound to have better parts on the majority.

Think I'll purchase a record ace I'm currently watching and renovate it :) What sort of stuff do you use to renovate? T-Cut? :p
 
The Ace is full 531 frame and stays. All the braze on's are there and the groupset is a lovely Suntour setup.

The Carlton was renovated mainly with T Cut - the head tube on these is rust prone; I think the pale brown is actually undercoat as it's always worse than the rest of the frame. Before and after shown - that was done just by rubbing the head tube with a fingernail with T cut to help!

This gives an idea of what it was like after over a decade in a garage!

P1080278.jpg


Head tube before and after

Headtubebeforeandafter.jpg


And my 1980 RRA - really need one of the brown suede Raleigh saddles for it but they don't seem to turn up. Beautiful SR chainset!

P1050172sm.jpg
 
T-Cut does quite a bit then! Looks good for just out of the garage.

Chainset on that RRA is so nice, sparkling too. They are quite rare, see them all the time on bikes on ebay though. Try a turbo or a brooks otherwise if you want a brown seat.
 
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