Raleigh Special Products team fra- oh no, hang on...

[Goldie]

... it's a bloody Europa. Bugger!

I was idly looking through the tempting bargains on ebay, mentally spending many thousands of pounds, when I saw a handsome team liveried bike with no bids and a 25 inch frame. The seller said the only writing she could make out on the frame was "Sachs" (I ignored this) and "Campa" (I hungrily assumed that this must indicate the presence of some exotic Campag bits and bobs). The bike was only in Blackburn! Like a deadly snake waiting to pounce, I waited and waited for the end of the auction... then bosh! The bike was mine.

I jumped in the car and raced up to Blackburn. I've seen the various other beautiful red and black Raleigh machines that have cropped up on here over the past few months, and I was looking forward to a dose myself.

And of course, "Campa" turned out to be a misreading of the worn "Europa" decal - so this is what I actually ended up with:

Doh!

Oh well. It weighs in at a respectable 11.75kg, and I've been wanting to try a 25 inch framed bike to see if it's more my seize than my low twenties sized Claud and Viking. It's a 1981 built frame - does anyone have anything similar / able to tell me what the original spec would have been?

Also, does anyone know what tubing Raleigh would have used? It clearly isn't Reynolds, but it's significantly lighter than the other Raleigh group products of similar vintage that I've owned, so some effort seems to have gone into it.

 

[NickD]

It looks a better bike than most Europas I've seen, most don't have a mech hanger.

Tubing is likely to be 10-20, nothing special TBH.

Out of interest, what did it cost - the team colour scheme usually adds a few ££ to the price compared with a non team livery equivalent frame.

 

[KermitGKona88]

Hi

Had one of these BITD and the spec is pretty much as it stands sorry to say, I would just be tempted to stick a VX short cage rear on it and some alloy wheels and ride it. They ride suprisingly well for a carbon steel frame kept mine for ages and even ran it fixed

On a vulture note if that is a Specialized bottle cage would you be willing to sell it please :?:

Mark

 

[Jonny69]

You might need to measure the diameter of the seatpost to id the steel. I think I read the tubes are a constant outer diameter and the thickness of the tube walls corresponds to the grade of steel.

So I can fill in that 27.2mm is 531 and 25.4mm is el cheapo, as I have one of each of those. I also have a 26mm Peugeot which I think is lugged 501.

 

[Goldie]

Thanks all. Nick - don't laugh! - I paid £51 plus the cost of various baked goods in Spar fot it. Mark - I don't think the bottle cage is anything special(ized) - it's not branded and the fixing bolts are rusty. I've screwed it onto my hack Raleigh MTB for the time being, as it takes the hilariously massive water bottle our lass's employer gave her a few weeks back...

I took it for a ride last night, and I don't know whether it was just that it was freezing and I wanted to get home quick, but it felt quite fast. The wheels are both straight and true, and they spin beautifully. Back brake kept sticking on, but I'll pick that up when it gets its makeover.

 

[NickD]

Baked goods aside, that isn't excessive for a bike of it's type on ebay.

 

[Pointer]

Is this a Europa? I thought they all had 'Europa' written on the down tube?
like this:
http://radpropaganda.org/wp-content/upl ... e261_1.jpg

I might be wrong, a little before my time.

 

[Goldie]

Aye, I think the model must have gone through quite a few incarnations. The version in the 1974 catalogue that Spokesmann posted -

- seems to be built around a Carlton frame, with the wrap over seat stay. The one in the photo has a different treatment of the seat stays again. The serial number on mine dates it to 1981, so the model was almost a decade old by the time it rolled out of the factory. I guess the Raliegh bosses must have just looked at what nice-ish frames they were knocking out at a given date and slapped on the team colours and stickers.

The Team Record on the same page is what I fondly imagined I might be getting, as I could see that the Europa had a sloping fork crown and similar shaped lugs

 

[NickD]

I have a Record and it was a fair bit more than £51...

Strangely though, mine is four years newer than the catalogue picture there, and it is full 531, including forks, has Campag ends, and is a fair few levels above that one. Basically a level below the team frames, with mudguard eyes, and Worksop built. As I understood it, they were mainly export frames (mine came from Monaco, via the south of france) and were never in UK catalogues. there was a US version, but it was basically the same as the UK Europa

Yours looks unlike all the Europas I have seen however - could you see if you can dig out the serial no, and maybe a picture of the lugs, fork crown and dropouts?

 

[Goldie]

No problem, I've just got back from a ride and given it a wash down. I'll charge up my camera and take some photos this afternoon.