Raleigh Team Panasonic Colours Reynold 501 - ID ?

[Peuf]

Hello !

This is my last acquisition, a Raleigh Corsa frame in the colours of the team Panasonic, I always wanted to have one so when I saw it at a good price I jumped on the occasion !

It's not the high end that is 531 or 753 tubes but it's also not the entry-level Raleigh tubes (commonly called Raleigh Cadet). This one is Reynolds tubes 501. Serial number is 76808, if someone can help for dating it would be cool ! I think the date is 1984 or 1985. There is still the store sticker that sold it and surprise it still exists! It's rather uncommon: John M Hanna Cycles



I'm going to restore it as close as the original, according to the catalog page above and after having searched on a few forums, I found out it was equipped with Shimano 105 Golden Arrow which I was able to source (should arrive soon). I still miss the hubs, cassette and headset and bottom bracket.

For the stem I suppose Custom ? with Sakae handlebars.
I don't know which pedals I could put, maybe MKS ?
I was thinking a Turbo saddle and for the seatpost I don't know.
Headset and bottom bracket will be the Golden Arrow or Tange if i can't source them.

Any help or informations that would help me is warmly welcomed

 

[Peuf]

Re: Frame Raleigh Team Corsa Panasonic Colours Reynold 501

Just weighted the frame it's just above 2kg and 840g for the fork which have gipemme dropouts btw, weird or not ?

 

[Nob]

Re: Frame Raleigh Team Corsa Panasonic Colours Reynold 501

Enjoy your project

 

[roadking]

Re:

Best wishes on your new project but I don't think it is a Corsa. However, the Team Corsa was introduced in 1985, the Corsa was first introduced in 1984 and the paint was Oyster (white pearl) for this year only.

Basically what your frame lacks -

1. A full 501 tubeset
2. Correct fork crown
3. Correct brake cable braze ons (top tube).

What your frame has (what a Corsa doesn't) -

1. Mudguard eyes.

Alas I am unable to help identifying your frame

Regards, Jon.

N.B back on RB after three month Spanish sabbatical.
Current projects: Ken Bird TT, early Roberts Tourer, Roberts Audax

 

[KermitGKona88]

Re:

Cool project, but as has been said not a Corsa.

For what it is worth this is my best guess.....

It looks like a 1987 Competition frame, painted in the team colours (probably at the factory). In the 1987 catalogue there was no team replica or corsa which was unusual, (could be sponsorship issues ???). They may have rushed these into production after the catalogue was printed. What makes me think all this is....

1) Frame and fork design
2) The striped Heron design on the forks (which featured on the team bikes. Celebrating the 100th anniversary ???).

As I have said I have no firm evidence for any of this but this is all just best guess, before anyone shoots me down in flames....

 

[Peuf]

Re: Frame Raleigh Team Corsa Panasonic Colours Reynold 501

Hi guys ! Thanks a lot for your comments ! It truly helps.

So I guess not a Corsa, I wasn't too sure anyway, there has been so many bikes on this colour scheme (I even heard on some Kellogs ones on the colour of Team Panasonic).
Definitely not a Cadet, not a Corsa, maybe a resprayed one ? I am gonna send an email to the shop maybe they will know more ?

The Competition could be right, or it could be a custom one, I have read on this forum that lot of bikes from the Raleigh factory were different from the catalog versions.

Also the Gipemme dropouts on the fork may help identifying or the frame number on the BB : 76808

 

[KermitGKona88]

Re:

Are there any letters on the serial No. ?

 

[Peuf]

Re: Re:

Are there any letters on the serial No. ?

No I haven't seen any number here is a picture:

 

[KermitGKona88]

Re:

From what I can see the '7' is 1987

 

[AndyMart]

Re:

Don't want to burst your bubble but there's not much pointing to Raleigh with that one, frame number, stay caps and braze on's all look wrong. By 87 some frames had Raleigh embossed stay caps and some had small sbdu style stay caps. They did use a similar fork crown but so did other builders (Dawes?). Looks like an older respray to me, those colours have long been popular and desirable.