Raleigh Titanium 550 Proline - Is this a rarity

[bcwbishop]

Hi all,
New to the retro bike scene - although at my age and the length of time I have been cycling I shouldn't be
Thought I would share some images of my titanium raleigh SP which is circa 1999. I have owned this bike from new and it has seen service in the US and the UK. Last weekend it narrowly avoided theft!. It is actually now my wifes bike and we were away at llandegla last weekend. My bike and my sons (two Cubes) were locked up with this Raleigh and we woke in the morning to find the Cubes were gone but they had left the raleigh. I "borrowed it" from the wife for the day and hammered it down some black runs at llandegla - ouch my aching !!"$£
Anyhow - as it narrowly avoided being pinched and no doubt painted pink and sold for a fiver down the local pub, I thought I would have a search around for similar bikes - cant find anything about this to be honest so thought I would share images and specs for you guys to see if there was any pointers to history etc.
Bike is almost totally original. The only change has been the tyres and the back brake caliper and lever.
Raleigh 550 Proline Titanium
Rond Quake forks
Magura Louise hydraulic brakes
XTR Chaninset
SRAM 9.0 front and rear mech
SRAM grip shifters
ITM Bars and Stem
Hope hubs
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[theredchili]

That is a great looking bike , guessing it's a USA bike ? Has a yeti feel about it ( the early 90's thing )

Thanks for sharing it with us

 

[bcwbishop]

US or UK

Hi,
Not sure on the origin to be honest. Funny story behind it as well. I had an mtrax 500 and was riding home from work and the seatpost snapped. This dumped me on the road and tore ligaments in my leg. Off the bike for 6 weeks and bandaged up....
Got in touch with Raleigh and they panicked a little bit. They said they would replace the bike with anything from their current MTB range. This was the most expensive in the catalogue at the time so I said - that one please
I think it was about £3k. Dont know if it is UK or US therefore although I think there is a sticker saying UK - will have to check.

 

[dyna-ti]

Knew i had a pic somewhere

 

[bcwbishop]

Awesome - thankyou.
Only threw the green tyres out 6 months ago :roll:
They were a bit perished though!
Mine obviously has a few scratches but You can see from the picture how original it is - even down to the saddle.

 

[azaro]

Wearing my favourite tyres.
Used to have those on my P7 and really struggled for ages to find any more.
Now have a pair on my Kilauea and a pair on my E3!

Nice steed by the way!

 

[theredchili]

Are they wild grippers ? Have a set of amber ones , would like some whites though !

 

[azaro]

Yeah, wildgripper sprints.
Seen amber, green and black, but never seen white ones.

 

[dyna-ti]

Awesome - thankyou.
Only threw the green tyres out 6 months ago :roll:
They were a bit perished though!

Alas the way of many a good bit of rubber

Mine obviously has a few scratches but You can see from the picture how original it is - even down to the saddle.

This is great to see,thanks for being so tight as not to have changed anything

 

[bcwbishop]

I know - how tight is that. Got to get the most from your kit of course.

Actually gave up biking for a few years (more fool me) and then when I came back to it I wanted a shiny new bike so my raleigh languished in the garage. Then gifted it to the Mrs and she does not get out that much. Still tight though