Raleigh Titanium 550 Proline - Is this a rarity

[bcwbishop]

So guys,
Is this a rare beasty which I need to lavish a bit more love and attention on?
With a strip clean and rebuild it would look pretty much like the picture from the magazine - apart from the one replaced brake - alas!

I could even concourse it to BOTM?

Or is it just another mass produced bike which is in ok nick for the year?

Cheers for all of the information so far

 

[bikemeister2000]

Thanks so much for posting this one. It was the last range I did for Raleigh Special Products.

There is nothing American about it. Hand built Ti frame made in England. Bike hand assembled in Nottingham. If bought new you would have had a card with the assembler's picture on it.

It's great to see it in such a fantastic condition. I hope you continue to enjoy it for years to come.

 

[bcwbishop]

Wow - Many thanks.
Will try to keep it original from here on in.

 

[bikemeister2000]

Did you get if from Eddie McGrath's on Station Road? They were one of our premier retailers and would have stocked some of this range, although due to the costs most retailers would buy to order.

 

[bcwbishop]

Yep - it did come through Eddies. They are still there although I think they are finding it a bit tough at the moment. I think it was Martin who sorted it for me.

 

[bcwbishop]

Although they did not stock this particular one - mainly M-Trax stuff

 

[bikemeister2000]

Yep, sums it up really. Raleigh main dealers would not invest in the top end products, and multi-franchise dealers wouldn't because the main dealers would discount to undercut them.

Just a typical story of great British products going down the drain, like motorcycles and cars. Oh well, we can allways buy things on the cheap from China. :cry:

 

[stormforce5]

my RSP 600 Titanium

Hello there,

saw your pic after doing abit of googling to see if anyone still has any of the old Mtrax Titanium bikes... and saw the pix...

My bike has a reversed colour scheme to your's, ie yellow tubes, not blue..

Still a great bike... this pic is from around 2001, since then I've put some lighter alloy wheels + new tyres on my mine but it hasn't changed much and I must confess to not riding it enough so its still in same condition as the photo.

Before this bike I had a mtrax ti1000 - which was a fab bike for the 5 / 6 years I had it before I bent the frame on it... entirely my fault I must add.

hope you like the pic.

ta

 

[markwashington]

Yours is the 600 not the 550 hence the colour change, it came with Sids up front.

Here's the link to my bike: http://www.retrobike.co.uk/forum/viewto ... gh+rsp+600

It's strange to see it with rigid forks, especially as they're painted sid blue, are they Ti?

 

[stormforce5]

Hey mark,

nice bike you have there on your link..

The history of my 600 bike is abit mixed, after I managed to seriously bend my ti1000 I had (which I loved), I contacted Raleigh and being abit cheeky I arranged to send the bent ti1000 frame back and they let me upgrade to the 600 frame at cost price (about £300 I seem to remember), the blue forks was sent with it from Raleigh.

I originally built the 600 around the parts from my old ti1000, I moved over my (I guess rare now) XT thumb shifters over too (the one with the hidden 8th gear, as they were only marked as having 7 gears). I had to upgrade some parts such as decent v-brakes (the ti1000 had cantilever brakes). After a couple of months I decided to upgrade to mainly XT kit.

The wheels on the pic are from the ti1000 but I eventually upgraded them to some newer wheels later as my rear wheel was abit buckled. I had intended to get some decent rockshox as well but never got round to that.

might take some better pix at the weekend and upload them.

thanks for taking an interest in my bike..

Jimbo