Raleigh Tourer/roadie ?

[RZero]

I brought a 5 speed bike on Friday for wopping sum of £11, its had bad repaint in its past and has no markings, I'm pretty sure its a Raleigh because it looks Raleigh to me, just wondering if any one can help tell me the model, its light for its age which Im guessing is 78ish by the serial number on the bike but its hard to tell but I can make an 8 out plus 3 letters possibly but I will make a rub of them tonight to see if it shows the letters.

Sturmey Archer Hubs and Raleigh Wheels 26" (1 1/4).
Sturmey Archer Seat post with Sportex Plastic seat (Made in France)
Suntour perfect 5 rear Cassette.
Elan rear Dérailleur.
Wienmann Brakes (Raleigh brake blocks)

 

[RZero]

Also the Suntour Cassette had pretty much up seized up but I ordered the two prong removal tool of ebay, so Ive managed to get it of the wheel and clean it up and soaked it in Wilkos bike oil, it freewheels like new

 

[Spokesmann]

What you going to do with this one?

Could look good again.

 

[RZero]

hopefully use it for a commuter day to day bike. Starting to think it might not be a raleigh frame. The serial under the bb is 3 digit letters with a number stamp just away from the 3 digits. the 3 digits look like some thing I cannot make out maybe an E followed by either an A or N then L with number 6 or 8 about inch away from it. Im hoping to get it sprayed once I find out about bike.

 

[RZero]

It looks like it might be an old Raleigh Arena, it looks like one of these Raleigh Arena

 

[Spokesmann]

Might well be, note sure if the Arena had a good GB steam like that though.

A frame number might help at least identify the year which may help in narrowing down the model.

 

[RZero]

Is GB a decent part then ? Im going to scrub most of the paint under BB to see if there is any thing more underneath and hunt round the seat post. The bike does not feel like a old steel frame, it def feels light. All the Raleighs that look close to it do not have the plugs for the pump on the top bar.

 

[Spokesmann]

Is GB a decent part then ? Im going to scrub most of the paint under BB to see if there is any thing more underneath and hunt round the seat post. The bike does not feel like a old steel frame, it def feels light. All the Raleighs that look close to it do not have the plugs for the pump on the top bar.

The old Gb (Gerry Burgess) stuff isn't too bad, I have a lot of GB parts on my Carltons and it all seems pretty well made. Some of the very early post-war parts were not up to scratch but they got their act together in the 50s and 60s. I still swear by a pair of Courier 66s on my 64 Flyer and as I say a lot of my Carltons have GB brakes of handle bars/stem by GB.

 

[RZero]

Cheers for the info Spokesmann, bit of rubbing I found the serial on the seat tube and bit of rubbing on under the bb I got the correct serial

On the BB it has 1UE and number 8 which is also stamped on the seatpost lug.

The Serial number is NK 1 426654 which means if Im right its Raleigh Nottingham July 1981 so 30 years old this month . Also it looks like the bike was originally Blue with possible Chromed Forks, started to rub the black paint off the forks but looks like they primed it with some grey paint, so hard to tell.

Edit Photos added

 

[RZero]

Looking at the blue paint under the red, the pictures of the Arena and the specs kinda look the same, so least hopefully I have the make and colour so I can now start to bring it back up to its former glory.