Retro Road Bikes ?

[J4CKO]

Ok, we have Retro MTB and BMX threads, didnt see a Road Bike one, so here is one.

I nearly put an offer in on this last night,

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Raleigh-Record-Sprint-1...

I spent ages as a 14 year old lusting after these, when I wasn't lusting after a girl called Louise. Never managed to get either, the former as my dad bought a secondhand Peugeot for me whilst I was still saving up and the latter as she wasn't interested in the slightest

Anyway, the Peugeot turned up, we repainted it blue, my dad sourced the correct decals, put some nice bits on it and it looked ace, until it got nicked.

So still have a hankering for a Record Sprint.

Prior to that I had a Raleigh Arena and subsequently had a series of Raleigh Equipes, three to be exact as they were cheap and used the old one to keep the new one going, one got pinched (eventually got it back), the second didnt survive a jump, the rear stays snapped.


So until I got a cycle to work bike I only ever had Pig iron bottom of the range Raleighs, what did you have ? still got them ? should I buy that Record Sprint ?

My mates who had richer parents had bikes from further into the Raleigh catalog, Scirocco and Crterium I think.

[J4CKO]

splodge s4 said:

Ebay find a few months ago, needed new tyres, tubes, cables, chain & a few spokes, does me all in for £60 so not bad. Rides crap!

Exactly the same as I had as a kid, loved it, but cant imagine it feels great now.


Some lovely retro goodness in this thread, other than Pig Iron bottom of the range Raleigh tat ! Which I still have fond memories of, not bought the Record Sprint, looks like its gone anyway, did wonder whether I would ride it.

Edited by J4CKO on Tuesday 14th July 13:28

[J4CKO]

Just resurrecting this, put a bid on another Raleigh Record Sprint but had decided to get one and to restore it to as new, maybe with a few little modern touches.

Will do a full repaint and am thinking that as these had various gold anodized parts I can potentially set up at home to re anodise if required, anyone done it ?

Can get the graphics online which is the usual stumbling block.

Going to stick a Selle Royal Turbo Saddle on it like I had back then.

Any tips on getting a really good glossy black paint job ? worth sending it off ?

Nostalgia, terrible thing


Edit, bought it, £150. Will collect it later, may even document the rebuild process.

Edited by J4CKO on Tuesday 16th March 14:29

[J4CKO]

RC1807 said:

Good luck, J4CKO!

I think £150 is more than I paid new for my 23" Record Sprint in 1984.

I remember £189, this is a 23, used to buy 25's back then but too big really.

[J4CKO]

Barchettaman said:

Before embarking on a full respray see what it looks like after a thorough clean and polish with cutting compound. Even T-Cut will do a decent job. They can come up surprisingly well with a bit of elbow grease.

Small rust spots can be sanded out and touched up with black nail polish.

I bought a fairly battered black Kinesis frame for my kid and it cleaned up really well.

Picked it up and am actually very pleased with it.

Its very well fettled, rides really nicely with loads of new bits, has had £200 spent on it, new rear wheel, cassette, correct colour brake cable outers, brake blocks.

Took the pox mudguards off, pumped the tyres up and raised the seat, then went for a trundle and it was instantly familiar. Changed a couple of ropey bolts for new ones.

Cosmetically it is a well used, but not abused 37 year old bike, scuffed and bits of rust so think will use it for a bit and then take it to bits and send it in for power coating, I rang a local company I have used for other bits and they quoted £70, £30 for some new decals and that would have it pretty much perfect. Part of me likes the fact its lived though.

[J4CKO]

Risotto said:

J4CKO said:

Just resurrecting this, put a bid on another Raleigh Record Sprint but had decided to get one and to restore it to as new, maybe with a few little modern touches.

Will do a full repaint and am thinking that as these had various gold anodized parts I can potentially set up at home to re anodise if required, anyone done it ?

Can get the graphics online which is the usual stumbling block.

Going to stick a Selle Royal Turbo Saddle on it like I had back then.

Any tips on getting a really good glossy black paint job ? worth sending it off ?

Nostalgia, terrible thing


Edit, bought it, £150. Will collect it later, may even document the rebuild process.

Edited by J4CKO on Tuesday 16th March 14:29

I re-anodised the gold parts on mine as part of a restoration I did. Managed to find the thread on Retrobikes if it's any help. http://www.retrobike.co.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?f=2...

Can't believe it was nearly 10 years ago now...!

Wow, impressive !

Still got it, do you use it ?

Not had chance to do anything with mine yet as been working, other than sticking a modern front wheel on which looks daft as it has a Rubino Pro tyre in red on it and some faded Bontrager decals, so it needs a clean and some different tyres. Might go full retro and order a Sell Royal Turbo 80 Saddle, I had one back in the day and loved it.

Might go for a few miles on it tonight.

Weird how I am more excited by this than the fancy Carbon Trek I have coming in May

[J4CKO]

Ordered some new Continental tyres and am refurbing my spare wheels so had to buy a spoke and a wheel truing stand.

[J4CKO]

Bit of cleaning and polishing, painted the front wheel and it looks ace, should look good with modern fully black wheels and black tyres. Spent about two hours cleaning the chainwheels.

Had a spare Charge Spoon Saddle and have ordered a new seat post, painted the pedals that came with it satin black, remove the stty reflectors.

Need a crank bolt if anyone knows where to get one.

[J4CKO]

Got a wheel truing stand and a new spoke and got the back wheel I am putting on it as straight as I could, good enough. That is a bit of an art isnt it !

Realised the wheel that came on the back, despite being new is a freewheel type so the cassette part is no use, had a root through my spares and found a 9 speed cassette (after much measuring and reading, 9 will work with the same chain apparently, seems ok) and bunged that on the wheel which I had by then painted satin black and removed all the faded rim stickers (not a fun job)

Just waiting on some tyres to arrive and can finish it off, stick it in the shed and never touch it again

Still need a crank bolt as well, will do some photos soon.

[J4CKO]

[J4CKO]

Yeah, there is something about them, obviously caught my imagination back then. I now have the same thing for a BMW M4, though age and experience mean the yearning isnt quite as vivid.

I am not that tall, about 6 ft, its a 23 inch, set the seat to the same as my modern roadie. It needs some fettling as it now rides worse than when I got it with the new bits, just needs a few tweaks and a crank bolt, nipping to the bike shop tomorrow as they have a new stem in that I ordered before I painted the rusty old one and it came out nicely, well, good enough.

I have to build a bit of confidence in a bike as you need to know if you get out of the saddle nothing will slip, snap or otherwise cause a crash, will do that over the weekend.

It like seven centimetres narrower across the bars which is weird, I quite like the old friction shifters, feels like going from a DSG to a classic with a manual but they need setting up to use all the ratios of the nine speed cassette I plonked on, seems ok so far.

Doubt it well do many miles with my new Trek coming but when I dont want to leave something worth that much outside a shop/pub or whatever, it will have a role and be set up and ready to go, nothing worse than bikes sat needing half an hours messing before you can use them.

[J4CKO]

RC1807 said:

J4CKO said:

Very nice.

One thing, well, two, actually.
Tyre labels vs. valves.
Need aligning.

Is that a thing ?

I broke two tyre levers getting them feckers on, not buying those Continentals again, never had a tyre that was so hard to get on !

So, they arent coming off just yet, until my hands are less tender, even using the medium of "Dad Strength" it was hard, not sure how a kid or someone without Dad Strength could manage it.

[J4CKO]

yellowjack said:

RC1807 said:

J4CKO said:

Very nice.

One thing, well, two, actually.
Tyre labels vs. valves.
Need aligning.

Never mind the tyre/valve alignment. What about that gold bar tape???

Surely not. A Record Sprint ought to have black bar tape. 'Suede' effect back in the day, but a modern black padded bar tape would set it off much better than the gold (imho). The Charge (Spoon?) saddle, though, is pretty much spot on for the bike outside of spending a chunk of money on something more original.

Another point which is more of a question than a criticism. Are those the original friction shifters? Because my Record Sprint had black "plastic" shifters, with an upward "curl" way back when. Those shifters don't look 'right' for that model of the Record Sprint with the ovalised "aerospace" tubing.

Not meant as criticism, just questioning my own memories of a long lost love affair with a Raleigh Record Sprint. I'd love to own one again, but the right type doesn't come up too often, and as i'm a short-arse it's even more difficult to find the "right" model in a size that I could even begin to think about actually riding. Why is it that so many retro bikes only seem to exist in larger frame sizes?

Edited by yellowjack on Friday 26th March 09:17

Agree on the bar tape, thing is its brand new and wasn't top of my agenda but am off to pick up a new seatpost for it today from the LBS so will grab some bar tape, seen the odd one with gold tape but think it is a later addition and not really to my taste either, too much gold.

The friction shifters, hmm, be surprised if they had been changed and if you look for pictures of the Record Sprint the bulk do seem to have black plastic shifters, but some do seem to have metal, I suspect they are original and Raleigh just fitted what they had and there were small changes over the model years, not after 100 percent originality.

There are some 21 inch ones on eBay, I always saw myself getting a 25 as I always went for the oversized frame with a low seat on bikes back then as I liked how they looked but 23 1/2 is a more suitable size for me.

Will do some fettling over the weekend and put the new bar tape, my tip after years of limited success with putting tape on, spray adhesive, that stuff you get in a can, lash it on the back of the bar tape and the bars and then put it down, that thing line of lame adhesive never seems to cut it for me, did my Trek with the spray glue and its been perfect with no sliding or coming loose.

Back in the day it was electricians tape all the way, my dad used to get it from work, many a time he couldn't get black and I went round with earth style yellow and green bars didn't matter as never lasted long.

Was just thinking, would be cool to build a modern Record Sprint, all modern bits but with gold accents, get some one off decals made up etc.

[J4CKO]

More like it ?





Now need to sort the gears, wont go in the highest or lowest which stands to reason as it was originally six speed and its now 9, bit high geared as well so any suggestions as to what derailleur or whatever else I need.

New seatpost didnt fit, cant be arsed taking it back, did get a crank bolt that was fairly near, just the front bit so now it has a slightly filed down M6 bolt on the back.

Edited by J4CKO on Friday 26th March 18:42

[J4CKO]

I will ensure the tyres are rotated next time I take them off, normally its the work of a moment but it was such a pain to get them on I dont fancy doing it again just yet, dread changing one at the side of the road if its wet and dark.

Anyone got any suggestions on the drivetrain, think I need a different derailleur.

[J4CKO]

Realised I had kept a 9 speed Tiagra mech form when it had a rear wheel interface, I bought a new one but this was only mildly crunched as the hanger snapped like it was meant to so kept it for spares.

Bit of ghetto straightening with the vice and hammer, stuck it on and goes in all gears, will order a gear cable as the one that it is on it is chewed to bits and some of it is now I think stuck in my thumb.

Good news is it goes in all gears now, will get it on my stand and set it up properly when the cable arrives.

Might change the pedals, they are daft one sided things that you have to turn over when you set off, cant see the point of that on a flat pedal, just annoying.

[J4CKO]

yellowjack said:

J4CKO said:

Realised I had kept a 9 speed Tiagra mech form when it had a rear wheel interface, I bought a new one but this was only mildly crunched as the hanger snapped like it was meant to so kept it for spares.

Bit of ghetto straightening with the vice and hammer, stuck it on and goes in all gears, will order a gear cable as the one that it is on it is chewed to bits and some of it is now I think stuck in my thumb.

Good news is it goes in all gears now, will get it on my stand and set it up properly when the cable arrives.

Might change the pedals, they are daft one sided things that you have to turn over when you set off, cant see the point of that on a flat pedal, just annoying.

They will almost certainly have had a toe clip and strap when new, I'm sure. I used to use clip/strap pedals, for years. But few people use them properly. You're meant to wear cycling shoes with them, and tighten the straps when riding. I just used to leave the straps loose and wear ordinary trainers. Eventually the straps wear through, though. You can either replace the straps, use just the clips, or take the straps/clips off completely. But yes, if you don't intend to use toe clips with them then you'd be far better off with a double-sided pedal with a larger surface area.

Yeah, that did occur to me after I posted, will just bang a spare pair of SPDs on it for now I think. Trying to not buy anything else for it

Its amazing how much difference there is in how the frame flexes between this and my carbon trek which doesnt seem to care about the fat lump sat on top hauling itself up a hill, where this you can feel it flex.

Now waiting on gear cables, shame the LBS near us became a Travis Perkins, moved and then closed down, became the Trek shop, was really handy, 2 minutes away, nearest one is still only three miles but its not quite as convenient.

[J4CKO]

Smitters said:

Thar be a parrot round 'ere parts somewhere. A quick google of the above Baron ought to do it.

And if you think my sarcasm/wit is bad, imagine the scorn poured on me because I ride a cyclocross bike on the road... My trusty PlanetX Uncle John is a saddlebagged all-weather hack on oversized slicks for comfort, that definitely makes the noses of the Bianchi classes twitch. Especially if I overtake them going up hill in the big ring. Because my big ring is a 48, cos cyclocross innit, but they don't know that!

Someone I know tells me I have "Ruined" my commuter bike, it was a Cannondale Bad Boy, they approved of this as it was all Satin/Matte black and dead mean and moody, but, over time it gained lights, a bar end mirror, mudguards and horror of horrors, a rack and panniers.

Your bike looking cool is pretty low on the want scale when commuting, being seen, not having 20 kilos of crap in a rucksack swaying about and not having gritty cold water going where the sun doesn't reach are higher priorities.

[J4CKO]

New gear cable fitted and the gears dialled in, it rides amazingly well now but wouldn't trade it for my 7/8 year old Trek.

The flex in the frame is quite nice in one way, in that it rides nicely, but get out of the saddle and it feels flexible but not in a good way, part of owning a bike is building trust in it and part of it may be that but doesnt feel as reassuring as my carbon modern.

Friction shifters are nice to use really, but am not friction shifting on my Trek and trying to use the indexed shifters that aren't on the old Raleigh.

Will nip out for a short run tomorrow on it and see how I get on.