Raleigh Flyer

[alecw35]

I used to do a lot of cycling when I was young and daft. Now Im just daft
I was in the local bike club. Did some touring and time trials.
My best bike was a Bob Jackson. Was built in 1968. 2 years older than me. I rebuilt it. Got it sprayed silver. Fitted Stronglight cranks with Suntour 12 speed. With Fiame sprint rims. Was a good bike.
I built a bike I called my Day bike. Was a Vindec roadster frame that I modded to be a 10 speed racer.

Thats on its shakedown run in a town 12 miles away. Early 1989. Did a lot of miles on that bike. Went to Newcastle, Elgin and the west coast. I live near Dundee on the east coast of Scotland.
I wanted a MTB. A freind gave me the bars off his Raleigh Mustang. So I fitted them onto the day bike. Was late summer. 1991.

guess it was no longer a day bike with lights on it
I striped it out and put some of the bits on my Carlton Corsair.

GRRRR will this picture resize please. Tried a couple of times.
I sort of sold that to a work mate. Not got all the cash yet. Well its only been 18 years.
I gave up on racers then. I got into mountain bikes and small bikes.
Im trying to get into racers again. I have a lot of old bike bits. So looked to find a Raleigh frame thats my size. I selected a Raleigh Flyer. Looks like a late 80s low end racer. Carbolite frame.
I was at the auction in town and bid £5 for a big framed Raleigh racer. I took the wheels and some other bits off it. Then threw the frame in a skip near the bus station. Got the bus back.
I bought Campag Athena chainset and mechs from Ebay for about £10. I built the bike up with a 6 speed shimano block on the 700c alloys. With the Campag cranks and gears.
The plastic friction gear levers that were on the frame. And the bars and stem of another frame I had.

Thats at a nearby Loch.
I dont think the brakes are upto much. Its got Fibrax pads on it. They will be a bit old. So not used it much.
I was given this Columbus racer a month or so ago.

I put a saddle on it and swapped the cabbles over. Its from Germany so has them the wrong way round. Had a shot on a bike that had the cables like that.
the owner said to skid. grabbed all of the left lever and went over the bars
The Columbus has better brakes than the Raleigh. Maybe better pads. But Ive set the cables looser. So have an easier time moving the levers. Its seems better.
I rewrapped the bar tape, fitted a 60mm stem. Fitted road platform pedals with clips and straps. Tried on my Specialized road shoes. Not worn them much.
Have done about 20 miles on the Columbus this week with clips and straps on. Not fallen over yet.

Heres three of my road bikes. My Elswick Hopper single speed, The Columbus and the Flyer.

I fitted road platform pedals to the Flyer. Went out to town on it on wednesday. Its about 10 miles away. Went ok. But I did a lot of walking on the plastic slotted cleats.
The plastic wore a bit and I couldnt push them onto the pedal properly. Feet were sliding about. Ive tried clearing the slot. Will have to see if there ok.

I took off the 80mm black stem and fitted a 60mm stem. Wrapped the bars in white tape.
Was out on my Marin today. Did about 20 miles. So no playing with racers.

[BB]

Really good post mate. I like the look of the Columbus. Why does one pic look like youve been starting fires, haha

[alecw35]

the pic with the fires is me being arty. The farmers burn the the straw left on the ground after harvest time. One of my fave songs is Feilds of Fire. By Big Country. So thats how I took the pic.
I tried revving out the Vindec in first gear. Think it was 36 X 21 with a 27" wheel. 46" bottom gear. I saw 30mph on the Huret mechanical speedo I had on it.
The Columbus is a nice bike. Its got allen key brake spindles. Most of my other frames are regular hex nuts. I was looking through ebay a while ago. A man had a pair of Cannondale dual pivots that he'd swapped out immediately he got the new bike. He said they were terrible brakes. He should try 25 year old Weinnman side pulls. He wanted a reason to for me to get them. Not money. I couldnt think of anything. So just gave him a £1 bid. I also got an assorted lot of a set of racer bars with new tape and shimano aero levers. Was a fancy bike multi tool and a BB spanner that fits my Campag BB I got for the Flyer. 7 speed down tube shifters. A packet of foam bar covering. Was a couple of quid for the lot.
Will fit the Aero levers, Dual pivots and the 7 speed gear levers to the Columbus.
I got a pair of Shimano hubbed wheels from the dump years ago. They had been grindered across the rims and the cassette. Been waiting to get rims to rebuild them onto. The Columbus wheels are Maillard hubs on rusty chrome spokes to 700c alloy rims. The Shimanos are 7 speed cassette hubs on Stainless spokes to wrecked black 700c rims. I got a new cassette for a couple of quid.
Will move the QR brake adjusters onto the Flyers brakes.
might use the foam bar covering on the Dawes Galaxy that I will restore soon.

[alecw35]

Heres a couple of pics of my Elswick Hopper Whirlwind
I got the bike from a bike shop. I had asked them if they had any Grifter bits. They didnt. But said I could take away there excustomer bikes, that the customers hadnt picked up after repairs. That shops really expensive. I got a silver Grifter there.

Thats the Grifter in front of the shop.
A freind worked for a removals company. So filled up the large removals lorry with the bikes. He didnt want any deisel money. But asked for a Raleigh Activator 2 that was in the lot of bikes. He sold it to his work mate.
Anyway. The Elswick was a complete bike. 5 speed. With all steel components. Most of which were rusty. Its a Raleigh badge engineered bike. Has the low mounting holes for the mudguards on the rear drop outs. And the big hex nut headset.
I stripped off all the components. I built a Maillard hub onto a 27" steel rim. It was a 5 speed freewheel hub. I put the spacers on the other side. I looked in my box of cranks. An SR Silstar alloy crank was in there. Very rough. The unremovable big ring had some teeth that were corroded away. So I sawed and filed the teeth off the big ring. Its now a chainguard for the small ring. I filed, sanded and wet and dried the cranks. Nice and shiny.
I also polished up a set of Weinman 500 calipers. Fitted stainless fasteners. The bars are alloy drops that are cut down and flipped up. The stems my fave SR Custom 60mm. The bar foams off an exercise bike. With CLB aero levers.
I had got a Royal Enfield ladies roadster as a donor bike. So took the guards off it.

thats the bike in my garden in the winter time, just after I built it.
But the 27" wheels scrubbed on the 26" guards a bit too much. So took them off.

Thats the bike more recently. In my garden again. removed all the bushes as the garden lands for sale now.

[alecw35]

I got a box of hubs from ebay. a couple of front disc hubs and a fixed hub. so might build one to a 27" alloy rim for the Elswick. So it can be fixed gear.
the wheel thats on it needs respaced. as the chain scrapes on the remains of the big ring. single speeds need a straight chain line. All the people that show pics of there fixie show the chain line.
Its got 40 X 16 on a 27" wheel. 67" gear. I can get up most of the hills around here on that.

[alecw35]

I took a pic of the Flyer today. My camera dont like white or shiny things. so had trouble taking pics in the sunshine.



not been out on it today. well up and down my roads all.

A man came to my house on wednesday and swapped a couple of MTBs for one I had. I gave him a cheap dual suspension MTB. I was given it by some one. But have done a bit of work on it. Biked it 60 miles. Today he come back asking to swap a girls mtb for my Schwinn Stingray. I paid £50 for the Schwinn. Was not keen on taking a rough bike with parts missing, in a swap for it. Especially as I saw that bike abandonded in the Aldi car park on monday. He said he got it from the vets next to Aldis. Oh well in the grand scheme of things it'll all work out the same. Will be easier to sell the bikes he swapped me. Than the Stingray.
Anyway. I washed all 3 bikes. I greased all the hubs. Looks like all I need to fix them up is some bearings, reflectors, noodles, a 24" tyre. Ive got all those parts in the shed.

[BB]

The flyer has team colours doesnt it? Was it one of the top Raleigh models?

[alecw35]

thats one of the good things about it. a version of the team colours.

its a low end frame though. Carbolite tubing

I see a couple of Raleigh racers on ebay, with team paintjob like Burners had.
ones a 501 frame. looks nice.
theres some nice vintage Raleigh on Retro bike and in the Classic and vintage section of Bike Forums.

[mikeyboyo]

I have a team banana, a bronze coloured falcon and have been offered a mint raleigh and a 1987 Peugeot racer.

[alecw35]

whats the expression. Holly thread ressurection batman!!

well all the bikes in this thread are gone. After having family problems. I got rid of all my stuff. mostly by giving it away, or scrapping it.

Im in a new place now. got way too many bikes now. The racer I got recently, might fit in with the age of the other bikes here. But its not a Raleigh. Its a Rossin. Apparently Mario Rossin used to work for Colnago. His bikes are top end stuff. I got it at a boot sale for £15.



heres some specs. Shimano 600 chainset ,mechs, brakes. Shimano 105 gear levers and headset. Cinelli bars and stem. Campag record hubs. Mavic GP4 rims with tubular tyres. Front tyres got a lump on it. So I found a pair of 700c wheels in the scrapyard. black deep alloy rims, 24 bladed spokes, shimano 9 speed hubs. They were £1. well I got a mtb wheel too. so I suppose the wheels were 66p. Ive been on Chain reaction. a pair of good tyres and tubes are less than one tub.
I have been riding it on the damaged tyre. Its light as a feather. Im still trying to get used to it. Ive fitted Wellgo platform pedals of a spares bike as yet to get Look compatable shoes.

[mushroom]

That looks a nice bike

[alecw35]

I blew up my toaster so I biked up the hill to the dump. I seen a red and black racer in the compound at the gate. I did a u turn and asked the council worker on the bench beside there. He said bikes go to recycling. Told me to ask the man in the cabin. I asked him and he said I could have it for free.

Its a Raleigh Europa in Ti Raleigh racing colours. Its got small suntour mechs. theres good half hoods on the brake levers. Its got a bike shop sticker, from the shop that used to be round the corner from my house. Its more my size than the Rossin. The pic makes it look a million times better than it is. The chromes lifted off the rims. the chains rusted on to the freewheel. I think I'll put my hybrids wheels on it, as the hybrids needing forks, so going no where.

[dylan]

nice europa, i have 1 in good nick nice bikes