1974 Raleigh International

A classic steel frame touring bike, made of Reynolds 531 double butted tubing at the Carlton, England Factory in 1974. Chromed Nervex Professional lugs, fork blades, and rear stays give it a bit of class. Part list is here.





More info at Retro Raleighs,



This bike and this site were built by C. Heg
cheg01 at comcast dot net


History


When I bought this bike, it had the following:

   TA Cyclotourist Double Crank with 42/52 Chainrings
   TA Bottom Bracket
   Mafac Competition centerpull brakes and levers
   Maes Alloy Handlebars
   GB Forged Alloy Stem
   Brooks Professional Saddle
   Campagnolo Nuovo Record Strada Pedals
   Christophe Toe-Clips
   Campagnolo Record Large Flange QR Hubs
   Campagnolo Two Bolt Alloy Seatpost
   Campagnolo Nuovo Record Front Derailleur
   Campagnolo Nuovo Record Rear Derailleur
   Campagnolo Nuovo Record Downtube Shifters
   Campagnolo Nuovo Record Headset

In about 1983, I decided to "upgrade" some of the hardware, having been seduced by the mystique of Campagnolo. I bought and installed the following:

   Campagnolo Nuovo Record Crank with 42/52 Chainrings
   Campagnolo Nuovo Record Bottom bracket
   Campagnolo Nuovo Record Toe-clips
   Campagnolo Nuovo Record Sidepull Brakes

For practical reasons (commuting in Seattle) I added:
   Blummel Popular Fenders, Coffee Black
   Blackburn Alloy Rack

Original Gear Chart
Cog Sprocket Gear Inches
13 52 108.0
16 52 87.8
19 52 73.9
164270.9
225263.8
19 42 59.7
22 42 51.5
25 42 45.4

In practice, I rarely used the 42/16 or 52/22 combinations. That gave 6 combinations out of 10 possible but the shift pattern was simple, with only one front shift in the sequence. The Nuovo Record rear derailleur had a limited range and the conventional wisdom was to never use the large front-largest rear or the small front-smallest rear combinations. A simple pattern is especially good when you are using downtube shifters. I put a lot of miles on the bike in this configuration commuting to University of Washington and riding around Seattle.

In 1987 I added the fancy ropework on the handlebars when I was laid up with a sprained ankle for a month.




Last year I decided to adding some lower gears and at the same time to make better use of the gear range. I did some reading on Usenet and found out about the once popular but now little used "half-step + granny" gear combination. It offers a nice closely spaced gear range with a couple of very low bail-out gears for hill climbing. Turns out that the old TA Cyclotourist crank that I had spurned 25 years ago was perfect for that type of gearing. I found it gathering dust out in the garage and added a third chainring to make it a triple. I also changed the cogs on the freewheel to get more range in the back. I decided to continue to use the 5 speed rear wheel. Later wheels with more than 5 speeds have longer axles, so the spacing on the rear dropouts has to be increased by bending the frame to make the wheel fit properly and I don't want to do that if it's not necessary. Maybe when I need a new rear wheel I'll go to a 7/8/9 speed rear wheel and respace the frame.
The "half-step" part is from having a small difference between the two larger chainrings so that a front derailleur shift gives about 1/2 of the change of a rear derailleur shift. To make the double shifts more convenient, I switched to Suntour bar-end friction shifters instead of the downtube shifters. I put a 52/48/33 combination on the crank and a 13/16/20/23/28 on the freewheel. The result is 12 useful gears out of a possible 15:

Current Gearing

Gear Chart
Cog Sprocket Gear Inches
13 52 108.0
13 48 99.7
16 52 87.8
16 48 81.0
20 52 70.2
20 48 64.8
23 52 61.0
23 48 56.3
28 52 50.1
28 48 46.3
23 33 38.7
28 33 31.8

The Campagnolo Nuovo Record derailleurs were not designed for this kind of gearing. The NR front derailleur cage was not long enough to shift down to the 33 tooth inner ring. Modern front derailleurs have wide inner cage plates that will not clear the 48 tooth middle ring when shifting up to the outer ring. I changed to a Suntour Cyclone M-II front derailleur designed for touring bikes in the '80s when "half-step + granny" was more common. I had some problems with overshifting on the front so I added a N-Gear Jump Stop chainguide which fixed the problem.
The Campy NR rear derailleur could not handle the new range, so I changed to a modern Shimano Deore long-cage derailleur. Amazing what 30 years of development will do to improve shifting. Here is a picture of the drivetrain:



Another concession to modern times was to switch from the old toe-clip Campagnolo pedals to a set of Shimano M-515 SPD pedals. The other major improvement was to get rid of the brick-like leather saddle and put on a very comfortable Velo VL-6031 elastomer suspended saddle. Now at last I can ride for hours with no pain.

Part list is here.





COMPONENT DESCRIPTION
Frame&Fork 1974 Raleigh International, Reynolds 531 Steel
Headset Campagnolo Nuovo Record 1" Threaded
Handlebar Maes Alloy Drop Bars
Stem GB Forged 1" Threaded
Shifters Suntour Barcons
Brake Levers Campagnolo Nuovo Record
Brakes Campagnolo Nuovo Record
Seatpost Campagnolo Nuovo Record 2 Bolt
Saddle Velo VL-6031 Deluxe
Seatpost Bolt Campagnolo
Front Derailleur Suntour Cyclone M-II
Rear Derailleur Shimano Deore SGS
Rear Hub Campagnolo Record High Flange 5 Speed
Freewheel Suntour Perfect 5 Speed: 13/16/20/23/28
Rims Sun CR
Front Hub Campagnolo Record High Flange
Bottom Bracket TA
Crank Arms TA Cyclotourist, 175mm
Chain Rings TA Cyclotourist 52/48/33
Chain KMC Super Shuttle 3/32
Pedals Shimano M-515 SPD
Tires Continental Utlra Gatorskins, 100 psi

Latest Changes

Recently, I made another change to the setup of this bike. I never used the drops on the handlebars except when I had to (to reach the brakes). After a rough Century ride on chip-sealed roads, I decided to switch to cowhorn bars with better vibration damping. The fancy ropework looks nice, but it's not very compliant. The addition of Specialized "Bar Phat" gel pads under cork tape helped relieve the road shock. It is designed for drop bars, so the gell pads overlap just in front of the forward bend in the TT bars. This gives a nice palm-sized padded grip at a natural hand position.
The ride position is more comfortable, but I lost my barend shifters, switching to barend brake levers. I installed stem shifters when the bars were changed. I added a little ropework at the ends of the bars to give me someting to grab onto when stretched out. The cables end up very clean this way, I can hardly see them from the saddle. It feels like the forward-most position is more aerodynamic than anything I had with the drop bars, and the bike is a bit lighter now (still no featherweight, though). Here are some pictures:








Parts List Updates:
COMPONENT DESCRIPTION
Handlebar Syntace Stratos Zero Drop Time Trial bars
Handlebar Tape Specialized Bar Phat
Stem Kalloy Adjustable Quill Stem
Shifters Suntour Stem Shifters
Brake Levers Tektro Bar End Levers
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