Raleigh Panasonic Team Replica 12 restoration
24/10/2020
I’m British, but as I mentioned, I live in New York. Waiting for me at home, in England, are two as-yet unstarted projects: a gorgeous Kirk Precision magnesium alloy frame, again from the 80s, that will one day be transformed into a super-stylish off-road bike and another Muddy Fox Courier Comp frame, to replace my first ever bike build that was stolen from Broadwick Street in Soho in 2006. But sadly, because of the Coronavirus pandemic, I’ve been unable to return to the UK for a visit and this collect them. And because of the Coronavirus pandemic, I’ve been slowly going out of my mind. I desperately needed a project of some sort…and it was going to have to be undertaken from whatever I could find in, or get sent to, the United States.
The first thing was have a look around ebay. There were one or two Team Cadet 10s – even in the US – of varying size and condition and lots of other Raleigh bikes with Reynolds 531c frames, but no Team Replica 12s. A few, solid hours spent trawling around Google yielded some interesting results. There were a couple of UK websites that mentioned the Team Replica 12, like Secondhand Road Bikes and Vintage Velo, plus a few discussion forums including Retro Bike and Bike Forums. There were even sites selling specific components like Velo Saloon, that has a number of Campagnolo parts.
The 59cm Team Replica 12 at La Brea Bikes in Los Angeles (click for larger image)
It soon became clear that this might take a while. Then I stumbled upon a virtually complete, original Team Replica 12 on Bike Forums. The post was dated May 2019, so I had no idea if this was still around. The post had quite a few comments, as you can imagine, so I joined the forum and posted my own, asking about the history of this and where it came from. Turned out the gentleman’s name was Mike Robinson and he owned a bike shop in Los Angeles called La Brea Bikes. In just a few days, he replied to my response and we began emailing each other.
According to Mr Robinson, he paid $525 and it came from a seller in Beverly Hills. And yes, it has all the original 1984 components on it. I asked if he would consider parting with it and to my surprise he agreed and for the same price he paid for it. I asked him to send me a few additional photographs and to just confirm that there were no dents. There was also some discussion about what I had planned for the frame as Mr Robinson was keen for me to keep it exactly as it is and not go down the road of a respray.
Left, the Campagnolo Super Record levers that I bought and right, the Nuovo Record levers
Meanwhile, I hadn’t stopped looking for other Team Replica 12s and sources of components. I even found a set of never-used, Campagnolo Super Record second generation drilled brake levers, in their original box on ebay. Now, according to the spec sheet in the 1984 UK Raleigh Racers catalogue, the Team Replica 12 came with Campagnolo Nuovo Record brakes and brake levers and not Super Record. But…a) these were unused and in perfect condition thus ensuring my project would indeed look brand new and b) I actually prefer the drilled out style of the Super Record levers compared to the solid steel aesthetic of the Nuovo Record. They were all manufactured and sold at the same time during the 80s, so no authenticity is lost. In fact, they seem to have appeared on a Team Replica 12 on the 1984 catalogue cover.
Needless to say, I bought them at a cost of $285 and an added bonus was that the seller was based in Connecticut. The calipers of the Super Record and the Nuovo Record sets appear to be identical and I found a set of what were described as just “Campagnolo Record” on the Velo Saloon site. Unfortunately, that site is based in Vienna, so I had to pony up for international postage, but they appeared to be in good condition and research suggested that the price was reasonable at €54.90 each, for front and back sets. Total cost so far $471.71.
