{"id":1855,"date":"2020-10-24T14:05:20","date_gmt":"2020-10-24T14:05:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/scottsnowden.net\/blog\/?p=1855"},"modified":"2021-03-24T16:08:16","modified_gmt":"2021-03-24T16:08:16","slug":"raleigh-panasonic-team-replica-12-restoration","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/scottsnowden.net\/blog\/2020\/10\/24\/raleigh-panasonic-team-replica-12-restoration\/","title":{"rendered":"Raleigh Panasonic Team Replica 12 restoration"},"content":{"rendered":"

T’was\u00a0an overcast\u00a0August morning and I was watching live coverage of the Tour de France from my New York apartment. My wife, Lisa, was on the Bowflex exercise bike and because of the time difference, I was still having breakfast. The exercise bike was a relatively new addition to the alleged\u00a01\u00bd bedroom apartment since the Coronavirus pandemic had forced gyms to close and non-essential workers to stay at home. The NBCSN coverage is chock full of commercials until the last 10 miles or so and the same commercials play all the time. One of them is the ad for Zwift<\/a>, which shows a bunch of professional athletes including Geraint Thomas and Lucy Charles-Barclay, all using proper racing bikes mounted on stationary bike stands.<\/p>\n

I thought about how this Bowflex exercise bike \u2013 and even the more expensive Peloton equivalents \u2013 all had a giant, unattractive knob sticking out of the frame that was used to control resistance, rather than say gears. Even the enormous indoor bikes you get at gyms have digital resistance control, rather than gears. Influenced by said Zwift commercial, I began thinking about how it would be nice to have a racing bike and a stationary bike stand. My wife could use the Bowflex, I could use a racing bike.<\/p>\n

\"click<\/a>

The Team Replica 12 as it appeared in the 1984 UK Raleigh Racers catalogue (click for larger image)<\/p><\/div>\n

And then I started thinking about how cool it would be to have an old racing bike, a classic. Finally, I started thinking about one of the coolest old bikes from the 80s and one that I could never afford when I was 13 years old, the Raleigh Panasonic Team Replica 12. And that was it, my mind was set.<\/p>\n

All things considered, the price I’d more than likely end up paying now for putting this together would probably be about the same, when you adjust for inflation, as the original bike would’ve cost a 13-year old in 1985. Thankfully though, some 35 years later, I have a job that pays (marginally) better than my spine-crippling weekly paper-round did.<\/p>\n

\"click<\/a>

Top, the Team Cadet 10 and bottom, the Team Replica 12 (click for larger image)<\/p><\/div>\n

Both the Team Replica 12 and it’s considerably less expensive and lower spec’d sibling, the Team Cadet 10 feature a mostly white frame, with blue trim on the forks and yellow and red flashes. One of my best friends at school had the Team Cadet 10 whereas I could only afford a lesser Raleigh, the Pursuit. But I always dreamed of having the Team Replica 12. Features included Reynolds 531c tubing, a full Campagnolo brake and gear set up and Mavic GP4 alloy wheels.<\/p>\n

Aside from the Reynolds 531c sticker at the bottom of the seat tube, at first glance there isn’t much to differentiate the\u00a0Team Replica 12 and\u00a0Team Cadet 10. However, there are quick ways to tell them apart. Firstly, double check the gear levers as the Team Cadet 10s were black plastic and not\u00a0Campagnolo Nuovo Record steel. Secondly, check how the rear brake cables are attached to the crossbar, as the\u00a0Team Cadet 10 had\u00a0them placed on top<\/em> of the top tube and the Team Replica 12 had them at an angle on the lower left hand side. And thirdly,\u00a0the blue coloring at the top of the seat tube is painted\u00a0in a curve, around\u00a0the seat lug on the Team Replica 12 because the seat stay on the Team Cadet 10 has a slightly different point of attachment, below<\/em> the seat pin.<\/p>\n

And that’s how you tell them apart. From a distance.<\/p>\n

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<\/p>\n

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\u00a0a super-stylish off-road bike and another Muddy Fox Courier Comp frame, to replace my first ever bike build that was stolen from\u00a0Broadwick 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\u00a0Coronavirus 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\u00a0undertaken from\u00a0whatever I could find in, or get sent to, the United States.<\/p>\n

The first thing was have a look around ebay. There were one or two\u00a0Team Cadet 10s \u2013 even in the US \u2013 of varying size and condition and\u00a0lots 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\u00a0were a couple of UK websites that mentioned the Team Replica 12, like\u00a0Secondhand Road Bikes<\/a> and Vintage Velo<\/a>, plus a few discussion forums including\u00a0Retro Bike<\/a> and Bike Forums<\/a>.\u00a0There were even sites selling specific components like Velo Saloon<\/a>, that has a number of\u00a0Campagnolo parts.<\/p>\n

\"click<\/a>

The 59cm Team Replica 12 at La Brea Bikes in Los Angeles (click for larger image)<\/p><\/div>\n

It soon became clear that this might take a while. Then I\u00a0stumbled upon\u00a0a\u00a0virtually complete<\/a>, 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\u00a0quite 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<\/a>.\u00a0In just a few days, he replied to my response and we began emailing each other.<\/p>\n

According to Mr Robinson, he paid $525 and it came from a seller in Beverly Hills. And yes, it has all<\/em> the original 1984 components on it. I asked if he would\u00a0consider parting with it and to my surprise he agreed and<\/em> 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.<\/p>\n

\"brake-levers\"<\/a>

Left, the Campagnolo Super Record levers that I bought and right, the Nuovo Record levers<\/p><\/div>\n

Meanwhile, I hadn’t stopped looking for other Team Replica 12s and sources of\u00a0components. I\u00a0even found a set of never-used<\/em>, Campagnolo Super Record second generation<\/a> drilled brake levers, in their original <\/em>box on ebay.\u00a0Now, according to the spec sheet in the 1984 UK Raleigh Racers catalogue, the Team Replica 12 came\u00a0with Campagnolo\u00a0Nuovo\u00a0Record 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\u00a0Nuovo Record. They were all manufactured and sold at the same time during the 80s, so no authenticity is lost.\u00a0In fact, they seem to have appeared<\/a> on a Team Replica 12\u00a0on the 1984 catalogue cover.<\/p>\n

Needless to say, I bought them\u00a0at 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\u00a0appear\u00a0to be identical and I found a set of what were described as just “Campagnolo Record” on\u00a0the Velo Saloon site. Unfortunately, that site is based in\u00a0Vienna, so I had to\u00a0pony up for international postage, but they\u00a0appeared to be in good condition and research suggested that the price was reasonable at \u20ac54.90 each, for front and back sets. Total cost so far $471.71.<\/strong><\/p>\n

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After expanding my search radius, I\u00a0also found\u00a0a Team Replica 12 on Craigslist<\/a>,\u00a0but this one was in Sandy Hook, New Jersey and had very few original parts. In fact, as the seller remarked in the description, it was now a “mutant road bike” and had big, wide cruiser-style<\/a> handlebars. The asking price was $625. I contacted the seller and asked him to take a few additional photographs, which he kindly did.\u00a0To be honest, I hadn’t expected to find myself with two<\/em> frame possibilities after only a couple of weeks of looking. Mr Robinson had quoted me $166 for shipping and said he would sell me his, but hoped I would leave it exactly as it was. A couple of things were weighing on my mind, the biggest of which was the frame sizes.<\/p>\n

The Sandy Hook frame was 56cm and the La Brea frame was 59cm and while that doesn’t sound like a big difference, if I was going to a) spend this much and b) do this thing exactly the way I wanted, then I wanted\u00a0to have it set up with\u00a0smaller frame and a raised seat post, to create a more aerodynamic\u00a0racing\u00a0position. Just look at all the bikes in the Tour de France, granted all the bikes are now carbon fiber, but the frames are all as small as possible to eliminate drag. Plus it looks way more cool. Yes, the La Brea bike had all the original components,\u00a0but I would probably sell them to recoup some of the money spent because I wanted “brand new old stock” as it’s called. So it was $691 for La Brea, or potentially $685 for Sandy Hook, if I couldn’t barter him down a bit.<\/p>\n

\"NJ-bike\"<\/a>

The 56cm 531c Team Replica 12 bike on sale in Sandy Hook, New Jersey<\/p><\/div>\n

In\u00a0a vain effort\u00a0to gain some insight, I visited the only bike shop local to the area where I live, Grove Street Bicycles<\/a>. My intention was sit on a few different sized frames and get an idea\u00a0of what 56cm and a 59cm frame would feel like. To be perfectly honest, I’ve had issues with this bike store in the past.\u00a0When I brought my Montague<\/a> mountain bike over from England I had them service it they didn’t even notice that a couple of teeth had been broken off\u00a0the chain ring in transit. All in all, it wasn’t quite the quality of inspection I’d hoped for. Then, not too long ago, I took my beloved bicycle in for a bit more work only to find upon collection that not everything had been done. Yes, I know they’re very<\/em> busy right now…and stock is in short supply. But somehow, when I inquired, they suddenly seemed to be able to find parts that would fit and completed an improvised solution while I waited (I was only supposed to be collecting it). Plus of course, they only stock one brand of bikes and accessories (Giant), so if you need something made by a different manufacturer, you could be out of luck. In short, the service in the shop is usually really good \u2013\u00a0but the mechanics at the back often seem half-hearted about their work.<\/p>\n

Sadly however, this is the only bike shop within a reasonable distance, so it’s this place…or a train ride. I spoke to one of the guys there and told him the whole story so far and wouldn’t you\u00a0know it, he was desperately trying to convince me to complete the restoration and then just hang it on a wall, worship it like a two-wheeled totem, or something, but certainly never, ever<\/em> use it. Then he tried to sell me a Giant road bike.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/a>

The serial number is quite weathered, but looks like WA4 then 01646<\/p><\/div>\n

I asked my neighbour to drive me down to Sandy Hook to have a look at the bicycle. This is a part of New Jersey I’d never been to before, so it was a fun day out. Mr Robinson, coincidentally, had sent me an email\u00a0that very same morning asking me what my intentions were…and honestly, I hadn’t made up my mind. I know he had kindly already boxed\u00a0it up for me, but I also owed it to myself\u00a0to check out this other frame. I had $92 in cash already on me, so we stopped on the way and I\u00a0optimistically only took out another $500. We met Alistair \u2013 for t’was the gentleman’s name \u2013 and\u00a0he turned\u00a0out to be\u00a0Irish, so it was nice to meet and talk to someone from near home. He’d actually been living in the US since the 80s.<\/p>\n

The big test was the frame size. I sat on\u00a0Alistair’s bike…and the size was perfect. I didn’t even bother to go for a\u00a0ride on it. Now came the bartering. I asked if he would take $500 and he said he’d turned down<\/em> $585. I offered him $600…and he agreed. Except of course, I was $8 short, but he didn’t seem to mind. It actually had a pretty decent\u00a0Shimano rear\u00a0derailleur and brake calipers, plus\u00a0Campagnolo front\u00a0derailleur, headset and chainset, so hopefully I might be able to sell those and get a few bucks back.\u00a0Total cost so far $1063.71<\/strong><\/p>\n

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<\/p>\n

I invested in a bike maintenance and repair stand<\/a> and began to slowly strip everything off. This was going to be a learning curve, plus I knew I’d have to invest in a few new tools…a thought that made me very happy. And it wasn’t until I finally got around to starting this blog that I noticed on the front cover of the\u00a01984 UK Raleigh Racers catalogue, there’s an image of six cyclists and the man\u00a0at the front appears to be on a Team Replica 12, which makes sense, since it was the flagship of the range. However, as I’ mentioned earlier, the specifications inside the\u00a0catalogue clearly say\u00a0Campagnolo Nuovo Record brake levers, but the lead bicycle on the cover looks like he has\u00a0Campagnolo\u00a0Super Record brake levers. I mean, I can’t fault his choice, these are after all, the brakes I’m opting\u00a0to go with. Was there a variation of\u00a0Nuovo Record levers that looked like those lovely drilled out Super Record levers?\u00a0I suspect it’s more\u00a0likely that professional<\/em> riders actually used\u00a0a Super Record groupset, as the BiciclettaVintage<\/a> website notes on former pro-rider\u00a0Peter Winnen’s 1984 bike.<\/p>\n

\"click<\/a>

The cyclist on the catalogue cover has Super Record levers, despite the specs suggesting otherwise (click for larger image)<\/p><\/div>\n

The serial number on the frame I purchased from Alistair in Sandy Hook is quite\u00a0weathered, but looks like WA4<\/strong> then 01646<\/strong>. According to a number of sites and in particular\u00a0raleigh-sb4059.com<\/a>, the W<\/strong> indicates that it was built in Nottingham, the A<\/strong> indicates that it was built in\u00a0January and the 4<\/strong> indicates in was 1984.<\/p>\n

According to that site…<\/p>\n

\u2022 The \u2018W\u2019 reference was introduced in late 1973
\n\u2022 The \u2018W\u2019 reference indicates Worksop built until May 1981
\n\u2022 The \u2018W\u2019 reference indicates Nottingham Lightweight Unit built from October 1981
\n\u2022 The 2nd letter is one of 12 assigned letters denoting the month of production
\n\u2022 The first number in the sequence is the year of production, repeated every 10 years between 1973 and 1989
\n\u2022 The last 6 numbers are reportedly a production number<\/p>\n

However, another website, SheldonBrown.com,<\/a> suggests that the second letter is in fact the fortnight<\/em> that the frame was built. If that’s the case, this frame I have could be among the very first Team Replica 12s ever built, assuming production started at the beginning of 1984 \u2013 something else I’d like to try and confirm.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/a>

The back cover of the 1984 UK Raleigh catalogue.<\/p><\/div>\n

There were\u00a0a\u00a0confusing number of variations of this beautiful bike. A gentleman by the name of Neil\u00a0McGowran has a great blog<\/a>\u00a0about a\u00a01984 Panasonic Raleigh SBDU (Special Bikes Development Unit) Services des Courses restoration and there are some clearly noticeable differences. Neil also has\u00a0an interesting\u00a0thread<\/a> on a 1985\u00a0Raleigh Weinmann 531c Team Replica. This is where it gets a bit confusing as\u00a0Raleigh Weinmann<\/a> was a different team to Raleigh Panasonic and\u00a0also raced between 84 and 85. The bikes looked almost identical, but featured different components. The very best variation you could buy \u2013 if money was no object \u2013 was a custom built frame made to individual specifications, from 50cm to 60.5cm in 5mm increments with 753 Pro tubing.<\/p>\n

The lesser spec’d\u00a01984 Team Cadet 10 also featured\u00a0Weinmann brakes,\u00a0Huret rear derailleur and Maillard wheels, but it had 501 tubing on the frame. There\u00a0might have\u00a0also been a variation called a Team Corsa 12 that had the same colors, but came with a Shimano groupset.<\/p>\n

Panasonic was a Dutch professional cycling team, formed in 1984 when the main sponsors TI\u2013Raleigh withdrew sponsorship. Team bikes were only provided by Raleigh between 84-85 and according to Wikipedia<\/a>, were always fitted with Italian Campagnolo groupsets. Wiki also says<\/a> that by 1984, all Raleighs for the\u00a0US market, except the\u00a0SBDU bikes (made in Ilkeston) and\u00a0the top of the range road bikes (made in Nottingham), were produced in the Far East.<\/p>\n

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Aside from a few issues with learning what a torque wrench is for and the difference between metric and SAE Allen sockets, it was time to start thinking about the respray.\u00a0The first thing to note is that all the red and yellow stripes are actually stickers and in the case of the seat tube and down tube,\u00a0form part of the written “Raleigh” logo. This is probably most evident when looking at the back of the seat tube and the horizontal end line of the blue paint is just visible.<\/p>\n

So the very first thing I hope to be able to do is have the red and yellow stripes actually sprayed on as part of the paintwork. That would mean getting a replacement sticker set with just the “Raleigh” writing on and no stripes \u2013 at least for the down tube, since the “R” on one side and the “H” on the other actually sit within the yellow stripe. Hmmm. Tricky.<\/p>\n

\"back-of-seat-tube\"<\/a>

The end line of the blue paint is just visible at the back of the seat tube.<\/p><\/div>\n

Plus of course, I\u00a0have to actually find somewhere not too<\/em> far from here that would be able to undertake such a task. Who knows, maybe there’s someone out there who could create a template, so that the actual “Raleigh” could be part of the paintwork?<\/p>\n

Since I’m going to have it resprayed in an identical color scheme, why did I go to so much trouble to find a Team Replica 12 frame, when any 531c frame could’ve worked, I hear you ask. Well, to me, it was really important that the bicycle be a Team Replica 12 to begin with, so it’s soul was pure…if\u00a0you see what I mean. However, it does also open up some interesting possibilities.<\/p>\n

\"stickers\"<\/a><\/p>\n

So here’s a crazy thing \u2013 this is a 100% legitimate Team Replica 12 frame \u2013 but another detail that I noticed was that the stripes on the top tube don’t actually line up with the stripes on the down tube. Is this so that the first top tube rear brake cable holder is still within the blue and not red, if the top tubes stripes were to be moved to the left slightly? Or to prevent the down tube “Raleigh” logo from having to go over the water bottle attachments, which is what would happen if the down tube stripes and logo were to be moved to the right a little. The stripes on the down tube are also slightly wider.<\/p>\n

\"click<\/a>

Left: holding the tape measure like a plumbline and the frame is suspended in\u00a0the stand (click for larger image)<\/p><\/div>\n

Should I change this so that they do line up and so they are the same width? That would ever so slightly alter the original design, but would it be for the best? Lisa kindly created\u00a0an Illustrator vector file of the frame with\u00a0an absolutely accurate representation of the existing design to be able to\u00a0experiment with new ideas.<\/p>\n

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The bike is completely stripped with the exception of the headset and the bottom bracket. I suspect I’ll have to bite the bullet and head back to Grove Street Bikes for that, since I don’t have the right tools. However, on my most recent visit \u2013 to\u00a0resolve a brake pad\u00a0problem and a crank-arm-wedged Allen-key issue since I don’t have a vice set up in the apartment \u2013 I asked if anyone there knew of a reputable place that could strip and respray the frame. The helpful gentleman I spoke to, Dave, suggested a place called Vicious Cycles<\/a>, located in\u00a0New Paltz, upstate NY, about 1\u00bd hour’s drive. According to Dave, these guys are specialists with older steel bike frames.<\/p>\n

In addition, a Google search of\u00a0companies local to me that offer bike resprays and actually look like they’ve done this\u00a0sort of thing before, showed one called curiously Horse Cycles<\/a>. A couple of emails were sent and finally a phone call, which was answered straight away by a pleasant sounding gentleman named Thomas. We exchanged emails and Ben Falcon,<\/a>\u00a0who I believe is the main artist at Horse Cycles, kindly replied with a quite detailed price breakdown. In essence,\u00a0I’d be looking at\u00a0very roughly $875 if I wanted everything \u2013 all the stripes and the logo (which he can do, which is so cool) \u2013 on the frame as part of the paintwork. He can even turn it around in about a month, which is impressive.<\/p>\n

Together with\u00a0researching costs for the respray, I’m looking into trying to track down someone who know something about the actual, original design of this particular bike. I’ve attempted to contact Raleigh<\/a> by email, Facebook<\/a> and Twitter<\/a>, but haven’t heard so much as a squeak. Back in 84-85, the team was managed by a gentleman named Peter Post<\/a>, but sadly he died in 2011. I even tweeted to Phil Liggott<\/a>, legendary bike race commentator and the Voice of The Tour de France<\/em>. During the 80s, when I’d come home from school just in time to catch the Tour de France coverage in Channel 4, it was the voice of Phil Liggott that accompanied me on my\u00a0vicarious\u00a0v\u00e9lo\u00a0adventure. I have a list<\/a> of the team riders from 84-85 and we’ll see how far I get.<\/p>\n

Henk Lubberding<\/a> \u2013 Twitter<\/a>, website<\/a>
\nGuy Nulens<\/a> \u2013 nothing online
\nEddy Planckaert <\/a>\u2013 nothing online
\nTheo de Rooij <\/a>\u2013 Instagram<\/a>, Twitter<\/a>, website<\/a>, Facebook<\/a>
\nEric Vanderaerden<\/a> \u2013 Instagram<\/a>
\nPeter Winnen<\/a> \u2013 website<\/a>, Facebook<\/a>
\nLudo de Keulenaer<\/a> \u2013 nothing online
\nBert Oosterbosch<\/a> \u2013 died in 1989
\nPhil Anderson<\/a> \u2013 Twitter<\/a>, Facebook<\/a>, Instagram<\/a>
\nGert-Jan Theunisse<\/a> \u2013 nothing online
\nJos Lammertink<\/a> \u2013 nothing online
\nGerard Veldscholten<\/a> \u2013 nothing online
\nWalter Planckaert<\/a> \u2013 nothing online
\nJohan Lammerts<\/a> \u2013 nothing online
\nSteven Rooks<\/a> \u2013 Facebook<\/a>, Instagram<\/a>, Twitter<\/a>, website<\/a>
\nBert Wekema
\nRen\u00e9 Kos
\nHenk Baars
\nJos Alberts
\nDanny Lippens
\nMichel Groenendaal<\/p>\n

This was the response I got from Raleigh on Facebook Messenger, “Hi Scott, The records for a large proportion of our older bicycles are held by Nottinghamshire County Council and we can\u2019t easily access them. We also get the most obscure requests for long-forgotten vintage bikes which would take forever in a day to find. We simply can\u2019t answer queries about vintage bicycles but we are pleased to recommend several people who can…” and then they included three links to sites (two were different links to the same site) that weren’t any help whatsoever. Moreover, this isn’t<\/em>\u00a0even what I asked them.<\/p>\n

However, Phil Liggott replied to me and sent a very nice note. He sent me the email address for\u00a0Phil Anderson, one of the riders on the 84-85 Raleigh Panasonic team and Mr Anderson kindly replied to my email within a few days. He told me of a Raleigh Restoration Group<\/a> on Facebook, which I have since joined. He also\u00a0suggested I attempt to seek\u00a0Jan Legrand, a dutchman\u00a0who\u00a0was the head mechanic from the team, if he was still alive. The Facebook group\u00a0was an instant success and I had no clue Raleigh restoration had such a worldwide following. According to one user, Neil, my frame is among the earliest Replica Team 12s built. I’d love to be able to find some official<\/em> confirmation that production on these did indeed start in January 1984.<\/p>\n

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Without a doubt, the Raleigh Restoration Group on Facebook has yielded\u00a0the\u00a0most interesting results. I’ve started a conversation with a gentleman named\u00a0Neil McGowran, who is Operations Manager for a bike store in Newcastle. A number of people have suggested that I speak to him and it seems he’s widely regarded as the oracle of all Raleigh knowledge. In addition to meeting Neil, the\u00a0strangest thing happened: another member of the\u00a0Raleigh Restoration Group is a gentleman who used to work in the amazing little local bicycle shop in the town where I grew up. I even remember constantly being in there after school and at weekends, just relentlessly annoying the staff with a thousand different questions. So David has been extremely patient with me asking him a thousand more questions some 35 years later.<\/p>\n

\"531tube\"<\/a>

So the measurements L1, L2, L3 and L4 are what I’m interested in.<\/p><\/div>\n

In addition to my attempt to determine why the stripes don’t line up \u2013 to which I’ve still had no satisfactory answer except a suggestion from David that it might be something to do with how they look on different frame sizes \u2013 I’m also exploring another potential modification that I pondered, filing down the three rear brake cable holders that run along the top tube, drilling\u00a0a flush hole at either end and taking the cable internally.\u00a0Almost everyone I have spoken to has pleaded with me not to do this! But I’m still undecided. The determining factor will be whether or not this will in any way weaken the frame. And to understand this, you have to understand the complexity of Reynolds 531C tubing \u2013 you see, Reynolds patented a new method of making stronger, lighter bike frames way back in the late 1920s. It’s called double butting<\/a> and it involves a process where the front and end parts of the inside of the tube are thicker and\u00a0the middle is\u00a0thinner, while the outside measurements remain unchanged.<\/p>\n

\"tubes3\"<\/a>

This scan\u00a0from a Reynolds catalogue\u00a0apparently\u00a0from the 1920s<\/a>\u00a0helps visualize how the frame connects together<\/p><\/div>\n

According to the Reynolds website, “A butted tube is one where the outside of the tube is a constant diameter (usually 25.4, 28.6. 31.8, 34.9, 36.4 or 38.1 mm) and the wall thickness varies. On double-butted tubes the thickness of the tubes at both ends is thicker than in the centre, so a typical double-butted tube (0.8\/0.5\/0.8) would have a thickness of 0.8mm at end (1), a taper portion, then a centre section of 0.5mm, a taper portion, and a thickness of 0.8mm at end (2). This is used for the top and down tubes. When a lugged frame is being constructed, the seat tube would be single-butted. So at the bottom bracket end, the tube would be 0.8mm thick, there would be a taper portion, and then the 0.5mm would continue to the top of the tube, to allow the seat pillar to be inserted.”<\/p>\n

\"Tubes2\"<\/a><\/p>\n

I called<\/a> Reynolds at their HQ in Birmingham and spoke to very helpful young man named Tom. I asked if they had any records going back to the 80s and basically, he said it was extremely unlikely, although he would double check. The Reynolds tubing\u00a0was made, in this instance, 531C tubing\u00a0featuring the double thickness \u2013 or double butted \u2013 ends and then shipped off to Nottingham, for Raleigh to connect with the structural joints, called lugs, and then brazed together. All by hand.<\/p>\n

\"overrun\"<\/a><\/p>\n

So, it would obviously be better to drill into the thicker part of the tubing, but there’s no way to determine where that might be. It could end an inch from the lug, or three inches. Tom said that typically \u2013 and he stressed\u00a0this was a guess as much as anything else \u2013 the double butt section extended 50mm from the end of the tube, then there was a transition of 40mm before the main, thinner length of the tube. And when you factor in the dimensions of the lugs, that doesn’t give me much space to work with. I wonder if I could get the frame x-rayed somewhere…<\/p>\n

There’s a\u00a0great blog called Kuromori<\/a>, that has an extensive section\u00a0on Reynolds 531 tubing and there’s another called Randonoodler<\/a>, that features an image of a cross section of\u00a0the tubing as it appeared in\u00a0the 1985 Trek brochure, this indicating the thickness<\/em>. Plus a garish image apparently from the Reynolds Tubing 1978 catalogue<\/a> that suggests a minimum of 75mm butt, with a 51mm taper. But if there’s a section of over-run, that was cut to length, so to speak, that could\u00a0be an unpredictable variable.<\/p>\n

\"click<\/a>

If the butting is indeed 50mm, it might<\/em> be possible (click for full-size image)<\/p><\/div>\n

The 1920s catalogue suggests<\/a> there’s a 3-inch double butt, with a 2-inch taper before you get to the think wall section. So I think Tom’s guess might have been about right and maybe I should assume it’s about 50mm butt and about the same again for transition at both ends of the top tube. I’ve asked for people’s input on this, on various forums and group pages, and the consensus seems to be \u2013 leaving the abuse this seems to be attracting aside for a moment \u2013\u00a0don’t do it<\/em>. Despite the fact that I wanted to make this into a bike I could use every day, David gave me a very usual piece of advice \u2013 you don’t want to\u00a0start drilling holes in a 36-year old frame. And\u00a0for at least five hours I came around to this way of thinking…that was until someone on the Facebook group said that he’d done exactly<\/em> this with a 531c frame and had no problems whatsoever. So now I’m totally tortured.<\/p>\n

+ + +\u00a0THIS PROJECT IS STILL IN PROGRESS + + +<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

T’was\u00a0an overcast\u00a0August morning and I was watching live coverage of the Tour de France from my New York apartment. My wife, Lisa, was on the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1904,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[2],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/scottsnowden.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1855"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/scottsnowden.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/scottsnowden.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scottsnowden.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scottsnowden.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1855"}],"version-history":[{"count":105,"href":"https:\/\/scottsnowden.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1855\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1996,"href":"https:\/\/scottsnowden.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1855\/revisions\/1996"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scottsnowden.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1904"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/scottsnowden.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1855"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scottsnowden.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1855"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scottsnowden.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1855"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}