Cap'n Jonny is back at it again and beautifully restored an old Raleigh and turned it into a nice flat bar commuter. Read about his process in his tale below.
Here is a little something I just finished.
It started out as an early 70s Raleigh Record that had been donated to the Bike Exchange.
At first glance, it looked like just another tired old workhorse bicycle, but on closer inspection, I noticed it was fitted out with Campagnolo Record hardware. I stripped off all the good stuff and was about to throw it into a pile of old frames in the back room for probable disposal later. Lying there on the floor was another old Raleigh ladies' frame in the same color. Instead of tossing my frame, I picked up the other one and brought them both back to my shop. As I was working in the garage building up another bike, I got the inspiration for this one.
Originally, I planned to mask off the original decals and paint the rest of the bike black to match, then clear coat everything, hopefully blending in the decal background. Unfortunately, when I pulled off the masking tape from the decal, a good portion of the lettering came with it, so I changed plans. I sanded off the rest of the lettering and painted the entire frame Rustoleum Automotive Black enamel.
A unique feature on this build is the drop-down adaptors for the caliper brakes which lower them enough to work with 700c rims. This made it possible to fit the 622 x 23 yellow stripe tires, which I had just waiting for the right build. The 1x7 indexed gearing is a good fit for an urban commuter and saves weight and complexity.
Everything for this build came from my parts stash. I wasn’t trying to build a weight weenie but when everything was complete and I put it on my hanging scale it only weighed 24.6 lbs. It would make a perfect townie bike. If nothing else, at that weight it should make carrying it upstairs easy.