1975 Raleigh Sport

In January 2009 my brother-in-law from Bunbury, who knew I liked old bicycles, asked me if I was interested in restoring his old Raleigh bicycle. It had been in his shed for years, it was old and pretty rusty, and I thought it would be an interesting challenge. I succumbed to the pressure and  bought it home (somewhat confused as to why I had said yes!) and contemplated my next move.

After getting advice from my bike man (George) I photographed it and stripped it down, grouping all the pieces together for varied treatments. After viewing the Raleigh catalogues on-line and establishing what colour I should paint the frame, I had the frame powder coated a standard catalogue colour. I then had some parts re-chromed and polished. The parts that I couldn't restore off the old bike were replaced after hours of trawling on eBay.

At the time of restoration I couldn't get hold of any Westric profile 26 x 1 3/8 rims so I had to opt for the good old Endrick profile rim of the same size.

Prior to re-assembling the bike , I located a guy over east who carries a large range of vintage bicycle decals (Greg at "Cyclomondo") and purchased a set of decals that were identical to the old ones - fantastic - and really good quality too!

After many hours of toil re-assembling the bike I fell in love with it and didn't really want to return it to its owner.....unfortunately, he knew where I lived!  

Here's a couple of interesting images to compare..... 

Before....

                    ....and after.

                                                           

...and an overall pic complete with new Brooks B66 saddle, and the bicycle registration plate that the owner had me fit to the top tube....and to make things even better, it rode like a dream - with a silky smooth Sturmey Archer 3 speed.

1975 Raleigh Sport





So this was my first attempt at such a project, and as you can see, even with very limited experience and knowledge you can come up with something reasonably good (thanks George!).