[CR]FS: 57.5 Raleigh team frame

(Example: Framebuilding:Brazing Technique)

Date: Wed, 21 May 2003 06:35:20 -0500
From: "Michael Hagburg" <mhagburg@btinet.net>
To: classicrendezvous@bikelist.org
Subject: [CR]FS: 57.5 Raleigh team frame

Offered to the list, a Raleigh Racing USA team frame. 57.5 center to top (the official size as stamped on the bottom bracket). I measured it as 56 c-c on the seat tube and 56 c-c on the top tube.

The frame was made for and used by Connie Carpenter in 1983-84, during her tenure with Mike Fatka’s Levis-Raleigh team. Students of cycling history know this tenure ended with Connie’s victory in the women’s road race at the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics and her subsequent retirement (she rode a Serotta painted in Raleigh colors in that race).

This is a Raleigh Racing USA frame, but unlike the Taiwanese production models, this frame was built at Raleigh’s famous Ilkeston shop. A lot of work seems to have gone into this frame: the long point lugs are nicely thinned and the short Campagnolo dropouts have been lightened to remove all unnecessary bits.

It’s built of Reynolds 753 tubing. It has a fully sloping fork crown, fastback seatstays, and (of course) a braze-on attachment for your number plate. It has a two-tone black and red paint scheme (black stays and headtube, red fork and main triangle). The paint and the plentiful decals are dinged up in a manner befitting a bike that was ridden hard for a brief time – in other words, it’s got patina (and no effort has been made to touch it up).

It's a flat out racing frame, light, tight and nimble.

$375 shipped to the continental U.S. For $30 more, you can have a Campagnolo NR headset (installed) and a functional Kalloy seatpost (26.8) with it. The “original” parts when Connie raced it were Dura Ace EX.

Please contact me off-list if you are interested. I can send photos and answer any questions.

Mike Hagburg
Bismarck, ND