Well this came up on craigslist here in chicago, that is a 1974 raleigh record ace. It was actually listed about a year ago as well, i believe for more money, the owner seemed irratated when I tried to haggle over the phone and I never got a chance to see it. Well it came up again just a few days ago and I went to see it yesterday and when I saw I knew I had to buy it.
Here are some pics:
http://pg.photos.yahoo.com/
It's in exactly my size, the paint is in really nice shape minus one or two touch up spots. Most of the decals are in nice shape as well, the only one that really isn't is the carlton cycles seat tube decal. The bike is about 90% original and he still had the original receipt from Turin here in chicago as well as service records and receipts. The only things not original are the derailleurs which as stated on the orginal bill of sale were switched to suntour gt and the rims. He gave me the receipt from around 1980 when he had the original hubs built up with mavic clincher rims. At first I was afraid they were 27 inch wheels but I was pleasantly suprised when I saw the 700c specialized tires that look so supple and could be NOS. The dark annodized rims look brand new as well. Everything else appears to be original down to the handle bar wrap.
I'm really impressed and intrigued by the bike, the quality seems pretty high throughout. Can anyone shed more light on this model? I tried the archives but I really could find much out. How many of these bikes were made? were they ever listed in a cataloge? Was this the only bike that raleigh ever used vertical dropouts on? What is the general consensus on the the quality, and value of these bikes? I've read or was told that this bike was kind of created to get rid of some of raleigh's excess parts. To me that doesn't make sense. It just seems so nice, and if so why use the campy vertical dropouts? was this more of a failed experiment?
To me, it almost seems to be raleigh's answer to or their version of peugeot's px-10. With silca pump and a a few other accessories the original owner paid 360.00. That seems like a bargain to me. It seems to me that if raleigh had stuck with it they could have taken some customers away from peugeot. Comments?
This is so close to be all original, it's exciting. Anyone have any simplex super lj derailleurs they want to trade or sell?
Marc Garcia
(Hoping the weather holds up so I can take my new prize for a spin)
chicago IL