[CR]RE: Need info on Raleigh-Carlton "Catalina" s/n U-2992

(Example: Framebuilders:Jack Taylor)

From: Donald Gillies <gillies@cs.ubc.ca>
Date: Wed, 15 Feb 2006 20:51:36 -0800 (PST)
To: classicrendezvous@bikelist.org
Subject: [CR]RE: Need info on Raleigh-Carlton "Catalina" s/n U-2992

The Carlton Catalina is a 1960's raleigh/carlton bike, and almost all of these bikes (everything from Raleigh Record through Competition) came with either a Campagnolo or a Brampton headsets. I'll tell you it's pretty difficult to ID a brampton - you have to look inside the races where it says, not surprisingly, "Brampton" on it. Some 1973 Raleigh RRA's came a stronglight V4 (i think) headset, but others had Brampton. Here are some examples :

http://i3.ebayimg.com/04/i/06/34/08/c4_1.JPG

The headset on this Raleigh Grand Prix (and on my 1974 Super Course) have tall locknuts, but the Gran Sport and Competition have short locknuts like a regular campy/whatever headset.

http://ebay.com/<blah>

THE ABOVE MIGHT BE A GOOD PICTURE FOR DALE TO CAPTURE FOR CR WEBSITE, it's a beautiful NOS headset (with unusual serrations i've not seen.)

http://www.nonlintec.com/carlton/shifter.jpg http://www.nonlintec.com/carlton/catalina.jpg http://www.nonlintec.com/carlton/

This is a brampton headset on steve maas's 1962 carlton catalina.

These headsets RARELY show up on ebay, you have to find someone liquidating a very old raleigh shop to have a prayer of finding one for sale. The raleigh Chopper headsets lack the thin octagonal cups of a Brampton, which are quite beautiful and fairly light, actually. In the absence of brampton, i'd go with a Stronglight A-9 or Tange Levin.

- Don Gillies
San Diego, CA