I am now puzzled too... I dated the bike according to Sheldon Browns retro-raleigh site and that gave the manufacturing date 75. There is another stamp in the top-tube seatbinder lug just reading 73. But there is also the 20-30 tubing sticker. The frame is rather large, 61 or 62 cm. Could it be they used the heavier tubing in the big sizes? I did not find a 1975 catalogue in the internet. The bike is definetly mid 70, it shows no correspndance to one oft the bikes in the 79 catalogue. But it looks exactly like the bike featured on the the cover of the 75 Catalogue (the forth bike in the row of riders). Off course I would be happy to find out it's a gran prix rather than a record. I will make some pictures and send them to you. Can you probably mail the 75 catalogue or can anyone post a link to a 75 catalogue? Thanks for the help and the warm welcome to the list.
Michael Schmid Oberammergau - Germany Still warm and sunny
-----Ursprüngliche Nachricht----- Von: Mr Donald W Gillies [mailto:donald_gillies@yahoo.com] Gesendet: Donnerstag, 13. Juli 2006 09:38 An: schmid@zunterer.com Betreff: Low-end raleighs
I'm puzzled that you know it was made in 1975, since the low-end 2030 carbon-steel models did not have a serial number that would disclose the date ???
really low-end raleighs did not have carlton hoods, e.g. the Record model did not have them. The gran prix was the first model to have these hoods - are you sure you don't have a gran prix ??
The only "light blue and white" raleigh bike was the gransport (531, decal near seat tube), i believe. Most bikes had _black_ contrasting panels against the main color, not _white_.
The SIMPLEX derailleurs were dropped from the entire model line in 1977. Japanese parts were introduced throughout the lineup in 1977.
Here's the 1979 catalogue if you haven't seen it yet :
http://www.ece.ubc.ca/
I have almost all of the 1970's catalogues, and i do not know of a blue bike with white panels other than the mid-70's gransport.
- Don Gillies San Diego, CA
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