Hello Don, Thanks again for the message. I meanwhile found the 74 and 76 catalogues on the web and everything on the bike says gransport, except for the 20-30 sticker. Another listmember told me the 531 tubing can be determined by tapping the top tube and if it gives a ringing aound it should be a 531 frame if it gives a thumping sound it's 20-30. So the wrong sticker is still a mystery. Well, to me it sounds more like lighter tubing and ringing. I will check for sticker residue on the forks since all the other details you mentioned can be confirmed. The serial number is on the BB-shell and starts with a W. Also the cranks are right. Besides I took the bike out for a recreational ride with friends yesterday evening and it is just fun to ride, part of it because of the randonneur bars which i have on not other bike but are super comfy. I tend to use the down bar position more often than on my other bikes.
Michael Schmid Oberammergau South Bavaria Gemany -----Ursprüngliche Nachricht----- Von: Mr Donald W Gillies [mailto:donald_gillies@yahoo.com] Gesendet: Donnerstag, 13. Juli 2006 19:10 An: schmid@zunterer.com Betreff: Re: 1975 raleigh
The 1975 and 1976 catalogue are almost identical, except for page 18 which has a tourist bike in 1975, burner mx in 1976 catalogue, and the cover of course, although there are two different 1975 covers (black like 1976, and 4 riders as you describe.)
You indeed have a raleigh gransport. the '73' is the frame angle on the bocama professional lugs (these lugs are still available, at http://www.framebuilding.com, in fact.) Your fork would be a vagner crown, with triangles (epaulets) on top and 2 open circular cutouts on each side, sort of like 'nn', but circular, e.g. an open 'oo'.
randonneur bars (flared up and out) would confirm a gransport - its' the only raleigh that came with these bars.
Maybe somebody put that decal on the bike to try to keep people from stealing the bike. The forks should have reynolds 531 triangles, or else they should have shadows where the decals once were ( use reflected sunlight to see glue residue if the forks decals are gone. )
I think if you find evidence the forks are decal'ed, then for sure its a gransport.
If you can date the bike then its a caerlton/worksop - made (which means 531) bike, the worksop bikes had serial numbers starting with WxNNNN with the first digit being 'N'.
My gransports have the serial number on the rear dropout. My bikes have 531 db main tubes and forks, something else in rear triangle. Your bike is likely 531 throughout, since the 75/6 models were throughout.
Raleigh tweaked the name in 75/6, there are raleigh "gran sport", "grand sport", and "grand sports" models floating around, for some weird reason.
the cranks as stronglight 93 would confirm it's a raleigh gransport. NISI rims actually were shipped on some raleighs (e.g. my 73 competition), so NISI parts were used by raleigh.
- Don
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