It could be from 1977 or 1987 - the 7 at the beginning of the number is the year; if the dropouts are Gipiemme its almost certainly 1987. The W indicates it came from the lightweight unit at Nottingham if 1987 (or Worksop if 1977) and the P is the two week period in the year with A being the first 2-week period so sometime in July. The kit on the frame does not sound at all original... Raleigh did offer the red, black and yellow Team colours long after the Ti team existed, certainly until 1987. Photos of the lugs and details would confirm whether its 1977 or 1987. If its a 531 db Team replica it should be really quite nice, some Record models in Team colours were also sold into Europe with 531 tubing which are not of quite so good quality and then there are other frames with carbon steel in Team colours which are much lower in quality.
Hilary Stone, Bristol, England
Toni Theilmeier wrote:
> Norm Lafleur wrote that riding a classic bike in a bunch of modern ones
> often goes unnoticed, quoting a C-Record equipped bike as proof. I have
> ridden my full chrome 1948 Thanet Silverlight in a century, and
> absolutely nobody noticed, or if they did, asked about it. I have even
> watched a friend ride a half century on a high wheeler, and many of the
> other riders just zoomed by displaying neither interest nor amusement.
>
> Wing Nuts: I was repeatedly given boxes full of the things (mostly
> uninteresting sixties and seventies ones for sports bikes) by cycle
> dealers with the comment they had been illegal in Germany for road use
> since they constituted a risk when crashing. Has anyone ever heard about
> this one?
>
> Team Raleigh: I found one today for a moderate sum of money, not too bad
> a condition, equipped with a weird mix of Campag Tipo, Suntour Cyclone,
> Galli, Sugino Mighty, Gipiemme, and other second tier stuff. Two
> questions: Is anyone able to date it from its frame number WP 7000
> 960? And what does the WP mean? As I´m not selling it, the next question
> is not trolling: Is it worth keeping in a collection, throwing
> some NR bits on perhaps, or is it just an old hack to use up? I must
> shamefacedly admit that I rarely read posts about Raleighs as I just
> can´t read all of CR, but this frame looks nice in its red, black and
> yellow colours. Archives give hundreds of answers, so I don´t know where
> to start. Sorry.
>
> Thanks, Toni Theilmeier, Belm, Germany.