I also have a white & blue Raleigh Gran Sport (singular) which I've tentatively dated to 1973/4, from the date on the Brooks B17 and a business-card in the bottom-bracket saying it was overhauled in December 1974.
It has Suntour V-GT rear derailleur and Suntour Power ratcheting shifters, but the front derailleur was Simplex (and broke, surprise-surprise, so I replaced it with a Suntour) and my guess is that the Suntour parts were upgrades - otherwise you'd surely never have the Simplex front derailleur?
The bar-wrap and cables are black, which strikes me as odd as I've only ever seen white before and, yet, if they aren't original I imagine they are contempory - and I'd expect people to stick to the original colour-scheme? Perhaps they figured white gets dirty too quickly and switched to black.
The serial-number is 0206828 and doesn't fit into the retroraleigh.com description, but this is no surprise as my 1973 Raleigh SuperCourse (with exclusive capella lugs) has a 0066507 serial-number and several other 1973 SuperCourses I've seen all have serial-numbers starting with 00 - again, not covered on retroraleigh.com!
I found some metallic blue Bluemel mudguards/fenders on eBay that are close to the blue paint used on the frame and, I think, compliment the bike rather well - and they earnt their keep on the way to work today, it wasn't actually raining but the roads were still wet from recent rain ...
Alan Lloyd
Schaumburg, Illinois, USA
> Today's Topics:
\r?\n> 2. Original Derailleurs on a Raleigh Grand Sport(s)
\r?\n> (Jerome & Elizabeth Moos)
\r?\n>
\r?\n> Date: Mon, 6 Aug 2007 13:09:32 -0700 (PDT)
\r?\n> From: Jerome & Elizabeth Moos <jerrymoos@sbcglobal.net>
\r?\n> Subject: [CR]Original Derailleurs on a Raleigh Grand Sport(s)
\r?\n>
\r?\n> Having finally completed one Raleigh project, a 1974 Competition, I'm faced with another, a 70's
\r?\n> Grand Sport(s). It is the classic white and blue paint scheme. This particular bike has the
\r?\n> Grand Sports decal (plural), but many, probably most, are decaled Grand Sport (singular). The
\r?\n> serial number doesn't conform to any system I've found on RetroRaleighs, and I'm told that Grand
\r?\n> Sport(s) did not use the same numbering scheme as other 531 Raleighs, at least not consistently.
\r?\n> Anyone know the Grand Sport(s) serial # code? Does the spelling of the model name give any
\r?\n> clue as to the year?
\r?\n>
\r?\n> So far, I'm guessing this bike is somewhere between 1973 and 1979. My primary question for
\r?\n> the list is if the SunTour derailleurs are original. It has a VGT, or maybe VxGT RD with a
\r?\n> matching SunTour FD and the ratcheted SunTour DT shift levers. The most recent catalog on
\r?\n> RetroRaleigh to show the Grand Sport is 1976, which shows a long cage Criterium-quality Simplex
\r?\n> plastic RD (called the Simplex "Maxi"), a pushrod plastic Simplex front, and the truly dreadful
\r?\n> plastic Simplex Prestige DT shift levers. The same setup is shown in the 1973 catalog on
\r?\n> RetroRaleigh. A couple of Raleigh gurus on the list believe the derailleurs are not original.
\r?\n> However, if the bike is late 70's, maybe 1977-1979, I think it is possible it might have come
\r?\n> with SunTour, as Raleigh did use a lot of SunTour stuff in the late 70's, including the original
\r?\n> derailleurs on a Grand Prix I bought my wife in that period.
\r?\n>
\r?\n> Anyone know of a blue and white Grand Sport(s) with original SunTour derailleurs?
\r?\n>
\r?\n> Regards,
\r?\n>
\r?\n> Jerry Moos
\r?\n> Big Spring, TX