I have a number of raleigh internationals in my garage. Brian Baylis graciously helped me to restore 3 of them, and I have 1970, 1971, and 1974 instances of these frames. I want to make 2 points about them:
(a) In the early 1970's, the raleigh international was arguably the #2 cheapest 'almost all campy' bike available. The only bike cheaper (if memory serves me) was the Windsor Pro, and only by a few buck$. Many people compare a $325 bike (1972, international) with a bike costing $100 more and say that the workmanship comes up short. That's because you're comparing apples to oranges. The correct comparison would be a
Carlton Flyer vs :
Colnago Super Schwinn Paramount Gios Torino
etc., to have a fair comparison.
(b) Among my raleigh international(s), finishes definitely went down hill by 1974. My 1974 bikes have orange-peel finishes on the chromed lugs, a decidedly silly thing to do (why take shortcuts on the main focal / selling points of these bikes?), and brazing blobs on the forks. The 1970 and 1971 bikes I own had fully polished lugs, but little if any clean-up on the nervex stamped lugs (unlike a schwinn paramount or similar bike.)
- Don Gillies
San Diego, CA, USA