Re: [CR] 1968 to 1972 Chrome Carlton Patina?
Your bike has a brass headbadge. This was the standard material for Carlton badges from the 1940's (and probably earlier) until they were replaced by lower cost aluminum sometime in the mid-1960's, I believe. It has simply lost the paint, which is why it appears to be gold.
The badge is a valuable thing, probably worth $35-$50 by itself.
In my opinion, carlton would chrome any model, and they chromed more low-end bikes than any maker in HISTORY. they loved chrome at Carlton, and they had the most fantastical finishes, lacquer fades over chrome - shimmering red and blue stripes over chrome - no other maker EVER achieved the looks of the Carlton achryllichrome finishes in so many variants, which is one of the BEST things about carlton.
Your bike seems to have some lagoon blue paint on it. If it has some original light blue paint, its gotta be lagoon blue, which is one of the two team colors (lagoon blue and white) from the sixties until about 1975 or 1976. I don't know the team colors earlier than that.
About half the 1960's Carlton catalogs are available on http://www.bulgier.net, some are in the retroraleighs subdirectory. There was no 'patina' model as far as I'm aware.
Your bike has stamped dropouts, a lamp bracket, and pump pegs. Based on the lugs and the dropouts (those Carlton front dropouts are very distinctive and found on the raleigh super course and grand prix), and the era, I'm guessing that you have a low-level to mid level bike.
If it's a high-end bike it will weigh 2950-3050 grams complete, the frame will be 2050-2150 and the fork will be 800-850 grams. This is how you can tell if it's a reynolds 531 bike. I have a table of weights for just about all the USA 1974 models here :
http://www.ece.ubc.ca/
If it's a 1968-72 model, then the parts list for a raleigh super course are probably correct, and you can get the specs for a 1972 raleigh super course on the retroraleighs website, here it is from mark bulgier's website :
http://www.bulgier.net/
Although super course models sell at very cheap prices and if you're looking for parts it's probably easier to just strip a supercourse and sell the frame to a fixed-gear enthusiast.
- Don Gillies
San Diego, CA, USA