1979 Raleigh Pro ID

[keelybepesto]

Photos at www.cwhatic.net. I bought it new so I know it is original. It is Space Blue (it came with touch-up paint!). Ser #WG9003204. I have only seen one other like it - it is gold. Any information would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

[Joel]

Ok, this may be of some help. I have WG9000732.

Mine was bought as a Team Raleigh (Red/Yellow/Black) of 531 tubing. Also, known as "Team Replica".

Purchased in late 1980, it has the exact same lug pattern, bottom bracket shell, thin fork, crown, seat cluster, shifter bosses etc.

It also had the exact same 1980 sticker on the seattube, the same British flag on the seattube and the same '78 sticker on the downtube.

The difference is that yours has the little black handcrafted bands on the downtube. I had heard - and this is the first that I've seen - that the Worksop factory did some very limited production runs. (That's the W in the serial number).

Raleigh went on a couple of years later to offer a custom frameset in very dark blue and gold. This though seems to pre-date and is of a different color. Also I'm pretty sure those later custom frames were all 753.

What's on the white sticker on the seattube?

So, here's my two cents in summary. From the serial number progression, lugs, workmanship, and stickers, I'm virtually certain this is a late 1980 or early 1981. I think it may be a custom or special run, and my gut is that this was built for the UK market.

Others know much more than me, and I'm sure they will chime in.

Oh, and welcome the forum!

Joel

[keelybepesto]

The white sticker on the seat tube is just a shop sticker. This may be of interest to you and my other bretheren. I posted these details on other sites and decided to go back to the basics to see if anyone would reply at all. It is a Worksop build. The nine in the serial # (WG9) indicates a 1979 build date on the 7th fortnight (G). I bought the frameset in 1980 from Dirk Pauwels, son of Franz Pauwels, a national champion from Belgium. I was working for Franz at Kisslers Schwinn in Beaverton Oregon, USA. I was told that this was built as a spare for the factory racing team. There were 50 of these surplus framesets from the season that were shipped to the US. 2 came to Oregon, both to Franz. The other was black and smaller. My co-worker Scott, and Dirk, told me it was a very nice frameset and that I should buy it. I paid $450.00 with the headset installed - that was a huge amount of money! I look forward to learning more. Thanks Again, Thomas
If you would like to see a gold 1979 go to Wooljersey.com
Gallery
Search - Paul Lee. He has a Raleigh folder.

[Joel]

Wow, that's cool. So it does turn out that the frame is a special run from Worksop. Whew...guessed right :) That was $450 bucks well spent!

I had been told, but could never confirm that mine is of similar heritage. It was ordered through A-1 Bicycle in St. Louis and made a long winding route from "somewhere in Europe" through Texas and then to STL.

Mine still gets ridden, in fact there is a post that went up just after Thanksgiving where you can see it as it stands today, and a team shot from '82. If I can find the post I'll drop a link in.

http://forums.thepaceline.net/showthread.php?t=36384&highlight=Grinnell


Great to see that another bike with such a close serial number is still on the road!

Joel

[keelybepesto]

I did get to train and race on my Raleigh for a couple years and it is a blast to ride! A car wreck, and a few years of drug and alcohol abuse took me away from cycling. It is amazing the bike is still with me. I am going to have it disassembled and "restored". I rode it in the rain no more than twice and it has always been dry stored. I could not find pics with your link. Do you think that the factory professional team connection could be true, or maybe someone knows what colors the team riders really rode?
Do you recall ordering your bike? ie: catalog, from stock, built to order?