fulfilling the dream Raleigh Professional

[dixiesdad]

In 1978, I moved back to the small Missouri town where I had gone to college, and started my new position as a buyer for a department store. The small town just north of Kansas City was small enough at the time that it had just been able to score a McDonalds resturant, and on the square where the county seat was located came a bike shop. The shop was owned by a Belgium guy who spoke funny, Gus, and it was the height of the end of the Eddy Merckx career, so the karma was awesome. The store was a Raleigh shop, and the bike I lusted after was a Raleigh Professional. The bike had Reynolds 531 tubing with a Campy NR groupo, it had sewups, and a Brooks saddle. I was making a whopping $9,000 a year at the time and with a $200 a month car payment, life was good. The only problem was the bike was $1,000. I settled for a record ace instead at $250, as it had the same general color and was a raleigh. Fast forward to 2008, I go on ebay and see a new in the box raleigh Professional. I drop out of the bidding at $3,500, and then get a fake email for a second chance offer which turned out to be bogus.March 12th 2010. Ebay NOS raleigh professional.....buy it now. cha ching. just arrived yesterday. the only question will be how much to ride vs. wall art.

[Steve in SLO]

WOW, beautiful!
Methinks you should change out the tubies and brake pads, grease it up and go for a ride. Enjoy it :beer:

[Joel]

You have to ride it!!

[Ken Robb]

try riding it in good weather on routes you know won't make you wish you were on a bike with lower gears, etc.

I have a 1981 Nishiki Pro with full Nuovo Record gruppo and the ride is terrific. With a 42 "small" ring I just have to be sure to avoid hills that are too tough for me. The bike has a fancy JB paint job so I would ride another bike in foul weather but it is so much fun to ride that I am toying with the idea of swapping in some newer components like the TA Zephyr cranks in the garage with 48-38-28 rings. Hmmm, or I could also add the lovely 10 spd. alloy Chorus stuff also down there. It's already 126mm rear spacing so fitting a 130 wheel should be easy. OTOH, it's fun as is and I let other folks ride it to remember when or to see what they missed before they were born.

I know that if you make it a wallhanger you will miss a lot of fun. :banana:

[MattTuck]

Excellent!

According to this site (http://data.bls.gov/cgi-bin/cpicalc.pl), $1,000 in 1978 was about $3,300 in today's dollars!

At first, I must admit I thought that would have been like buying a $10,000 bike back then, but it seems reasonable for a quality machine relative to today's prices.

[cmg]

put some new tires on it and go ride.

[pbjbike]

You got a super deal on a time capsule!

There was a nice package of 4 Challenge tubbies FS in the Classifieds in the last week.

[Kevan]

try riding it in good weather on routes you know won't make you wish you were on a bike with lower gears, etc.

I have a 1981 Nishiki Pro with full Nuovo Record gruppo and the ride is terrific. With a 42 "small" ring I just have to be sure to avoid hills that are too tough for me. The bike has a fancy JB paint job so I would ride another bike in foul weather but it is so much fun to ride that I am toying with the idea of swapping in some newer components like the TA Zephyr cranks in the garage with 48-38-28 rings. Hmmm, or I could also add the lovely 10 spd. alloy Chorus stuff also down there. It's already 126mm rear spacing so fitting a 130 wheel should be easy. OTOH, it's fun as is and I let other folks ride it to remember when or to see what they missed before they were born.

I know that if you make it a wallhanger you will miss a lot of fun. :banana:

I been there. Wonderful bike, but it could use a nicer owner. ;-)

[Keith A]

Thanks for sharing and glad to see you ended up with the bike of your dreams. BTW, you might consider clear coating this to preserve the paint and decals. I know some of the decals of yesteryear aren't very durable. Check out wallymann's post about his Somec (http://forums.thepaceline.net/showthread.php?t=70615) that he clear coated.

[PBWrench]

Gorgeous bike!

Check out this link and PM me.


http://forums.thepaceline.net/showthread.php?t=3901&highlight=Raleigh+Professional

Enjoy!

[Ken Robb]

I been there. Wonderful bike, but it could use a nicer owner. ;-)


Well Mr. Nice Guy: make me an offer. You would really like it now because I replaced the original pads with Koolstop reds so now it stops. :)