GeeBuddy

I have a steel road frame (likely 70's or 80's) that I am trying to place. See attached pic. I bought it from a guy who found it totally stripped, recognized its inner beauty and had it reborn as a track conversion. The original dropouts were Suntour, but were replaced with horizontal track dropouts. Anyways, the bottom bracket shell is stamped with a S/N beginning with WE, followed by 5 digits. Can anyone help me figure out what brand of frame this is? LBS mechanics I've asked in Philly and Boston have been stumped. Thanks for the help!

nlerner

Worksop-built Raleighs' serial # started with W and then a letter to indicate fortnight and then 5 digits. Also, the late 70s/early 80s Raleigh Super Course had SunTour dropouts. I'm not sure they were built at Worksop though.

A closeup of the lugwork on your bike would help.

Neal

gbcb

Until he gets around to posting real close-ups, here's a larger version of the picture... might help.

GeeBuddy

Thanks Neal! Perhaps you've seen this bike around; it lived in Brookline Village until crossing the river to Cambridge in Sept. I actually had a mechanic mention that he thought it had the geometry of a Raleigh Record, but the S/N threw him off. Anyways, here are a few better quality close-ups of the lugs. Very nice, although you can see one sheared on the seat tube last winter and I had to have it welded.







Thanks again for your help! -Stu

nlerner

Yup, I might have seen it, Stu, as I'm in Coolidge Corner. I'm going to guess that you have a Raleigh Super Course circa 1979 or 1980. I have the 1980 Raleigh catalog, and lugs on the SC are Bocama Professional, dropouts are SunTour, main frame is double butted Reynolds 531. What's the seatpost size on yours? The SC in 1980 had a 27.2mm. The one thing I'm thrown off by is the slope-shouldered fork crown on the complete bike pic. Is that the original fork?

Also, if it's Worksop built, the first number following the WE indicates the year.

Neal