USAZorro

It's Friday afternoon. The work week is winding down. Time for a bit of a puzzle. The first hint.

Kilroy1988 

A bicycle.

clubman 

A British 70's bicycle, full record group?

USAZorro

Yes. Yes. No. Only the brake calipers are Campagnolo.

noglider 

Your profile still says Florence, KY.

I can't wait to see this bike. Please!

tiger1964 

My eye keeps being drawn to that seat post bolt - I do not know why.

clubman 

and what about that oiler on the rear hub...

sdn40

Drillium Dude 

Because it's got a massive nut on the non-drive side?

I'm intrigued because there's some nice work going on at the brake bridge reinforcement bits and I want to see more beautiful frame finishing

Is it a Raleigh RRA?

DD

Kilroy1988 

Looks like one of those little clamp-on balancing weights to me.

Kilroy1988 

Okay, I can at least reckon that you've got brake levers that are much newer than the frame so they don't tell us much about the model year if you say it's 1970s. You've likely got no braze on brake cable guides since the cable is riding along the top of the tube, so you probably have clamps.

The drop outs don't appear to be forged and fancy, as the visible one is rather flat. However, there doesn't seem to be a derailleur hanger mounted on the drop out, so it must have one built in.

After double checking the details on a 1973 Raleigh Record Ace frameset, I think that @Drillium Dude might be right. We can't tell if the lugs are nervex or not from this angle, but the black pinstriping and white paint match, and it came with Simplex drop outs that are rather flat looking indeed. The shape of the rear brake bridge mounts are spot on for the RRA as well.

-Gregory

pastorbobnlnh 

It has massively large and incorrect brake shoes--- at least on the rear caliper. Possibly the previous owner resided in a place with very steep descents.

bwilli88 

That does not look anything like my RRA

IMG_20180730_150708804_LL by Bwilli88, on Flickr

IMG_20181001_175153784_HDR by Bwilli88, on Flickr

USAZorro

There are some seriously observant people in here.

Kilroy1988 

Because we're talking about the 1973 model for the American market:

USAZorro

Aside from the frame, I suspect there's not much original about the bicycle I received. I can't complain about what was on it, as I do think some of the choices were rather intriguing and of very respectable quality.



The headset and brake levers are Shimano 600. I know I'll change out the aero levers and quite likely will change out the headset as well.

It has a ttt stem, bars that don't have an identity exposed atm - both of which I think I'll keep.

Zeus drive train - both derailleurs, crankset, chainring, shift levers and cable clips. If they perform reasonably well, I would lean towards keeping them.

The wheels are built with Miche Competition hubs laced to 27" Super Champion Gentleman rims. They spin as smooth as butter, but they are kind of heavy... plus, I do prefer 700c wheels. I will definitely give them a chance, but I have doubts about whether they'll stay with this bike, or migrate to another.

The seat tube is slightly out of round, which is my first priority here along with giving this a good cleaning. It came with a B-17N, which I'm not familiar with. It's in nice shape, so I will try it out, but there's a spare Professional sitting in the stash - just in case.

Hopefully some of the larger tasks that came with moving to the house will be wrapping up in time for the better riding weather that I suspect will be arriving next month. There are lots of places for me to explore here. I have a few wrenching and riding activities that have been on hold for longer than I wanted.

Drillium Dude 

That's going to be a fun project! Hopefully you will share it's restoration process here with us. And just for starters, I think I speak for everyone when I ask that you post some pics of the frame details. These frames had some nice features/workmanship.

Cool score

DD

USAZorro

Update:

Finally getting to spend a bit of time with this. Resolved the seatpost situation. I have some very nice hubs and rims, but not 100% sure I have the right spokes for it. SunTour Cyclone hubs are a few years late for accuracy, but they don't look "wrong". The 27" wheels will transfer nicely to another project that's a ways down the queue. Also to be sorted out is the brake situation. Brakes must not be aero for this, and those pads... The bars are thick, and although not outrageously deep, those drops are more than I prefer, so I may need to transplant from the stem up.



These next two don't really qualify as "frame details", but do show some of the less common bits this was built up with by the previous owner.






Can't recall ever seeing a Zeus drive train in the flesh before. This one is 100% all-in.