1969 Raleigh Competition
07-01-20, 10:46 AM
#1
Senior Member
Thread Starter
Join Date: Jan 2008
Location: Beaverton, OR
Posts: 14,744
Bikes: Yes
Mentioned: 525 Post(s)
Tagged: 0 Thread(s)
Quoted: 3230 Post(s)
Liked 3,868 Times
in
1,439 Posts
1969 Raleigh Competition
I just got this road worthy again, so it seemed like a good time for a build thread.
I'm calling it a 1969. According to Sheldon Brown's decoder ring, the serial number says it was built in 1967, but the Competition doesn't show up in the Raleigh catalog until 1969 and when it does it has the components that were on this when I bought it.
I bought this a couple of years ago from a guy who has a pretty cool bike collection in the back room of a movie theater in Eugene. I was born in 1969, so I had been looking for a bike from that year. The seller's Craiglist ad claimed it had essentially the same frame as a Paramount. Here's how it looked the day I brought it home.
I know it's blasphemy to take the original parts off a 50 year old bike when they're working, but I really didn't want to ride a bike with Delrin Simplex derailleurs. The Zeus crank was a harder decision, but I do not now and never again will have the fitness needed to use a 52-45 crankset. In my first build I used a set of Raleigh-branded SunTour derailleurs.
Those were cool but not quite what I wanted for this bike. About a year later gugie gave me a 3-pulley LePree rear derailleur as thanks for schlepping his bike to Eroica California and back. That was more like what I wanted. Unfortunately, it didn't even last long enough for me to take a picture. About 6 miles into the first ride after I installed it, a spring broke.
The bike then sat for over a year before I got around to fixing it. In that time, I toyed with the idea of having it re-chromed and repainted. Of course, if I was going to do that, I'd want to have a few braze-ons added first. I ultimately decided to put off the repaint, but I sent it to L'Atelier for water bottle bosses and front rack mounts anyway. The theory was that gloss black is one of the few agreed upon colors, and I could make it look decent with some primer and Rustoleum.
(Yes, I did cover the lower parts of the fork before painting.)
How did it work? Well, either age has affected my vision more than I realized or it's amazing (maybe both). It turned out so well that I decided to also touch up a particularly bad rust spot on the top of the drive side seat stay (after the picture below was taken). The one major blunder was that I put masking tape directly on the Reynolds 531 fork decal to "protect" it. Who knew that Reynolds fork decals would come off so easily? I mean, besides anyone who has ever owned a bike that once had a Reynolds 531 fork decal.
I liked it so well that I decided to replace the chrome bands on the seat tube. (For $12 I got 50' of chrome tape. Now I need to figure out what to do with the 49' I have left over.) I'm even thinking about getting replacement decals, though the flaking chrome on the NDS chainstay will probably convince me not to go that far. Here's the "finished" build.
The mounting bracket for the Nitto rack would have gotten in the way of the straddle cable on the centerpull brakes, so another original component bites the dust.
The current build spec is as follows:
Specialized "flag" crankset with 46-36-24 rings
SunTour XC 3-pulley rear derailleur
SunTour AG front derailler
SunTour Perfect 14-28 freewheel
Tektro R559 brakes
Simplex Criterium shifters (original!)
Weinmann brake levers (original) with Rustine hoods
27" Mavic Module E rims with Specialized hubs
Panaracer Paselas
Brooks B17 pre-aged saddle
Campagnolo 2-bolt seat post
I'm kind of sad that the handlebar bag covers the lovely head badge.
Finally, for those of you looking at this and thinking, "Wait a minute, that's not a Competition, it's an International." (which is basically true in a very real sense)....
I'm calling it a 1969. According to Sheldon Brown's decoder ring, the serial number says it was built in 1967, but the Competition doesn't show up in the Raleigh catalog until 1969 and when it does it has the components that were on this when I bought it.
I bought this a couple of years ago from a guy who has a pretty cool bike collection in the back room of a movie theater in Eugene. I was born in 1969, so I had been looking for a bike from that year. The seller's Craiglist ad claimed it had essentially the same frame as a Paramount. Here's how it looked the day I brought it home.
I know it's blasphemy to take the original parts off a 50 year old bike when they're working, but I really didn't want to ride a bike with Delrin Simplex derailleurs. The Zeus crank was a harder decision, but I do not now and never again will have the fitness needed to use a 52-45 crankset. In my first build I used a set of Raleigh-branded SunTour derailleurs.
Those were cool but not quite what I wanted for this bike. About a year later gugie gave me a 3-pulley LePree rear derailleur as thanks for schlepping his bike to Eroica California and back. That was more like what I wanted. Unfortunately, it didn't even last long enough for me to take a picture. About 6 miles into the first ride after I installed it, a spring broke.
The bike then sat for over a year before I got around to fixing it. In that time, I toyed with the idea of having it re-chromed and repainted. Of course, if I was going to do that, I'd want to have a few braze-ons added first. I ultimately decided to put off the repaint, but I sent it to L'Atelier for water bottle bosses and front rack mounts anyway. The theory was that gloss black is one of the few agreed upon colors, and I could make it look decent with some primer and Rustoleum.
(Yes, I did cover the lower parts of the fork before painting.)
How did it work? Well, either age has affected my vision more than I realized or it's amazing (maybe both). It turned out so well that I decided to also touch up a particularly bad rust spot on the top of the drive side seat stay (after the picture below was taken). The one major blunder was that I put masking tape directly on the Reynolds 531 fork decal to "protect" it. Who knew that Reynolds fork decals would come off so easily? I mean, besides anyone who has ever owned a bike that once had a Reynolds 531 fork decal.
I liked it so well that I decided to replace the chrome bands on the seat tube. (For $12 I got 50' of chrome tape. Now I need to figure out what to do with the 49' I have left over.) I'm even thinking about getting replacement decals, though the flaking chrome on the NDS chainstay will probably convince me not to go that far. Here's the "finished" build.
The mounting bracket for the Nitto rack would have gotten in the way of the straddle cable on the centerpull brakes, so another original component bites the dust.
The current build spec is as follows:
Specialized "flag" crankset with 46-36-24 rings
SunTour XC 3-pulley rear derailleur
SunTour AG front derailler
SunTour Perfect 14-28 freewheel
Tektro R559 brakes
Simplex Criterium shifters (original!)
Weinmann brake levers (original) with Rustine hoods
27" Mavic Module E rims with Specialized hubs
Panaracer Paselas
Brooks B17 pre-aged saddle
Campagnolo 2-bolt seat post
I'm kind of sad that the handlebar bag covers the lovely head badge.
Finally, for those of you looking at this and thinking, "Wait a minute, that's not a Competition, it's an International." (which is basically true in a very real sense)....
__________________
My Bikes
My Bikes
Likes For Andy_K:
07-01-20, 01:16 PM
#2
Bike Butcher of Portland
Join Date: Jul 2014
Location: Portland, OR
Posts: 11,634
Bikes: It's complicated.
Mentioned: 1299 Post(s)
Tagged: 0 Thread(s)
Quoted: 4678 Post(s)
Liked 5,795 Times
in
2,281 Posts
Well done, sir!
Now I don't feel so bad about giving you that bunky 3 pulley LePree.
Now I don't feel so bad about giving you that bunky 3 pulley LePree.
__________________
If someone tells you that you have enough bicycles and you don't need any more, stop talking to them. You don't need that kind of negativity in your life.
If someone tells you that you have enough bicycles and you don't need any more, stop talking to them. You don't need that kind of negativity in your life.
07-01-20, 01:45 PM
#3
Senior Member
Join Date: Dec 2005
Posts: 17,156
Mentioned: 481 Post(s)
Tagged: 0 Thread(s)
Quoted: 3810 Post(s)
Liked 6,688 Times
in
2,609 Posts
Looks Eroica ready!
07-01-20, 01:59 PM
#4
Senior Member
Thread Starter
Join Date: Jan 2008
Location: Beaverton, OR
Posts: 14,744
Bikes: Yes
Mentioned: 525 Post(s)
Tagged: 0 Thread(s)
Quoted: 3230 Post(s)
Liked 3,868 Times
in
1,439 Posts
I might need a smaller granny gear, but at least the tires hold air!
__________________
My Bikes
My Bikes
07-01-20, 04:08 PM
#5
Senior Member
Join Date: Jan 2015
Location: Los Angeles
Posts: 4,703
Bikes: 82 Medici, 2011 Richard Sachs, 2011 Milwaukee Road
Mentioned: 55 Post(s)
Tagged: 0 Thread(s)
Quoted: 1948 Post(s)
Liked 2,010 Times
in
1,109 Posts
That is a neat bike. Black Bikes are *****'n. Digging the ad too. A white PRO? With Campy center pulls? And looks like Mafac brakes on the Comp? And why West Coast Only?
__________________
I don't do: disks, tubeless, e-shifting, or bead head nymphs.
I don't do: disks, tubeless, e-shifting, or bead head nymphs.
07-01-20, 05:02 PM
#6
Señor Member
Join Date: Oct 2004
Location: Hardy, VA
Posts: 17,923
Bikes: Mostly English - predominantly Raleighs
Mentioned: 70 Post(s)
Tagged: 0 Thread(s)
Quoted: 1491 Post(s)
Liked 1,090 Times
in
638 Posts
They were Weinmann with (I believe) the better levers and the white Carlton hoods. Rims were most often Ava tubular. It had Record hubs, cranks, pedals, shifters and derailleurs. (spent stupid amounts of time researching when I bought a frame with a stuck post on eBay and wanted to build it up as a mostly correct project).
__________________
In search of what to search for.
In search of what to search for.
07-01-20, 06:07 PM
#7
Senior Member
Thread Starter
Join Date: Jan 2008
Location: Beaverton, OR
Posts: 14,744
Bikes: Yes
Mentioned: 525 Post(s)
Tagged: 0 Thread(s)
Quoted: 3230 Post(s)
Liked 3,868 Times
in
1,439 Posts
Mine had Weinmann Vainqueur (red label) brakes and Weinmann levers when I bought it, but I don't suppose that's in any way definitive. Your eyesight is much better than mine if you can distinguish the model of the brakes from the ad picture. Of course, I've heard that even when details were provided Raleigh catalogs were more of a suggestion than a specification.
East Coast people weren't cool enough for these bikes.
East Coast people weren't cool enough for these bikes.
__________________
My Bikes
My Bikes
Likes For Andy_K:
07-01-20, 06:14 PM
#8
So it goes.
Join Date: Apr 2014
Location: W. Tennessee
Posts: 965
Bikes: A few. Quite a few.
Mentioned: 24 Post(s)
Tagged: 0 Thread(s)
Quoted: 432 Post(s)
Liked 639 Times
in
261 Posts
Yours is a beauty. 
I have a 1970 - identical to yours but apparently not in the catalogue for that year. It demanded to be set up as a randonneur, and who was I to say no? Significant toe/fender overlap so I have to be careful, but worth it. Decals were barely legible so I got a set from Greg at Cyclomondo, great stuff.
I have a 1970 - identical to yours but apparently not in the catalogue for that year. It demanded to be set up as a randonneur, and who was I to say no? Significant toe/fender overlap so I have to be careful, but worth it. Decals were barely legible so I got a set from Greg at Cyclomondo, great stuff.
Last edited by PilotFishBob; 07-01-20 at 06:14 PM. Reason: typo
Likes For PilotFishBob:
07-02-20, 08:04 PM
#9
Senior Member
Join Date: Feb 2002
Posts: 1,177
Mentioned: 1 Post(s)
Tagged: 0 Thread(s)
Quoted: 117 Post(s)
Liked 71 Times
in
51 Posts
My first bicycle lust object. Would ride my Schwinn 5 speed to Hector's in Sherman Oaks or to Hans Ohrt on Sta. Monica Blvd. to gaze at the Raleighs and Bertins. It took about 30 years but I did have a dark bottle green bike for awhile.
07-02-20, 08:12 PM
#10
Full Member
Join Date: Jul 2016
Location: Denver CO
Posts: 233
Bikes: 2014 Fuji Cross 2.0 LE, 1993 Santana Vision, 1993 Specialized Allez Pro, 1993 Trek 930, 1985 Panasonic DX3000
Mentioned: 0 Post(s)
Tagged: 0 Thread(s)
Quoted: 49 Post(s)
Liked 75 Times
in
56 Posts
That is a sharp bike. Nice job
