noobinsf 

By the time this frame popped up on the CL/eBay thread, I had been messaging with the seller for a couple of weeks and trying to figure out if I could get it home. Lucky for me, my wife needed to be in Sacramento for a weekend, so it hitched a ride with her.



Here it is, looking pretty good for 50 years old.





Capella lugs, Tange headset

Missing derailleur hanger. I found a Campy 80/1 that will eventually be brazed on. Drive side chain stay has a thick layer of protective grime.

Drilled for recessed front and rear, and there is a threadless insert to allow nutted brakes, again front and rear.

SR Laprade post included

Sugino fixed cup


I don’t have time to get to it now, but I’m happy to have it as an “upcoming” project…

Murray Missile 

Nice! I grabbed one last year in 62cm, my derailleur hanger had been amputated as well. I believe it may have spent some time as a single speed. I paid a bit more for mine, you did well.

rustystrings61 

Oh, I dunno about replacing the derailleur hanger - these make AWESOME all-road fixed-gear/single-speed mounts! Mine runs 42/44T chainrings with a 17/19T Surly Dingle fixed cog on one side of the hub and a 20/22T White Industries Dos Eno freewheel on the other. There's gobs of tire clearance, so I can run 35mm Continental Cyclocross Speed tires and, without cross-chaining, have 70-in pavement and 60-in gravel fixed-gears, or flip the wheel 'round and have a 60-in general noodling coasting setup with the option of a 52-ish-in gentle singletrack setup. It's surprisingly light and nimble.

noobinsf 

As much as I admire the simplicity of a single speed, I can’t ride one of those near my house. Too many hills, and I am in nowhere near the shape I would need to be in to mash it up a hill. I might build it up first with a claw hanger derailleur, but the long term plan will be to braze the hanger on. In a sense, I’m glad to modify, since it will not limit me to Huret mechs.

Andy_K 

Looks like a perfect candidate for Gugificazione.

Yune_Garage 

Nice grab!
Old Raleighs are some of my favorite frames.

gugie 

Nice pick up! Where in the heck did you find a Campy 80/1 derailleur hanger? I have a bunch of horizontal dropouts I've stashed to act as donor parts.

Here's the bit we're referring to.


Last time I saw one of these was in the early 80's. The LBS I was working at had a Campagnolo small parts display and had one in it. Lots of lightweight British bikes didn't have an integrated derailleur hanger, these were brazed on often to eliminate the need for a derailleur claw.

Peter Weigle did several Competition 650b conversions.


I believe the one in the front is mine, pre-paint.

79pmooney

A sister to mine. Hopefully not an identical twin. Mine was built on Friday. Brazer took a long lunch, too many pints and straight home. Frame went straight form tack-up to paint. No, I do not know the actual story but I did notice no braze under the shifter DT stop, wasn't sure I trusted the rest on that super gravel frame. (The Oregon county I live in has gravel with steep descents; to steep to maintain speed, and wicked washboard at the bottom.) Decided to have the frame stripped and inspected by a framebuilder. He ended up filling all the lugs virtually like a fresh frame.

Your photos 5 (HT lug and especially 7 (BB) have me worried. I'd get that BB and the HT lugs cleaned up completely and check the paint carefully. I hope it all passes inspection just fine. (This was the crazy bike boom years and Raleigh was completely swamped.)

gugie 

Agreed! First step should be to media blast the frame to check brazing job.

52telecaster

73 competitions can be anything. A terrific bike!

noobinsf 

Yikes, I will look it over carefully. Thank you for the heads up. It's got a lot of grime on it, so I'll make sure to go deeper than a surface clean.

As for the 80/1, I found it on ebay from seller PB*Bikes. I know they notoriously overprice, but it was the only one available. Of course, after buying it, there is a new "only one" available. I picture a gumball dispenser in the back where they take one at a time to list them.

It will be a while before I give this one serious attention, since I am still finishing up the Mercian, and I have a couple of other close-but-unfinished bikes. 1973 holds special significance for me, though, so I think this is a keeper.

retroshifter

Congrats on the frame, I saw that ad pop up every couple of weeks on the Sacramento Craigslist, but could never coordinate a trip up there from the Bay Area. I was planning on a building a tricked out version of a Raleigh sports 3 speed with a Nexus 3 speed hub. Oh well I have an old trek frame that could suffice, but it won’t have those awesome lugs. Glad it went to some who appreciates it.

1989Pre 

I tried to purchase from them, once, when I saw an item that was actually at a good price. I bought it, and they cancelled, saying that it was a mistake and they railed at me, saying I should have known better. They blocked me. Not a great loss, considering their prices, but stange, nonetheless. I'm glad you got the frame you wanted, though.

gugie 

Too late now, but for others that may be in the unique situation of looking for a derailleur hanger to braze onto a bodged frame, just purchase a set of horizontal dropouts for under $20, and hacksaw off the bit you need.

steelbikeguy

how many Raleighs has the esteemed Mr. Weigle refurbished??

At the 2016 Classic Rendezvous gathering, he brought three to display. I won't eat up space here with pics of all of them (don't want to derail things too much), but will just offer a token glimpse at one of them. I'm guessing it's a Competition, based on the sloping fork crown and Nervex Pro lugs??



I do love the pin striping!
Does Peter do that, or does he farm out the painting?

To some degree, I find it a bit odd that he spends time reworking these relatively common bikes (speaking as an owner of an International) when he could be building his own creations. At the same time, he's definitely leaving his personal signature on these bikes, and I assume he's charging a suitable rate for the work.

Steve in Peoria, with lots of love for the Raleighs (and for Mr. Weigle's work too)

gugie 

Unknown how many, perhaps a dozen or so? He does his own painting and pinstriping.

One of the sad truths about framebuilders, even those at Mssr. Weigle's pedigree is that you don't do it to get rich. If you calculate the hourly wage he's making, refurbishing is more profitable than building a frame from scratch, I would imagine, and based on the time it takes me to do a full 650b conversion versus a built from scratch frame. The only reason I can afford to do it is that I still have a day job, and am saving away for retirement next year - I'll be able to afford to do it "full time" then!

Andy_K 

I can't comment on the efficiency of upcycling a vintage frame versus starting from scratch, but I love that he does it. You end up with a bike that has a connection to history but with the fine details of a custom bike. So, you glance at it and think, "That's a nice looking Raleigh," but then you look longer and you ask, "Wait, when did the Competition come with a curved seat stay bridge?" (Or whatever else you happen to notice first.) And you end up discovering that the longer you look at it, the more little details you find. Plus, they're just plain beautiful.

noobinsf 

I may end up as one of your clients as I think about what I want to do with this thing. So far, it looks like I was lucky with the brazing -- there appears to be only one tiny spot on the bottom head tube lug where I can juuuust fit a utility knife blade about a mm in. Otherwise, things seem to be solid.

gugie 

52telecaster

I'd love you to do a frame for me too.

noobinsf 

Maybe you have a brochure I can slyly use as my wife’s coffee coaster as my birthday approaches?

gugie 

PM me, I'm sure I can come up with something.

@Andy_K, (aka my publicist), we need coffee coaster merch, stat!

gugie 

PM me, I'm sure we can work something out. I really like how you do your upright bar bikes!

steelbikeguy

I've heard discussions about the difficulty of making a "good" living as a framebuilder, and I suspect it falls into the general category of "fun jobs don't pay well".

Even in my career as an engineer, the part about creating and problem solving is wonderful, but it's also the part that engineers are expected to give up when they (usually) move into project management or middle management. I opted to stay in the fun stuff as much as possible, with a distinct impact to my earnings. The trick is to actually have valuable skills that people recognize and value.

With full-time framebuilders, it seems that you need to successfully market your work if you want to make some money (i.e. enough to not starve). Richard Sachs always struck me as having done a great job of this... he got covered by a wide variety of magazines, produced beautiful frames, and stuck with a particular style that could be produced quickly and efficiently. Admittedly, making unadorned racing frames might become tedious in its own way, but there was a significant market for them, and it didn't require spending a ton of time with the customer discussing options and such.

In my own work, even the interesting work could have a fair bit of tedious work involved, so I also did electronics work as a hobby. As a retired guy myself, I still find myself spending too much time on other stuff and not enough on electronics. At least I don't have to go to meetings or do performance reviews.

Steve in Peoria

gugie 

Preach it, brother!

I've been a Systems Engineering Manager for 6 years, so my life has been meetings, cat herding, and rating cats for awhile. 280 days until I join you in the voluntarily unemployed. @rccardr keeps telling me that retirement is the best job he's ever had. The fact that he's significantly older than me and can still wipe the floor with me on long rides leads me to believe that there's something to this employment state.