[john_dfc14]

Hello, first time poster here and in need of some help in identifying the model of a bike my oldest lad has just bought from a charity shop. The bike in question is a raleigh racing bike . It has a serial number on the bottom bracket WP1000496 . The bottom bracket has 3 grooves cut out on the under side of the frame (can only think its to help with keeping the weight down ) I have never seen or heard of this before and therefore think the frame is probably of the high end of the Raleigh marque and therefore 531 tubing. Although the frame is 25" it is lighter than my 22.52 Arthur Caygill 653 tubing bike. Any info great or small would be appreciated. Thanks, John_dfc14.

 

[LAW.S.T]

pictures would help

 

[paredown]

The W prefix means it is likely from the Worksop factory, which was the old Carlton works, acquired by Raleigh--and eventually closed in 1981--the standardized system using the prefix letters started in 1973--see the bible on old Raleigh serials here

Raleigh traded on Carlton's expertise in making semi-custom high-end racing bikes, and so most?/all? of the Worksop production was high end including the Raleigh Professional... which has the three slots in the bottom bracket as you've described.

Here's a picture--and you can see the W prefix of the serial just above the slots. The thread where I shamelessly stole this picture from is discussing some differences in 1978 Professionals--and their serial numbers are in a similar range to yours.

So there is a pretty good chance that that charity shop purchase is a fairly collectible late '70s Raleigh Professional--I hope it has some of the original equipment. If not it is is a lovely all Reynolds 531 double butted frame that would make a nice Retro-Classic with some new bits.

You can see more pictures here, but will probably need to sign up to view them.

View attachment 282825

 

[john_dfc14]

thanks for the info. The bottom bracket is the same as in your pic and is of a similar colour. The bike is in vgc with a campag tripple chain ring and campag retro gear shifters on the downtube and with a shimano deore derailleur and 2 newish mavic wheels so it hasnt got the orginal stuff on it. It is a very good bike for my son to get introduced to cycling and definately worth the £70 he spent.