I recently bought an unidentified road racing bike on the local Craigslist. It had some nice, mostly Campy components from around 1980 on it, and I bought it mainly for the parts, as the frame was a bit small for me. After taking everything apart I was fairly impressed with the quality and lightness of the frame - it had been repainted (not very well) and had no badges or stickers, other than the word "CINELLI" in simple stick-on letters on the down tube (I knew it wasn't a Cinelli). After searching the internet I discovered it's a Raleigh Team Pro from about 1976, serial # SB 1092.
The frame is 56 cm (54.5 c-c) and weighs about 3.75 lb (bare frame only). It takes a 27.2 seatpost, which I think indicates 531 tubing rather than 753, but the frame weight seems light for 531. I scraped some paint away from around the seat stay cap and it looks like brass rather than silver solder, so that would indicate 531. I looked on the Raleigh Team Pro Yahoo Group website and there is a frame identical to mine in every detail, Nick Betts' SB1108, which is 753. So can anyone tell me whether this frame is 531 or 753?
Also, even though I really like this frame, it is too small for me. Is there anyone out there who would be interested in a trade? I take a size 57-58 c-c and would be interested in something similar to the Raleigh - ideally a high quality British racing frame from the 1970s, but anything of that vintage in my size would be considered.
Brian Samson
Vancouver, BC, Canada