Not sure if I would call a full 531 bike "lower end". It may not have the attention to detail and detailed lugging of higher end frames, but it has a sport-touring geometry and good quality tubing, something I've been aiming to aquire for a few months now. I was actually bidding on a mid 70's Gran d Sports (or which ever variation of the name they used that year) this aft ernoon, but came up a bit short in the end. In any case, it is a productio n bike with lots of examples out there and I wouldn't feel too bad about tu rning the bike into something more suitable for what your sister needs. Th e geometry should make for a very stable and good riding bike for the BOBis h aims you have for it. If you need to recoup some of the cost of the bike purchase, go ahead and sell the original parts for what you can get for th em, but if you can manage it, box them up and stash them away for a few mon ths first just to be sure the frame will work out in the long term for her before sending the parts off to far flung parts of the world. Good luck wi th the build.
Jon Fischer Dallas, Texas, USA http://velobase.com
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
------
The Greatest Trophy of all is the sense of Accomplishment http://velobase.c
om | http://thecuda.com > Date: Tue, 29 Apr 2008 21:42:42 -0500> From: bra
xton72@gmail.com> To: anhammond@gmail.com> Subject: Re: [CR]Moral quandary:
my sister's new Raleigh Grand Sports> CC: classicrendezvous@bikelist.org>
> Great find Adam, she looks in great shape. Since this is a lower end, bik
e> boom era bike of no historical significance, no problem in my book in> s
triping her down and building it up the way you want. And then of course> m
ake sure your sister rides the heck out of it. It ought to be a great> ride
r! If you have any pangs of guilt at all though, just toss the original> pa
rts in a box, label it, and store it away for possible later use. Have> fun
!> > John Wood> Washington Island, Wisconsin, USA> > On Tue, Apr 29, 2008 a
t 9:33 PM, Adam Hammond <anhammond@gmail.com> wrote:> > > I spent this week
end in Barrie, Ontario celebrating my sister's 30th> > birthday. My gift wa
s an "IOU" for a bike, and we spent some of the next few> > days deciding o
n what sort of a bike she wanted. She's the mother of three> > young childr
en and a victim of the recent jump in gas prices, and wants to> > go on rid
es with her children and run some of her errands by bike. We> > decided on
a Rivendellish/BOBish bike: a lugged steel frame, but modern> > components.
We thought it would be nice to mount them on a 1978 frame, since> > that's
when she was born. I would just have bought a Rivendell if it weren't> > f
or fiscal constraints -- $1500 for a frame is pretty steep, and I have> > n
early a whole bike's worth of modern (by which I mean 105 derailleurs, a> >
Sugino triple, and bar end shifters, etc.) components on my shelf.> >> > M
y search for a frame didn't take long. Yesterday on Toronto Craigslist,> >
someone posted a late-70s Raleigh Grand Sports in her size for $250. It met
> > nearly all our requirements: good tubing, lots of clearance for fat tir
es> > and fenders, and she loved the way it looked. The bike was delivered
this> > morning, and you can have a look at it here:> >> > http://tinyurl.c
om/3v4pzv> >> > The moral quandary is the following: I don't intend on keep
ing very many> > of the bike's original components in use. I like the frame
very much, and> > the Weinmann centrepulls, but don't intend to use the de
railleurs, cranks,> > bars or stem, etc. The Brooks saddle will likely find
a home on one of my> > other bikes, but I'll likely sell the remaining com
ponents on eBay or offer> > them to list members (though I have no idea of
their value, so stating a> > firm price as per list rules might scare me of
f...)> >> > The plastic Simplex rear derailleur gives me some confidence th
at I'm not> > committing an atrocity in stripping this frame. But I thought
that before> > dealing with regret, I would ask for advice. This frame wil
l get lots of use> > and have a good life in its future incarnation, and I
won't powdercoat it or> > remove any braze-ons -- but am doing wrong in "st
ripping" it of its original> > condition to give it this new life? I was bo
rn several years after this> > frame, so I have little of the historical/se
ntimental context...> >> > Opinions welcomed!> >> > Adam Hammond> > Toronto
, ON, Canada> > _______________________________________________> > Classicr
endezvous mailing list> > Classicrendezvous@bikelist.org> > http://www.bike
list.org/mailman/listinfo/classicrendezvous> >> > > --- StripMime Report --
processed MIME parts ---> multipart/alternative> text/plain (text body --
kept)> text/html> ---> _______________________________________________> Cla
ssicrendezvous mailing list> Classicrendezvous@bikelist.org> http://www.bik
elist.org/mailman/listinfo/classicrendezvous