I meant to says the cranks of the eBay Gran Sport were those used on the Gr an Prix in the mid to late 70's. I bought my wife an Gran Prix sometime be tween 1976 and 1978 and I believe it had those cranks.
Regards,
Jerry Moos Big Spring, Texas, USA
--- On Sun, 3/1/09, Jerome & Elizabeth Moos <jerrymoos@sbcglobal.net> wrote
:
> From: Jerome & Elizabeth Moos <jerrymoos@sbcglobal.net>
> Subject: Re: [CR] eBay outing nostalgic Raleigh Gran Sports
> To: classicrendezvous@bikelist.org, fyrtom@yahoo.com
> Date: Sunday, March 1, 2009, 10:26 AM
> Nice bike, and in the more sought after blue-with-white
> rather than white-w
> ith-blue. Odd thing about the Gran Sport, for about 20
> years you couldn't
> give one away, but in the last couple of years they have
> been "discoverd".
> The $700 BIN seems a little ambitious, but he might get
> $400, maybe even m
> ore.
>
> What is the consensus on this bike's originality?
> Specifically the Raleigh
> -badged SunTour VGT-Luxe (or similar model) derailleurs and
> SunTour rachete
> d DT shifters? Also the Raleigh badged swaged Japanese
> cranks? None of the
> 70's catalogs on Retro Raleighs show Japanese shifters
> or derailleurs on t
> he Gran Sport. The derailleurs in the 1962 catalog are
> Campy Gran Sport, t
> hus apparently the model name, but by 1970 the Huret Luxe
> is specified. Th
> en the short cage, stamped cage plasic Simplex Prestige for
> a couple of yea
> rs, then in the mid-70's what the catalogs call the
> Simplex "Maxi" which wa
> s a long cage Simplex Criterium with proper forged cage.
> But all the Simpl
> ex derailleurs are shown paired with the truly horrid
> plastic Simplex Prest
> ige DT shifters.
>
> As to the cranks, the 1970 catalog shows a 5-pin Zeus
> Competition. The 197
> 2 catalog specs say it is Stronglight Alloy, but the photo
> shows a 5-pin cr
> ank that looks a lot more like Zeus Competition than mod 49
> to me. My circa
> 1970 (could be early 1971) Gran Sports (spelt with a final
> s that year) ha
> s a Nervar crank which I believe to be original. All the
> catalogs after 19
> 72 show a Stronglight 93 with chainguard, which is in
> essence a triple with
> a toothless large ring. So the Japanese crank on the eBay
> bike, most like
> ly a Raleigh-badged SR (Sakae Ringyo), is of dubious
> originality. Pretty s
> ure this was the crank used on the Grand Prix in the mid to
> late 80's.
>
> Despite their absence from the catalog, one sees the Sun
> Tour derailleurs a
> nd shifters on an amazing number of 70's Gran Sports,
> including one of mine
> . Granted they were far superior to Simplex Prestige and
> affordably priced
> , but it is amazing that I've never seen a Grand Sport
> upgraded to Shimano
> Titlist, always Sun Tour VGT-Luxe or similar and the
> ratcheted DT shifters.
> Anyone sell Raleighs in the 70's? If this SunTour
> stuff wasn't actually
> OE, was there perhaps some recommendation by Raleigh USA
> that dealers offer
> to upgrade to the Suntour derailleurs and shifters, which
> they may well ha
> ve had on hand as replacement parts for the Grand Prix?
>
> The seller states that the SunTour stuff (and presumably
> the cranks) are or
> iginal, and he probably believes that. He might even be
> correct, especiall
> y if one deems upgrades done by the dealer at time of
> purchase as "original
> ".
>
> One final question is raised by searching the catalogs for
> the Gran Sport.
> The Gran Sport is the only one of the high end models of
> the 70's which ap
> pears in the 1962 catalog, two years after Raleigh bought
> Carlton, and ther
> e is no mention of Carlton there. Was the Grand Sport then
> not a Carlton m
> odel, but a pre-Carlton Raleigh design which was only later
> moved to Workso
> p production where it acquired Carlton decals? That might
> help account for
> the fact that some late 60's/ early 70's Gran
> Sports have a Serial Number
> scheme completely different from the other Worksop models.
>
> Regards,
>
> Jerry Moos
> Big Spring, Texas, USA
>
>
>
>
> --- On Sat, 2/28/09, Tom Jue <fyrtom@yahoo.com>
> wrote:
>
> > From: Tom Jue <fyrtom@yahoo.com>
> > Subject: [CR] eBay outing nostalgic Raleigh Gran
> Sports
> > To: classicrendezvous@bikelist.org
> > Date: Saturday, February 28, 2009, 11:42 PM
> > Since there has been so much talk about Raleighs...
> Not
> > mine, but very n
> > icely done (my opinion):
> >
> > http://tinyurl.com/
> >
> > Tom M. Jue
> > San Francisco, CA USA
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > _______________________________________________
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> > Classicrendezvous@bikelist.org
> >
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