My lovely translucent Coffee-colored Raleigh International had the round rapid taper stays. At the time, when i was in the bloom of youth (ca. 1971), it felt very soft to me, but that is hardly an exact measurement. I sold the frame to a buddy, and substituted a very, very, stiff Torpado in metallic green.
harvey sachs mcLean va
Peter Kohler wrote (and I hope to see him at Ken Sanford's): I rather doubt Raleigh grabbed a pile of these from Reynolds on a whim. Anything Raleigh did, they did a lot of. What is "rare" with Raleigh would probably exceed the entire production of Messrs. Masi and Cinelli for half a decade.
My 1970 Raleigh Professional Mark I ("The White One") has these chainstays and succeeding models of Pros had them at least through 1972, maybe longer. And one presumes Carltons had them too. Well, we know the Carlton Pros did. So if the Raleigh Internationals had them, too, you are talking about a LOT of bikes here. So they were actually not "rare" but rather distinctive. And very cool. Certainly a darned sight more attractive than dimpled stays that are notorious crud and moisture catchers. Indeed, I can see these being precisely the type of refinement that a Gerald O'Donovan would have embraced and, as it turned out, he appears to have done just that!
Peter Kohler
Washington DC USA