# 1979 Raleigh Super Grand Prix, Mint



## Wayne Adam

This bike is truly mint. I bought it from the original owner a few years ago at the Trexlerown Velodrome.
The girl who bought it in '79 only used it for about a year, then got her car license and never rode it again.
She had it stored inside her home. Every part on it including the tires are original except for the upgraded J.Taylor stem she added back then. She also gave me the original sales receipt, manual and other documents.
She paid over $300.00 for it back then. Every part of the bike shines like new and the bar end shifters are very cool. This bike rides great. This is my favorite street rider. I believe that the 1979 SGP was the last year the it was totally made in England with mostly Raleigh components, a few French parts and Dia Compe Center Pull brakes.
  Thanks for looking!


----------



## bulldog1935

Nice components on this bike, and very nice find in that condition.  My '77 GP (frame dated May '76, and I purchased in fall '76) came with the same Suntour-made, Raleigh-branded VGT derailleurs.  It also originally had the ratcheted Suntour downtube shifters.  I bet the ratcheted bar-ends are very nice.  The alloy rims are an instant upgrade (and of course I never rode the "Brooks" steel pan saddle that came on mine - it left the shop then with an Unicanitor, which I could ride then, but couldn't now).  Great Raleigh touches are the gold tipping on the lugs.
Your bike also has a trick steel stem with the nice built-in brake adjuster. 

My GP, btw, was originally a $200 bike.  It's pushing 30,000 mi now with only the Weinmann CP calipers as the last original components.  (Bought at Cumberland Transit in Nashville when I was a student)
The splined crank stripped out on me climbing Austin hills in '78, and precipitated the first rebuild over the next year, with cheap components sold by employees in the UT Co-op bike shop, who won them in races.  That included new crank, new wheelset (Rigida rims on Zeus hubs), narrower freewheel and Shimano 600 derailleurs.

Right off the bat, an interesting difference is the higher-trail fork on the SGP.  It will definitely give it sportier handling - as a sport/touring bike, it makes it more sport than touring.  It also gives up the ability to carry a (significant) front load.  One factor that keeps the old GPs running is the low-trail fork, making them bulletproof touring bikes.  The only other Raleigh by then to share the low-trail fork geometry was the International.

Here's my old GP after the 3rd rebuild around a 700c wheelset, cold-set to 126mm OLD and 7-sp rear - again, the low-trail fork makes it a great front-load hauler. Still using the Shimano 600 FD, and back to a Cyclone GT RD.  My bar-ends are the Zeus friction shifters I ended up with in '78/79 and moved them into Rivendell bar-end pods.



Also Zeus brake levers along the way.




If you ever have the urge to upgrade the brakes, Kool Stop Dura cartridge pads are an instant upgrade.  I've tried every different brake pad combo that will fit (original Matthauser, Supra rear plus Continental front, Yokozuna cartridge), and these are the best - especially the best front brake option to fit the fork.  They self-align and self-toe if you follow the installation instructions.




73-82 Raleighs also share the same serial number convention, as follows:
*Serial convention:*
Two letters, followed by a series of six digits:
*First letter - production factory:*
N=Nottingham
W=Worksop (1967-1980), Nottingham after 1981, following closure of Worksop factory. Discontinued in 1990.
E=Enid (USA)
G=Gazelle
M=Malaysia
R=Canada
D=Ireland
H=Handsworth (U.K.)
S=Unknown, but in existence
B=Unknown, but reported
*Second letter - approximate month of frame manufacture:*
Jan=A
Feb=B/C
Mar=D
Apr=E/F
May=G
Jun=H/I/J
Jul=K
Aug=L
Sep=M
Oct=N/O
Nov=P/Q/R
Dec=S
http://www.kurtkaminer.com/TH_raleigh_serials.html

I believe you are correct that around 1980 is when they quit importing UK-made bikes to the US and were selling only Canada- and US-made, and later Asian-made.


----------



## bulldog1935

My buddy's '79 Super Course is sitting over here right now - I'm storing it inside for him while he was moving.
Made me take a look at it - It has the same fork, saddle, brakes and crankset as your bike  (derailleurs are Cyclone, and of course narrow freewheel).
His frame is of course marked Carlton (and has a Worksop serial number). 
If you don't mind, check your serial number - I'm curious whether yours was built it Nottingham or Worksop.

Based on the wikipedia article, '79 is the year Carlton/Worksop closed, 1982 is the origin of Raleigh USA (owned by Huffy with bikes built by Bridgestone).


----------



## Wayne Adam

Hi Bulldog1935,
     My serial number is WH9001776. Obviously Worksop, June of '79.
When I first saw this bike for sale, I had to have it. It's rare to find a highly optioned , high end Raleigh in this condition.
I paid her pretty much what she paid for it new and I still think that was a fair deal. These bikes are bullet proof, beautiful and a pleasure to ride.
Wayne


----------



## bulldog1935

that was a good price for that bike in that condition

And to show you one other frame detail difference, yours has separate seat stays, and mine has the wrap-around seat stay, which came from Raleigh's purchase of Carlton in 1960 (mine is a Nottingham bike).  Otherwise, they both use the same grade of TI tubing.


----------



## fattyre

You better properly install that front Q R before you do too much more riding!  One of the worst crashes I ever saw started by a front wheel falling off going down a hill at pretty good clip. That fork had no lawyer tabs or nubs on the drop outs.


----------



## Wayne Adam

Fattyre,
   Thanks, yes, I know. I am in the process of installing new tires and tubes, after which the QR will be properly set.


----------



## bulldog1935

If you haven't picked your tires, a couple I can recommend are Challenge Strada Bianca (30mm, but usually measure 32mm width), Compass Stampede Pass (32mm) and Compass Bon Jon Pass (35mm).  These are cozy, light, fast tires that run very nicely well below rated pressures.

I'm 6'3", 210 lbs, and I run my Strada Biancas at 65 psi rear and 50 psi front.
I have 38mm Barlow Pass on my cross frame and can run them at 60 psi rear and 40 psi front.

The new Soma Supple Vitesse are very nice also, and available in a range of sizes. The Somas use the same casings that Panaracer developed for Compass, but different rubber and tread. 

Compass and Riveldell sell Schwalbe extralight tubes in big sizes, which take advantage of these fine casing tires.  I run Challenge latex tubes, but you have to really want to, because they have to be pumped all the time.

When tires bounce and vibrate on the pavement, they're losing momentum, and fine-casing tires at moderate pressures conform to the pavement, which makes them super fast, and ride like clouds.

To me, a bike is a platform for tires - I run 27mm Vittoria open paves on my Moser (though only get 600 mi from a rear), and my daughter has Veloflex on her Fuji.  (She has the Soma SV on her upright).

There was a recent supple tire thread on the Rivendell board, someone asked how do you tell a good tire?  A really good answer was, "I drop the tire to the floor and if it still looks like a tire, I don't want it, but if it folds and curls up on itself, it's a good tire."


----------



## Wayne Adam

Thanks Bulldog,
 I'm going to the Velofest at the Velodrome in PA on May 7th. There are tons of vendors there with high quality parts so I will find my tires and tubes there. I do like the look of the Challenge Strada Bianca tires you have pictured.
Thanks again for you opinions..........Wayne


----------



## bulldog1935

you're welcome - here's a size comparison between the Barlows and the Strada Biancas



A word of warning about the Strada Biancas.  They're low profile tires and there is only one way to mount them correctly to avoid a tube pinch.  A little air in your tube, start the bead beside the stem, work it most of the way around until it wants to pinch.  Then deflate it and push in the stem to get it the last bit.    So start at the stem, and finish at the stem.  Also don't over-pressure them - don't even run them at rated pressure, run them well below.


----------



## bulldog1935

ps Wayne - all these tires are 700c (ISO 622) - I was assuming your bike has the same 700c 22mm rims that are on my buddy's '79 Super Course. 
If they're 27" (ISO 630), there's only One tire - Panaracer Pasela - make sure you get the folding bead because they have 60 tpi casings, and the wire bead Paselas are 27 tpi casings.


----------



## Wayne Adam

Yes, They are 27". My tires are 700x28c ( 28-622)


----------



## bulldog1935

http://www.sheldonbrown.com/tire-sizing.html

ISO 622 is 700c, so good, many new tire choices for you.

old 27" rims are ISO 630, and the Kevlar bead Paselas are the only really good tires made for them today (though you can get bomb-proof Schwalbe Marathons if you want to ride over glass and nails and wear a mouth guard for your teeth)

The history is a little convoluted.  There once were 27" tubulars.  By the beginning of the 70s bike boom, it was pretty much all tubulars (sew-up/glue-on) were 700c (ISO 622),




and all clinchers were 27-inch (ISO 630).




In 1978 I had a set of narrow 27-inch clinchers built (Zeus hubs and Rigida 1320 rims), and was rolling fast on 27x1 Contis.



Here are my narrow 27s (wearing 1-1/8" Paselas) - I was doing a how-to photo series for putting a Gino light mount on a rack strut.

By 1980, new bikes were starting to make the shift to 700c clincher rims - they are 8mm smaller diameter than 27" rims.
These had already been around for a few years, originating so racers could train on clinchers (much easier to deal with flats) using the same size wheels as their racing tubulars.
The industry switch also coincided with rear axle spacing growing from 120mm to 126 then 130mm, and number of rear cogs growing from 5 through 8 (then narrow chains and more cogs in the same space, etc)
For about 5-8 years, sporty bikes were rolling on 700c, and touring bikes were rolling on 27" (because then you could count on getting 27" tires at any bike shop along the way), but finally ISO 630s went by the wayside on new bikes.

Some older bikes don't have the brake adjust-ability to make the swap from 27" to 700c, plus have 120mm rear dropout spacing (called OLD, not sure what it stands for...) and so 27" wheels with 120mm OLD are still offered by a few folks for Vintage bikes.  http://www.niagaracycle.com/categories/rim-alloy-sun-27-x-1-m13-pol-32h

To take advantage of the new great tires, though, you need 700c rims.
Your bike represents one of the very first to make the swap to 700c clinchers from the factory...




and if you really want to go fast (and pump to 90 psi, etc), go with the 27mm Parigi-Roubaix - they still have a nice wide footprint of about 29mm.
But really, I still recommend putting the biggest tires that will fit your frame (probably limited by your chainstays) - you'll like them better in the long run for all the reasons in my first tire post above


----------



## bulldog1935

Something to say about soft tires and low pressures. I rode 40 miles today on The Italian Huffy, with the 38mm Compass Barlow Pass.  These tires don't even have a puncture belt.  I picked up a thumbtack in my front tire (40 psi) and heard it going around 1xR. I stopped - it wasn't completely planted, but it was deep. I was spooked pulling it out expecting to hear the air come with it. But it didn't puncture the latex tube.  I've always read that latex would stretch around sharp objects without puncturing.  I made it home, and it's still holding pressure tonight. (Might not have been so kind on the 60psi rear with more of my weight).
.


----------

