Raleigh Dynatech Diablo (Titanium??) – any good?

Spotted this on another internet site… £130 for the lot, seems like a pretty good deal?

Waddaya reckon STW, should I add it to my 'collection'?

speak to the guys on retro bike.
they'll make love to each other over that

oh I know… but need to decide if I'll snaffle it first! 🙂

130 quid is not bad for what it is
Hell of a lot better than what same amount buys new. And its old so it's sort of coolish

I've got one – a Diablo DX from circa 1992 with Flexstem and XT thumbies 🙂 Still use it as a hack bike, still got the original front rim on it 😯

is it actually made of titanium?

The three "main" tubes in the frame triangle are, seat and chainstays are steel with an aluminium headtube I think.

Oh and the tubes are bonded in aluminium lugs.

bugger… don't matter now, just got a call back and it sold earlier today 🙁

ah well, didn't really need it, just thought it'd be a cool commuter/hack bike 🙂

Psss – If I remember correctly the forks are Ti as well. Between you and me I'd say that £130 for a Ti frame and forks is a bit of a bargain.

Forks on the bog standard models were steel. The top of the range had all Ti frame + forks.

Would love some original ti forks to go with my cr-mo/ti 94 dynatech, lovely bikes.

I used to dream of owning one of these back in the day. Those forks were as cool as….

Ah yes, that's the puppy! I used to drool after that also….

If it's a full Ti one I'd avoid it, they flexed like crazy. The one with the steel stays is a nice bike, though I saw quite a few of both bend.

I had one of those that you were looking at in turquoise rather than the red here so probably a different spec level. I did it up for a mate a couple years ago for family cycling with a shorter stem, low rise bar and V Brakes and it is a good knock about bike. Not sure if the fork blades were Ti or steel. Probably depended on the model. Pretty sure that the Torus with the triple crown did have Ti fork blades. I'm seem to recall that the ones that Barry Clarke and Dave Baker rode also had a twin stem arrangement. The pro race rigs were pretty low in weight. Never weighed mine but it was no heavy weight. The fork was called UGLI – Uncle Gerrald's Latest Invention – but it was pretty ugly. Worked though as a cheap (I assume it was fairly easy to make up as again it was bonded item again) fork and never had a problem with it. Would be nice to get a rigid carbon on there though. Exotic Carbon on EBay for example available with canti bosses.

IMHO definitely a well spent £130-00.

My circa 94 Torus still going strong.
Not noticed it "flexes like crazy" to be honest!

I think the one the OP refers to is the bonded frame. Can't see from the picture…

I have a blue raleigh titanium frame that I know nothing about. It has disc mounts as well as canti ones and is fully welded. Says raleigh titanium on it.

anyone know anything about it?

i worked in my lbs with a guy who had a torus xt , it was mint with the x-lite triples, i had a few rides of it, it was a beautiful bike, i drooled over it at the time, would love to find one now., and it was stiff as hell, not bendy :?:incidentally my lbs was a raleigh dealer, we sold quite a few diablo's. the lugs and main tubes used to part quite often. the ugli forks were ti too.

I still ride a 1992 Diablo plus – rear triangle is cr-mo, steerer tube is ally, three main tubes are titanium, bonded into the other parts. Front fork was cr-mo rigid but is now on Rebas. Still has the original saddle, ti handlebars, ally bar ends and cranks. All the rest has been replaced over the years and it has discs both ends after I got Argos in Bristol put a mount at the rear. [sorry retro bike people, but it is a working bike not a museum piece] I really like it but, I haven't ridden many other bikes to compare with it.

Like the look of the Torus btw

Can't add pics from phone, but here's my dynatech as it's currently built.

Commercialy pure titanium, nowhere near as strong as titanium alloys such as 6/4, 3/2.5 etc.

A friend had one of the purple ones with the patchwork paint jobs. Snapped 2 frames. Sold teh 3rd replacement from Raleigh.

I used to have a dyna tech endeavour from 1991, the steel bonded frame from the previous year. Sold it to my brother and it's still going strong!

TJ – have a look here – plenty of info about models.

The most amazing thing about that Torus XT is that it's not a great deal lighter than a good hardtail these days!

TJ,

When I bought your frame I was told it was a Raleigh Special Products Division frame.

TandemJeremy

I have a blue raleigh titanium frame that I know nothing about. It has disc mounts as well as canti ones and is fully welded. Says raleigh titanium on it

it is probably a late 90s/early 00s from the Raleigh Special Products division. Plasma welded from memory(?) which doesn't mean much to me. Very nice, the Raleigh team had them in a gold/red paint job in '99, same time as teh 853 dh bikes 8) as ridden by Emma wossername (Tracey Brunger's partner). Very cool… would you be interested in parting with it?

i'm the new owner of the above bike, pretty happy with it to go alongside my heckler as my retro hack/commuter. original groupset, ti main tubes, ally headtube and cro-mo rear. also ti stem, bars and forks. really good nick apart from the plastic covering was coming off the main tubes so i've peeled most of that off and tried to neaten it up. pretty chuffed 🙂