Raleigh Titanium hardtail, lovely retro bike…

Took the old 1990’s bikes out at weekend, and mate turned up on his Raleigh Titanium, weighing in at around 20lbs, look at those middleburns, pace 50T ring, and original Hope hubs 😯

A guy in the cycling club used to have a lovely raleigh ti bike but it was lugged unlike this. Lovely blue anodised parts everywhere.

Looked lovely it really did, he now has a carbon frame he built himself.

This bike is also fantastic, love the colour scheme.

Mmmm, Mavic 217 Sunset rims. Had myself some of those as soon as they came out. Wish Mavic did their rims in cool colours like that now, instead of just black. Had some red 517s too, on red Hope hubs. They were nice but not as nice as Sunsets.

one of the older sweary northerners used to race on one of those, got 2nd place in the uk vet champs on it when all the others were riding sussers.

Lovely 🙂 🙂 points deducted for modern tyres 😉

oooh, I had some sunsets as well.

Porn. Pure porn.

I remember selling these back in the day for my saturday job.

I seem to remember they weren’t made in Nottingham, but were imported – but loads better value than Litespeed etc.

That one ^^ looks a bit like it’s specced like the team bikes at the time I think? Or maybe I’m confused with X-Lite that use to have interesting bits

Nice, especially the 217 sunsets, but schwalabe tyres and disk brake are wrong.

Didnt Raleigh use seamed titanium tubing to keep the cost down ?

plus one – Member

Lovely 🙂 points deducted for modern tyres

Nah, points added for being equipped to be ridden properly, not a garage queen 😉

Yum Yum. Tis lovely!

Needs a bit of Smoke / Dart rubber tho …

Dyna-tech were the lugged Raleigh ‘Ti’ were they not?

Very nice, and just as much fun to ride t’day as back then – I still use my original Hope ti hubs on my ss road bike (70,000 miles+) and i still use a set of the original square taper middleburn cranks as well – that stuff was built to last.

If it was mine i’d lose the gripship and fit xt thumbshifters along with a sharks fin chainstay protecter and a DCD………..although i do have a brand new set of XT thumbshifters along with brake levers and canti brakes just waiting on that new/unused Dave Bradbury Manitou frame to appear on the classifieds (i live in a perpetual state of hope).

That’s nice

Did the Calderdale Mountainbike Marathon on a GT tequesta with pace rc36s at the weekend. There’s a certain feel to a 90’s bike that I do like

Plus they look ace

and original Hope hubs

I think you’ll find that is ‘hub’ singular! My ex’s bike has them front & rear – in the same blue. Should go and nick them back really!

Lovely. Needs a DCD though. (Union Jack one 😉 )

Lovely, like the Sid fork. Nice matching build kit. Defo extra points for riding it, the retrobike crowd would drop points for new tyres too. Nice.

Here’s a Marin Muirwoods i got given the other week, totally unused and sat in a shed for 19years – not even any wear on the original brake blocks, it has got non-standard tyres but i do have a set of original marin rockstar tyres in the attic from my 1992 Bear Valley SE.

I may fit my onza chill pills to the brake straddle wire, and i’m sure i have a girvin flexstem somewhere along with my manitou 3 forks.

Had a pine mountain frame of that era

One of the best rides I’d had when I was 21

Bro in law used to race a dyna-tech in the early nineties, I had it off him to use as my commuter for few years. Gave it him about 4 years ago and it sat in his garage for about a year, then he chucked it in a skip when he was moving house 😯

Dyna-tech Taurus ti? Yep, same as the x-lite titanium frames. I think they were made by funky robots in Nottingham, ripped out and sent to taiwan when diamondback asset-stripped the triumph road site bought them out. There was something dodgy about the tubing though which made them cheap. They did a cro-mo version too, beautifully tig’d together and really light. That went on to form the front end for the dho frames.

Needs a bit of Smoke / Dart rubber tho.

A pair of lovely dark red Ritchey Z-Max WCS would be a bit more in keeping with its race pedigree.

Mavic 217 SUP rims, eh? That’s nothing, I used to roll with a set of 117 SUP CD Ceramics built by Big Al to STX SE hubs. Okay, the hubs weren’t cutting edge, but they lasted the long life of the rims!

P.S. Still got a smoke/dart set….and an Onza Rip/Rail set for when I rebuild that frame in the roofspace. Orange 1991 Clockwork, also got a set of Pace RC30s and some DX thumbies in hibernation for the same rebuild. 😀

I had the first edition of the Raleigh Titanium which was painted a sort of light blue metallic. It broke at the seat tube / top tube junction. Raleigh then swapped it for one just like the bike in the OP. That cracked at the seat tube / BB area. My third bike was a matt finish one with rear disc tabs which got sold almost immediately!

Is it just the photo or does that back wheel have titanium spokes too? If so where’s the matching front one?!

I used to have one of those. It was awful. Like riding a collection of rubber bands!

Tubeset was gash. Commercially Pure Ti – not alloyed like 3/2.5 or 6/4, and not drawn tubes – rolled and seamed. All sorts of wrong!

There was something dodgy about the tubing though which made them cheap.

Yes it was cheapo seamed lower grade Russian ti as far as I remember ?.It was so they could offer ti on a budget

Keep an eye on it for cracks – I know of 3 from that era and they all cracked (two at the wishbone stay and one at the downtube to head tube weld). Nothing failed catastrophically so don’t worry too much…..

I have a Raleigh 600 Ti for sale if interested use this email
simonsterritt@yahoo.co.uk

End of an era

http://www.ing.unitn.it/~colombo/telai/approfondimenti_sul_titanio.htm

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/business/titanium-gets-on-its-bike-as-peace-prevails-1468533.html

Contains some journalistic mis-information.

I imported some Russian titanium stuff years ago for that reason – the largest frames I could get were 19″ because that was the longest off-cut he could get out the back door 😉

Half the stuff I imported snapped in a month, the other half is still working 15 years later. QC was non-existent.

So there was no single area that failed then? Could’ve been any weld!

what great bikes!

ton – Member
one of the older sweary northerners used to race on one of those, got 2nd place in the uk vet champs on it when all the others were riding sussers.

that is impressive! apparently the bike in OP has a ride quality not far off his full sus Scott Spark, the only let down is the forks are a bit twangy/flexy LOL

DezB – Member
and original Hope hubs

I think you’ll find that is ‘hub’ singular! My ex’s bike has them front & rear – in the same blue. Should go and nick them back really!

willej – Member
Is it just the photo or does that back wheel have titanium spokes too? If so where’s the matching front one?!

The matching front wheel on the same hope hubs cracked at the axle 😯

Spokes are simplon titanium.

@somafunk thats a nice bit of retro!

Heres the front wheel, 21 year old hub so it did well before the fracture!

There was a CTC article about the Hope front hubs cracking many years back.

Thought was that they corroded, and that the rears didn’t because of the general amount of oil floating around.

Suggestion was to give a squirt of teflon lube every so often, which I have done ever since.

I have 2 hubs from that era still in constant use.

That fork’s a 2001 SID Race – quite a bit newer than much of the kit.