Rapidly not reply. Forum on my phone doesn’t work well.

They aren’t bad motors given the reliability rep that Alfa has…. However be acutely aware that if you spend 8k on one it will be worth 5k in a year or so, they drop reply to the 3-4k value and when you’ve put 20k miles on it the value is a shocking decrease.

Either 2006, 2007 or 2008… all effectively the same fork.

IMHO the best Boxxers ever made before the new generation ones.

If I still rode DH I’d have them off you at £175 as a spare pair.

Put them on Ride.io forum and they will go quick.

Nottingham to Ulverston to pick up a frame once (420 mile round trip). I did however stay over at my bro’s house for the night who lives near there so killed two birds with one stone.

I’m driving 200 miles to deliver one on Monday though :-0

More importantly for the rest of us who haven’t been so stupid as to do what you’ve done….

How do we opt out without the wife finding out?

Like about 20% of all the users on here I’ve also got a degree in mechanical engineering and if I’m honest it doesn’t help me answer whether or not to grease a headset cup on insertion.

I’ve personally never greased them as they are an interference fit.. but I’m not claiming that is 100% the right thing to do.

I’ve never had a headset cup that has got stuck and can’t remove with a sharp tap of a hammer on a cup removal tool so I’m going to stick to not greasing them.

Can’t prove it “mathematically” but I’d be inclined to think greasing headset cups would make your bike more prone to headset ovalisation as it’s going to aid any micro movements between the cup and frame… I’ve got no evidence of this and it may make no difference, but just a thought. You really want as rigid an interface as possible. It’s not like its a part that gets changed regularly and is at risk of wearing from the fitting and removal, I’d imagine most frames see an average of about 2 headsets in the life of the frame (bearings obviously get changed more).

P.S. There are some good youtube videos that show you how to lace a wheel. That’s the easy bit though, tensioning so you get no egg is the difficult but. Lateral truing is also a piece of cake.

Give them a call, explain what has happened and that you don’t think they’ve been built properly and aren’t quite fit for purpose.Be polite but firm in your expectations.

Worst they can say is no so worth a try.

Merlin have damn good customer service, so I would be surprised if they don’t do something for you.

Ahem Wordnumb when criticizing other peoples grammar you might want to use the correct “their” ;-)

Not getting rid matey, I’m keeping the combo for an Alps trip next summer.

Check the previous owner has had it waxoiled and garaged and you should be fine ;-)

You know what is “poo poo”?

… The grammar in your initial post. Seriously, that was a terrible attempt at expressing an opinion!

I can empathise with this… it’s not the issues, it’s the disproportionate response blowing up and attacking.

Unfortunately that’s the general uneducated response to a slightly confrontational situation.

Try and keep it civil and repare relationships when you can, no point living at odds with neighbours if you can help it.

I’ve mortgaged myself up to the eyeball to buy a detached house with big distances between me and neighbours due to similar experiences… annoyingly now I feel like I’m the nuisance noisy neighbour in my sleepy retirement suburb now and have to be really careful when using power tools late or early etc and feel guilty when I throw a BBQ.

Bloody hell,

How the otehr half live eh.. shopping at Sainsbury’s!!! Snobs I tell thee, snobs!!

P.S.

Amusingly my wife and I are slightly ashamed when the ASDA delivery van turns up, most of our neighbours have Ocado :-(

I know, to be honest I’ve agonised over this.

But it comes down to the fact I need cash, and I really need it at the minute.

I haven’t got the time or money to invest in restoring it myself… or really the enthusiasm for it.

It’s got international shipping so will come up on ebay.fr wont it?

Yep, I’ll upload it to my pinkbike and link it. Give me a min.

Here you go Crikey,

been doing a bit of digging. For some of these team frames Raleigh shipped the parts to other builders and they built them with the parts shipped.

I have copied and pasted directly from my email.

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

Dear Paul,

I can speak english.

This frame was built in 1990 (90) – was the first frame produced for this season (1) and was made for Laurent Fignon (LF).

This frame has been produced by Cyfac for CASTORAMA Team and for your info, we could repaint it in its initial color as we did for another UK customer at the beginning of the year ( see picture attached).

Best Regards,

Aymeric Le Brun,

CYFAC INTERNATIONAL

Tél : 02 47 24 67 42

alebrun@cyfac-expert.fr

De : Paul Bennett [mailto:paulbennett76@hotmail.com]
Envoyé : jeudi 11 juillet 2013 21:03
À : contact@cyfac-expert.fr
Objet : S’il vous plaît pouvez-vous aider? Laurent Fignon frame?

Bonsoir,

Je suis désolé pour mon mauvais français écrit.

Pouvez-vous parler ou d’écrire en anglais?

Je vais écrire en anglais si c’est ok?

I have what i have been told is an old Raleigh Castorama and upon inspection many people seem to believe that it was ridden by Lauren Fignon.

It has been said that Cyfac built these? Is that true?

If so could you confirm the identity as a true Laurent Fignon frame?

It has obviously been re-painted since it was manufactured..

Pictures attached.

Many thanks in advance,

Kindest regards

Paul Bennett

et au cas où vous ne pouvez pas lire l’anglais, j’ai essayé d’utiliser google translate

J’ai ce que j’ai dit est un ancien Castorama Raleigh et, après inspection Beaucoup de gens semblent croire qu’il a été monté par Lauren Fignon.

Il a été dit que Cyfac construit ceux-ci? Est-ce vrai?

Si oui pourriez-vous confirmer l’identité comme un véritable cadre Fignon Laurent?

Il a évidemment été repeint depuis qu’il a été fabriqué ..

Photos ci-jointes.

Merci d’avance,

Cordialement

Paul Bennett

Funnily enough I’ve just been looking at it in my kitchen and am considering removing the ebay ad and just keeping it but getting it sprayed back up… but then that will lead to attempting to find all the original parts that would have been on it and that’s going to get expensive!

Gonna take it for a blast in a bit when the traffic calms down, I’ve become pretty attached to it now I’ve started finding out what it really is.

So does your old English teacher ;-)

Only joking, yes I agree. I’ve never flipped it upside down to look under the BB until I came to pass this on.

The previous owner was the last person to do the cables. As I say I’ve owned it 4 years and barely touched it.

Just got off the phone about half an hour ago from Dave March at UniversalCycleCentre. He thinks the code indicates it is genuine and also thinks he might know the guy who sprayed it from the original colour. His colleague worked on these back then..

I’ve emailed him back and he’s promised to get back to me with what information he can offer and will hopefully throw insight into some history.

If it is the one he thinks it is a guy in Leicester had it sprayed and they tried to advise against doing it..

Will post up the email he sends back.

Also interestingly he reckons these weren’t actually built by RSP but the team frames that were custom geometry were made by smaller bespoke frame builders to the riders specification and then stamped up by the RS division.. well interesting reading and researching this!

Just had the worlds biggest telephone chain of asking for peoples numbers but finally got hold of my friend who I haven’t spoken to in 4 years.

He’s going to ring his dad and get the frame history and ring me back.

I’m also going to pull the forks out when I get 5 mins. Someone has suggested to me that some of the old team bikes may have had the rider initials on the steerer tube too.

Will report back.

Paul

Yep, thanks for the additional negativity crikey.

The mish mash came from my mates dad having owned it for years and used it pretty much daily.

I’ve emailed Cyfac for confirmation and history of what they know.

Also took some pictures with the SLR.

Yup £2k is my asking price. Considering ebaying it.
I don’t think it belongs in a museum, if it was original paint then maybe, but not as it is.

Needs to go to someone who wants to ride it as a piece of history rather than sit unused.

I gave him a couple of beers on the spot. Said thank you and didn’t know what else to do.

I plan on sending him something if I get a decent whack for it.

Depends on what I get for it as to how much goes to charity. I’ve raised thousands for charities in the last decade and am currently not in the best state of finances myself.

So what should I ask for then?

£700, £1500, £3000? I have absolutely no clue what it’s value is.

Might try and get on 4 rooms with this.

Its the only road bike I’ve ever ridden. Feels fast… but I’m used to mountain bikes.

I would say that it has a steel feel to it, it’s not harsh like I’d expect an aluminium road bike to be and I’d imagine some of the cheap carbon ones too.

It’s a touch stretched for me (I’m 5ft10) but feels right in terms of saddle heinght, but I have long limbs. I’ve never known anything else so probably not the best person to comment.

Paul

This is the thing though, I was selling it because I don’t ride road and have used it 10 times or so in 4 years.

Might hang it on the wall in the lounge though :-)

David B… would be greatly appreciated. :-)

To be honest if it needs to be ridden… selling it is the best thing. I’ve used it less than 10 times in 4 years!

No the guy Matt (an enthusiast) came looking at it expecting an Ilkeston built special products Raleigh, he owns a Castarama and has had a few of the Ilkeston RSP frames already himself and spotted the differences on the frame welds immediately, quite different apparently to the Ilkeston built ones… hence he then flipped it over to look at the serial numbers.

I need to get in contact with my mates dad and find out where it came from. As I say, I vaguely remember him banging on about it’s tour history when he sold it me and not really paying attention to what he was saying.

Any ideas what I should ask for £?

He was buying it for a mate as a starter bike, then he had a turn of conscience I believe and had to tell me. I gave him a couple of beers, but I just can’t believe it!

Has seriously restored my faith in people.

As for the groupset, I think it is much newer isn’t it than 1990 campag? Clearly added later.

It’s deffo a team bike, the detailing on the lugs and rider tag etc make it obvious apparently.

L’Equipe?

I’m not into road bikes at all… would be mad.

Hilarious that I couldn’t get anyone to caugh up more than £300 for it last week. Blessing in disguise.

Resto?

In all honesty I’m thinking it needs to go to an owner who will appreciate it.

I found myself chuckling at a cyclist yesterday (and I use the term cyclist loosly). I was driving across Mapperley in Nottingham (I know quite a few of you on here are Notts based) and there was a bloke in full lycra on his road bike riding along the pavement clearly commuting or out for a ride… I properly had to do a double take. Makes you wonder if he’s had one too many of these type of incidents.

Not that I’m condoning his actions, but what must have happened to get him to ride like that amongst pedestrians?

Northwind – Member

chilled76 – Member

If you are worried about lacing a wheel this is a really long winded way of going about it.

It’s the simplest and easiest way to do it and no slower than any other Why would you think it’s longwinded? It’s just a wee trick to copy the lacing across.

Probably because I’ve done lots of wheel builds so it would be quicker for me to just start from scratch… although now you’ve said that I can see from a persons perspective who hasn’t built wheels before that this might not be the case… so good point.

But then I’d also encourage the OP to consider the merit of using the oppurtunity to learn to lace as you get exponentially quicker through your first 4 or 5. builds, its a useful skill to learn…. but granted might not be easier for someone who’s new to it.

If you are worried about lacing a wheel this is a really long winded way of going about it.

I personally wouldn’t re-use spokes but if you are insistant on doing so then gradually detension the whole wheel together by going a few turns on each spoke until it is wobbly.

Just de-lace and re-lace the new rim if the spoke lengths are indeed ideal.

There’s some wheel building talk through’s on youtube that anyone could follow. Much easier than what you are proposing.

See belwo video… there’s one that follows it to do the other side too. Can’t go wrong!

Paul

Just looked in my old Sidewinder gloves… Size 10. They are now sized S/M/L/XL..

Anyone know what a 10 equates to?

My local shops don’t stock them either :-(