Raleigh Road Bikes

surgtech1956 said:

Who rides a Raleigh? Is it a good entry level road bike? The Raleigh Sport is less than $500.

I grew up on them, but that was a long time ago 🙂

I have an RS-1000, basically the run of the mill department store bike. Nothing special, but good for commuting and for the price.

i have a '52 Raleigh Lenton in a million bits in my garage and will be riding it as soon as i get time to clean it up and get it back together.😄

One of the bikes in my herd is a 2002 Raligh R500. It's a Tiagra/105 9 speed mix and serves me well as a winter beater rig. Couple things on that Sport (based on the specs from the web site); the chromoly fork and the Sora 8 speed drivetrain. For a few more bucks (or equal on the used market) you could get into a 9 speed STI shifter mode with carbon fork.

All the low/mid level Aluminum frames are made in the same shack in Taiwan anyway, most likely somehow tied to Giant. decent enough stuff, maybe not the prettiest welds like a Cannondale or a Klein, but functionaly a good quality frame.

I ride a 2003 Raleigh USA Competition, all triple butted aluminum with carbon forks and a 9-speed Ultegra drivetrain. The only thing that I have changed was the wheelset. I am a little too large for 16 spoke wheels. It is a good comfortable ride.

I also ride a 1978 vintage English Raleigh with a mixed drivetrain consisting of late 70's vintage Dura Ace front derailer, Dura Ace clamp on shift levers, Front and rear Dura Ace hubs, a Shimano Crane rear derailer, Shimano 600EX non-aero brakes, and a Shimano 600 6-speed Freewheel 13T-18T. I did change out the no-name bottom bracket with a sealed hub and changed the old Sugino crankset with a Shimano 105 crank. This bike has the derailer cables routed over top of the bottom bracket which was common back then. I couldn't find a Shimano cable guide that would work with the front derailer so I had to go with a Campagnolo cable guide. It was expensive but it sure is purty. Of course the frame is a steel frame but it still is a pretty sweet ride. The main reason that I even keep it though is that it was my first serious bicycle bought new in 1978.

I have a mix of other bikes that I ride on occasion but the 2003 Raleigh is my main horse right now.

Here in South Africa we have Raleighs that are made under license. Very popular bikes. Unfortunately I don't think they are available in other countries. The top of the range road bike is just over US$3000.

Have a look here