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I recently acquired a mismatched Raleigh and was wondering if anyone could shed some light on what frame it is specifically? I'm guessing it is 80's based on the fact that it has an '85 stamped 3 speed Sturmey Archer hub and (I believe) an 80's Raleigh badge. Also pretty sure the Union pedals are 80's too? I think it's an Aerospace Contour frame, since it has the oval shaped seat/downtube and forks (you can see how the round cable guides don't fit on the frame properly). I'm just confused as there is no derailleur hanger and I was convinced all the Aerospace frames had front/rear derailleur? There is also no sign of any braze-on cable guides whatsoever. The paint isn't original; it looks like a DIY job but there is no sign of an original colour underneath so there's no telling from that. It also has a really old Brooks saddle which could be original but I'm not sure.

Any help would be greatly appreciated!

Thank you,

Alex.

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  • Welcome to the site! Identify this bike posts are mostly low quality and very hard to answer. Your question may be hard to answer unless there are vintage Raleigh experts, but this is a great post! You've got decent photos, and you've clearly done some homework. I have close to zero vintage bike knowledge, but if I can ask a clarifying question: is it at all possible that someone sawed off the derailer hanger and then repainted the bike? It doesn't seem likely, but the shape of the dropout makes me wonder this in passing.
    – Weiwen Ng
    Commented Feb 19, 2020 at 17:39
  • Hi there, thanks very much, I thought it best to give as much detail as possible! I took a look at the dropouts and there is no sign of any sawing/filing. The frame is being shot blasted/resprayed soon so I may be able to see any cut lines more clearly once the paint has been removed!
    – alexdecade
    Commented Feb 20, 2020 at 13:48

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In 1984 Raleigh came out with "Aero Tubing" on the:

All four of them had a rear derailleur mount on the drive side drop out.

None of them had:

  • Cottered cranks
  • Three speed hub
  • Upright handlebars
  • Leather saddle

All of them had

  • Braze on rear brake cable guides
  • Brazed on down tube shift levers
  • Brazed on front derailleur mount
  • Quick release wheels

There is no aero tubing in the 1983 catalog or the 1985 catalog so they only existed for one year.

I'm not sure what to tell you. Other than the oval tubing and a screwed on head badge very little about the bike or the frame (from what I can see in the pictures) matches the 1984 Raleigh aero tubing bikes.

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  • Hi David, thank you for the info on the aero tubing series! The head badge is a strange one too; I unscrewed it to check for an original colour and noticed there were holes for the cast rivets from a regular badge, so not too sure why the frame was drilled and then screwed in. Can also confirm that the bike originally had drop bars (asked the original owner who added the riser bars).
    – alexdecade
    Commented Feb 20, 2020 at 8:59

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