1980 Raleigh Magnum

[AndreP]

Anyone of you roadies able to tell me anything about this bike? Literally just found it in a barn, want to know if's worth taking home, owner wants a tenner for it. Road bikes are not my thing but it's an old bike and well, it's quite lovely, might be time to try my hand at restoring something a bit different.


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[sjcprojects]

Well, it's definitely at the lower end of the Raleigh range and aimed at people with a lower budget who wanted something to get from A to B which also looked 'racy', or a first buyer type – it's not a 'proper' road bike. That's obvious from the saddle, cheap gear levers on the stem, the 'suicide' brake levers, and pretty much everything else on there. Raleigh were very much cashing in on the 1980 TdF win, of course, but no one is winning a tour on this thing!

Still, nice (if very early 80s!) paint job, and still worth a tenner. It could be a decent sort of town bike with a few tweaks, but it's going to be pretty heavy and I doubt you'd want to do anything vaguely 'serious' on it...but there's something to be said for keeping these bikes going. Better than it languishing in a barn...

 

[AndreP]

Cheers, I had a feeling it was a low end machine, like you said the seat, weight and other bits all pointed to that, but thought I'd check anyway. Will pass this one up, got several projects on the go right now and am trying to free space up rather than piling more in.
I'll tell the bloke about this site and suggest he offers it here.

 

[sjcprojects]

Sure - probably not really a bike you want to taking up more room if space is an issue (I know the feeling!). I know there are people on here who do restore these lower-end bikes - it's still keeping a bit of British cycling history alive, after all...

 

[AndreP]

I know there are people on here who do restore these lower-end bikes - it's still keeping a bit of British cycling history alive, after all...

Indeed, it's got bags of charm and if I had the space I'd take it just for the experience of working on something different, not gonna lie, if there was any potential for silly profit there I'd make room lol, but regardless of all that it's a nice old British bike that would be better out on the road than rotting in a barn.

I hope he puts it on here and someone gets the pleasure of restoring it and either riding it themselves or selling it on to someone who will use it.

 

[Nob]

Buy for a 10’er good clean & service & you may get up to 50 quid so you’ll be in profit

 

[Vivpom]

Well, it's definitely at the lower end of the Raleigh range and aimed at people with a lower budget who wanted something to get from A to B which also looked 'racy', or a first buyer type – it's not a 'proper' road bike. That's obvious from the saddle, cheap gear levers on the stem, the 'suicide' brake levers, and pretty much everything else on there. Raleigh were very much cashing in on the 1980 TdF win, of course, but no one is winning a tour on this thing!

Still, nice (if very early 80s!) paint job, and still worth a tenner. It could be a decent sort of town bike with a few tweaks, but it's going to be pretty heavy and I doubt you'd want to do anything vaguely 'serious' on it...but there's something to be said for keeping these bikes going. Better than it languishing in a barn...

Can you tell me what chain is on this bike please. Trying to get a replacement

 

[sjcprojects]

Can you tell me what chain is on this bike please. Trying to get a replacement

You don't need a specific chain - anything that states it is suitable for a 5 speed (or 6/7, however many sprockets are on the freewheel) will be fine. KMC make good ones.

 

[Vivpom]

Thank you so much for the reply. This is my first project. I have the original positron gear shifters. I’m struggling to get nice clean suitable cables. My question is would I need to replace the whole system if I change the levers?

 

[Spokesmann]

Well worth doing up. Ive rebuilt one form just a frame and forks with some nice bits, tried to keep it relatively period correct too.

Thread here: https://www.retrobike.co.uk/threads/1979-raleigh-magnum.460340/#post-3385732