Raleigh Mantis, a warning from history

[Threeknees]

Hello,
New to the forum but have been an avid reader for sometime. The collective wisdom has helped me greatly.

I've recently come into the possession of a 1991 Raleigh Mantis.......
Some may say you poor soul

Whilst stripping it down I noticed the headset on first appearance to be 1 inch. Strangely this doesn't seem to be the case the cups are around
1 1/8 inch. The forks are 1 inch for sure however the stem is about 21mm not the expected 22.2mm. I tried 22.2mm stem as this puzzled me and it didn't fit. What were Raleigh thinking?

Has anyone else noticed this?

Next question, is what to do with it? I was thinking of using at as a diy wheel jig, it would be a shame to ditch it completely. Though I imagine there might be some more extreme suggestions....

 

[Rampage]

Yes, Raleigh did this.
Raleigh never changed their tooling when the standard sizes came in as it would have cost too much.

The actual sizes of it are the top row on this chart:
http://sheldonbrown.com/cribsheet-headsets.html

 

[Threeknees]

Thanks for that Rampage, that's top notch that link. Useful for other info too.
I don't expect there's too many of these bikes knocking about now.

 

[Rampage]

Most Raleigh's from the early 1990's were like this I believe.
My Activator is from 1996 or possibly later and has it too.
Sheldons is very very usefull, I look at something on there at least once a week.

 

[fun at fiftyish]

Could be worse, I've just totally rebuilt a Raleigh firefly MTB as it seemed a shame to let it go to the scrap man.Not the slightest idea what I am going to do with it! I think deep down I'm lusting after one of there "RSP" creations or at least a 531 one..
British steel,Yes please.
Mark.

 

[drcarlos]

Could be worse, I've just totally rebuilt a Raleigh firefly MTB as it seemed a shame to let it go to the scrap man.Not the slightest idea what I am going to do with it! I think deep down I'm lusting after one of there "RSP" creations or at least a 531 one..
British steel,Yes please.
Mark.

The 531 bikes are RSP creations and nice too. I'd still have an old maverick too if I could find an 18" '88 GT version.

Carl

 

[Threeknees]

I don't think mine is as nice yours fun at fiftyish. It's made of ATT23 tubing and weighs a bit. Although cosmetically tatty (it does sparkle great in the sunshine) the frame is absolutely sound. The headset chrome cleaned up ok and the bottom bracket would just need a re-grease and bearings.

 

[fun at fiftyish]

Could be worse, I've just totally rebuilt a Raleigh firefly MTB as it seemed a shame to let it go to the scrap man.Not the slightest idea what I am going to do with it! I think deep down I'm lusting after one of there "RSP" creations or at least a 531 one..
British steel,Yes please.
Mark.

The 531 bikes are RSP creations and nice too. I'd still have an old maverick too if I could find an 18" '88 GT version.

Carl

Hi Carl just read the build thread of your 531 Lightweight 'Team Edition',,,Need to change my trousers now! some research and saving now I think. I need some reynolds in my life again,maybe even 501?It's ALWAYS a bad idea looking on RB I feel like a spoilt child now "I want".
I may well be cursing you shortly Carl!
Thanks for your input and please forgive my thread hijack.
Mark.

 

[drcarlos]

Could be worse, I've just totally rebuilt a Raleigh firefly MTB as it seemed a shame to let it go to the scrap man.Not the slightest idea what I am going to do with it! I think deep down I'm lusting after one of there "RSP" creations or at least a 531 one..
British steel,Yes please.
Mark.

The 531 bikes are RSP creations and nice too. I'd still have an old maverick too if I could find an 18" '88 GT version.

Carl

Hi Carl just read the build thread of your 531 Lightweight 'Team Edition',,,Need to change my trousers now! some research and saving now I think. I need some reynolds in my life again,maybe even 501?It's ALWAYS a bad idea looking on RB I feel like a spoilt child now "I want".
I may well be cursing you shortly Carl!
Thanks for your input and please forgive my thread hijack.
Mark.

I love these old Raleighs as the Maverick GT was my first MTB back in 1988 having saved for nearly 6 months to buy it. The Team 531 took me 4 years of searching to find, but other 531 framed bikes do turn up from time to time (in fact if you are taller there is a 1990 Blueridge 531 frame and forks on offer for peanuts in the for sale section).

The basic Raleighs are where it all started for a lot of people on this forum so have a fair amount of love.

Carl.

 

[velomaniac]

Raleigh headset is taken from the then BMX headset which was slightly bigger in cup dimensions than 1". You can get head tube shims that allow a conventional 1" headset to be fitted. The fork steerer should have an external diameter of 25.4mm (1") as normal but the interior will be 21.1mm as opposed to the standard 22.2mm. Again this was the BMX standard which with its thicker walls was somewhat stronger than the standard steerer. You can replace with a normal 1" fork.
Ask around the BMX section of Retrobike about this, they'll be more knowledgeable.
Raleigh knew mtb's were for rough riding and that BMX they already made were tough so it seemed logical to use the materials they already had for the job.