Raleigh Banana race re-pro - Reynolds 853

It is with a heavy heart that I offer up my beloved Raleigh Banana re-production up for sale 😢

This bike is an accurate re-production of the late 80's version of the bike and was painted to match those race machines (hence why the join between top-tube, seat tube and seat stays is yellow unlike the cheapo factory models that were black at this point!).

The frame is a Raleigh Special Products division Reynolds 853 frame that was made in 1992. It is a traditional 23" frame which measures out at about 58cm for those of us used to modern sizing these days, although the top tube is 57cm so it's around a similar length to a modern 56cm frame. This frame had a bent mech hanger so it was ideal to be modified into a singlespeed machine. The original serial number was carefully retrieved by myself from the frame before it was stripped down and sent to paint.

The frame and forks were then stripped, sanded, and painted in the base colours by Lustrecoatings at Hethel in Norfolk (these guys paint the Aston Martin £25K road bikes and all the carbon fibre panels for the Tesla sports cars) before being returned to myself for sanding and application of all the correct decals. At this point the frame gained its Reynolds 753 badges as the original race frames were made of that steel tubing. I also applied a Reynolds 853 badge under the down-tube near the headset as a reminder of the true heart of this bike. The frame was then returned to Lustrecoatings for them to apply the top clear-coat. Upon return to me the original Raleigh Heron badge was returned to the front of the bike and the build commenced.

The bike is running as a singlespeed on a standard pair of Easton road wheels with a singlespeed converter on the freehub. This is mated up to a 172.5mm Driveline chainset which is fitted with a 48T Gebhardt track chainring. The bottom bracket is a very very smooth square taper and has only just been re-greased and re-fitted. This runs to a 15T Halo fat-foot sprocket and runs a proper track width chain for strength leaving you with an 85" gear at the moment.
It then was fitted with Dura Ace 7800 dual pivot calipers for something with proper stopping power, and these are matched up with ultra rare Dura Ace 7403 aero brake levers (took me months to find a pair of these!).

The forks are traditional threaded versions and so are mated up with a seriously smooth Shimano 105 headset, but have then been fitted with an A-Head adapter. This then means that the bike takes an A-Head stem and has oversize bars. Both stem and bars are carbon fibre and the handlebars are ITM ovalised versions that give a nice flat top surface for riding on the tops.

The bike has been used for winter riding and therefore is fitted with SKS Raceblades (the long versions) to keep you reasonably dry when riding in all conditions. It is also fitted with brand new Bontrager Race Lite hard case tyres which are bombproof commuter tyres.
It also has a brand spanking new San Marco saddle on it too as I wanted to keep my nicely worn in Adamo for myself.

£500

Love love love a good banana, sadly to big

The current state of the build isn't helpful.

I know......
I never intended to sell the bike and so removed the gear lever bosses, the front mech hanger and the bent rear mech hanger.
Sadly circumstances changed

wouldn't fancy splitting the bike? would love the frame/fork

Where are you located?

Hi to you both,
I'm located in Norwich (not that far to be honest from London) and would ideally prefer to keep the beloved Banana in one piece.
Make me an offer though via DM if you're serious and we can take it from there

Hi there...i want to ask you what kind of A-Head adapter you put on your bike because i want to put one of this to my bike...Thanks and good sale!!!

I used one like this.......
http://www.wiggle.co.uk/deda-quill-stem-adapter/?lang=en&curr=GBP&dest=1&utm_source=pla&utm_medium=base&utm_campaign=uk&utm_content=Deda%20Quill%20Stem%20Adapter%20-%20Silver%20%7C%20Stems&kpid=5360422709&sku=5360422709&ci_src=18615224&ci_sku=5360422709uk&utm_source=google&utm_term&utm_campaign=Deda+-+Shopping&utm_medium=base&utm_content=sQUrXua6U_dt%7cpcrid%7c%7cpkw%7c%7cpmt%7c%7cprd%7c5360422709uk&dest=1&curr=GBP
Used this on two old frames now with great success.

Thanks a lot... but i need a stem shim ...or no??

Hi again..this one?http://www.wiggle.co.uk/profile-quill-to-threadless-stem-converter/
Thanks again..

Only need a shim if you're using a 1" 1/8th A-Head stem

Nice puppy 😃

That puppy is sad because it's seen what you did to the other puppy. How bent was the mech hanger that you had to take it off? Those things are designed to bend, could it not be straightened? It would be such a lovely frame with the braze-ons still intact.

(I'm not being entirely serious. Good luck with your sale.)

I agree wholeheartedly that it would have been a lovely frame with complete braze ons, but the fact was that when I built it I had no intentions of ever selling it. I was going to run it as a singlespeed anyway and the last thing I wanted was for two braze on posts to be sticking out of the frame where my knees could catch them in the event of a crash, and I didn't want to run it with ugly down tube cable bosses on it. The mech hanger had been bent a couple of times according to the previous owner (who used to race the frame) and so it made sense to remove it if I was only ever going to run the frame as a singlespeed/fixed.

Price dropped to £450

really like, GLWS