Current Projects chat and miscellany

it works really well, allthough it doesn't look like it. handling is perfect, the bike does not lift the front when going up hill or carrying it down some stairs. guess this is due to the design of the carradice bags, very narrow (front-rear) but wide and low. had ortliebs before and they where shit. all of the stuff mentioned above...before starting in the morning i had to manually weight them and distribute the weight. with the carrdice i simply don't care about packing.

thanks! it is a 1978 worksop build, full 531 frame. model is in this case a "record", seems to be build for the german and dutch market. i have the frame 3 times (it simply justs fits for touring) and is 100% similar to the "competition" frame for the same market:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/multiburst/4784972694/in/set-72157622797505986

guess at that time, the components made up the model name.

and: no problems with the rear mech running 34/26, but it's also not a dura ace one, instead it's the much more skinny suntour cyclone.

your raleigh also looks really, really nice and deliberate functional- thinking about sti's on the traveller also, but am afraid i may run into problems when something is broken on a trip...

Ah ha, I think my teeth on the cassette might be a bit more severe than that, perhaps that's it. Could be my cack-handed mech setting up, or a slack spring though, tbf. (I thought yours looked like a 7402 but must be my eyes.)
Thanks for the compliment, I took it to work for the first time today (23 mile round trip) and was amazed at how smooth it was even with two full panniers. Old Kent Road was a bit of a test though, as well as the constant fear that I was going to clip cars when filtering.
The STIs are just for now, I might swap them out as I have a feeling that they're 7 speed and the cassette is 8, so the indexing is not working correctly. I think the ability to keep one's hands on the bars when climbing and shifting is a good thing, but I have done absolutely ZERO touring so far so might take your advice and swap them out before doing anything too exciting.
The frame is from around 1990, 531ST throughout. Identical to the Royal except that it has SPOKE HOLDERS on the chainstay. That sold it to me really.