Raleigh 531 Budget TT bike

Hi,

I did a little bit of time trialing last year on my Dolan Precursa, enjoyed it a lot, but got a bit fed up of changing my bike setup every week. So this year i decided to try and build myself a bike solely for TT's for under £200.

Started out with this frame, which i got on eBay for £55. its 531, but the forks aren't original and are really heavy and shit. one day they might be replaced. It has had a bit of a dodgy past, with a new BB shell being brazed in and a stuck seat post being removed, hence the black paint.

now i got the frame a few months ago, and spent a while looking out for good deals, i managed to get:

Navigator Pista rear wheel - £20
Shimano SPD pedals - £5
Sprocket and Lockring - £7
Bars - £15
seatpost - £5
Brake Caliper - £3!!!
Stem - £20
bar tape - £4.
Quill-Ahead converter - £10
Tyre - £10

so that brings my price up to £154. and the rest of the parts I either had or managed to get for free!

this was the bike as first built up, i managed to take it out and do a lap of the local 8.3 mile TT circuit in just over 22 minutes which might not be great, but is better than anything i managed last year!

and here it is as of now, i swapped the post for a silver one, covered up the red on the saddle, bought a new chain (£6) and some new brake pads (£10) this brings my total to £170 for a complete bike ready to do some time trialling on, which i am very pleased with!

I plan to find some tighter clearance 531 forks, a seatpost without any set back, and some newer SPD's, the ones i have have lots of slop in. if anybody has any of these things for sale let me know :-)

anyway, I hope you like it!

Rob

Good work. I like the idea of building something like this.

What gearing you using? What sort of terrain are the TTs?

97" the one i will be riding most is a little hilly, but nothing too steep or long. i might change the gear a little as i ride it more and see how things go :-)

Looks nice. What are the arrobars?

I love how this is the antithesis of so many TT bikes.

now that you mention it i suppose it is! it should be more than good enough for me though, there is no use having a £3000 bike if you haven't got the legs to do it justice (i don't!)

The bars are Profile Airwings with Token extensions :-)

Now running a bigger gear, 50t chainring and 13 or 14 on the back depending on the course/my legs. Also got some new forks, and fiddled with the position a bit. its pretty addictive this thing and I imagine the cheap and cheerful mantra is going to end up being blown out of the window in search of extra speed!

This is a great idea. I suppose the wheels / tyres are the next thing to splurge on.

Followed eventually by a niftier frame(although it looks rad as is).

haha, the frame is staying. im not buying any more bits till i can do a 10 at 25mph, which will probably be quite a while!

^ i wouldn't be so sure

New forks have really improved the stance. Looking mean!

cheers man, the frame is staying as im already quite attached to it. BONOR is right. new bits have been bought. Although i did a 5miler at 25 the other night without too much trouble so i recon a 10 at that speed is totally doable.

This would look rad with the paint stripped off and lacquered, then a real slimline carbon saddle.

Now running a bigger gear, 50t chainring and 13 or 14 on the back depending on the course/my legs. Also got some new forks, and fiddled with the position a bit. its pretty addictive this thing and I imagine the cheap and cheerful mantra is going to end up being blown out of the window in search of extra speed!

Beautiful, I did a 23.58 in 2011 on my 531 Raleigh Professional on 97" fixed and I am still yet to go faster on my Planet X :)

Nice one, I saw your bike in another thread a while back, it was actually kinda the inspiration for mine! There is something really nice about racing on an old steel bike, cant really put my finger on what it is but I like it.

James slim carbon saddle + TT position = pain!

Great thread. I have been having similar ideas to this, I do a few TT's but don't want to keep changing my regular ride set up. I also have a 531c Ti Pro sitting around as above - I might do the same thing.

Better wheel before a better frame! Will make a far bigger difference

Yeah, as Tester enjoys pointing out, that frame's probably faster than anything short of a proper wind tunnelled carbon track frame.

yeah definitely. In fact I just got a too good to refuse deal on a planet x 82mm front wheel! this is becoming 'not so budget TT build' I figure those wheels hold their value reasonably well though.

The frame is surprisingly stiff, I think it is 531, but don't really know. its got fancy lugs. I cant identify it because the new BB shell means it has no serial number. if any Raleigh expert thinks they know what it is then let me know.

In fact I just got a too good to refuse deal on a planet x 82mm front wheel!

Needs pics!

ask and you shall receive ;) I cant wait to race it tomorrow night.

Thread name should probably be changed to 'TTing will drain your bank account'

Is that a tub?

Also I think you need to make a cardboard disk wheel..... That would bring the budget idea back.

yep its a tub. In fairness to the budget aim, it was £130 posted including tyre. not a bad price. whole bike is still under £400.

I may try and make a disc wheel from some thin polycarbonate sheet or something, but only if i can achieve something which looks decent and has any chance of being at all aero!

Oh that is a good deal. And I was kidding about the whole disk thing (would look far too polo bike) Im sure tester will jump in at some point with aero advice.