RVL's Ugly Ducklings

Doggy approves

indeed - it's the first thing he does when I grab a different bike from my shed!

A few thoughts on where I'm going with this Rih build.
I was thinking of selling this frame and actually put it up for sale toward the end of last year.
https://www.lfgss.com/conversations/377577/#comment16605123
At the time, nobody was particularly interested with the possible exception of @Spotter who now has far nicer Raleighs that do the same job.

I dug it out of the shed in slightly more shitty condition than it was in at the end of last winter:

(britpop-photo-opp on my way home from a Surrey Hills ride)
The headsets seized and there were 4 broken spokes and the chainset was badly corroded.

I removed the ratty saddle and horrible seatpost. A quick hunt around the workshop revealed a 90's Campagnolo aero and quite a glam San marco strada

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Strada's are a bit of an all-time fave for me - also used on my DeRosa

Also, I'm thinking I need some slightly wider bars than the 34cm rando bars on the current build so they'll have to go.

I have some Sakae road champion that'll work quite nicely at 42cm.
I also need to do something about the quill bolt on that ITM eclypse - the diameter is a bit too big for the recess in the stem so it sticks out of the top.

Very ratty RIH but still lovely

34cm rando bars

But so aero :) Just what you need for this build!

Thanks.
Really loving your work. Especially what you did to that titanium diamant - really splendid

Haha indeed.

Cleaned up the headset last night.
Sometimes I disgust myself- I thought the steering was starting to get a bit slow, how did I let it get that bad?

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Change of plan on the stem… had a quick hunt in the shed last night and found this.
I really like this stem and think it’ll work quite well

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swapping out the CLB racer brkz for the real deal but they need a bit of a clean

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love the rih. i think i have a NIB set of mafac racers somewhere - 20 of your finest sterling would save you the hassle of cleaning.. ;)

Big fan of the RIH, I've a real soft spot for them for some reason. Missed one on eBay a while ago, I'm going to have to set up an alert having seen this!

Thanks- that sounds great as these ones are massively bastardised but work well nonetheless so decent pair would be perfect
I’ll PM you

Cheers. The Bustraan ones are very well made, lovely feathered lugs, campagnolo ends etc.
The rest are a bit of a mixed bag- some look a bit gas pipe / Opafiets

First decent length ride on this yesterday- a 200km Audax (steam ride - London Oxford London) - all went well and with the 51 x 20 fixed I was feeling quite spritely up the Bledlow ridge and finished strong with plenty in the tank

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I absolutely love this bike and I definitely need a RIH in my life!

Thanks, loving your work at the moment too- Puch is super elegant, Marin is rad and that track bike looks like all sorts of fun.

Haha, thanks, glad to hear all that! And now hoping for some slightly better weather to use all of them...

Finally stopped raining so I got a couple of pics of the finished article

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Details

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The feathered lugs on this are just splendid

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I’ll be using it for Amesbury Amble in 2 weeks (300km)
Not sure whether I trust myself for a 400 or 600 km on fixed in my current state tho

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