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RADBMX.CO.UK  |  Old School BMX 1980 - 1988  |  Old School Race (riders ready, pedals ready... GO!!)  |  1983 Raleigh Racing R4000 - Finished / Build Thread
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Author Topic: 1983 Raleigh Racing R4000 - Finished / Build Thread  (Read 8490 times)

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Offline johnjo74

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1983 Raleigh Racing R4000 - Finished / Build Thread
« on: April 12, 2015, 12:41 PM »
About five years ago I picked up a US made 1983 Raleigh Racing R4000 from a chap in Nevada. As it was near complete , the idea was to to restore it to original spec , probably shedding the reflectors and chain guard along the way.

I've lost the photos that I took from when it arrived , but these scans are from the '83 Raleigh USA catalogue .

Although not too bad in this one , Raleigh's catalogue photos (and published spec sheets) didn't always match the bike that rolled off the production line .......they have been known to dress up and photograph the completely wrong frame set !!

This model came fitted with a MIC stem rather than the pictured Suntour Mini and a Suntour 'style' seat post clamp instead of a Tuff Neck 'style' , other than that it's pretty accurate .

[ Attachment: You are not allowed to view attachments ]

I noticed that the original 'decals' on the frame and forks were sort of rubbed off in places and when I had a closer look , they weren't decals at all but appeared to be painted on ??
It's not something I've come across on a frame before (maybe some of you have?) , but you could scratch them with your fingernail and they scraped off as you would expect a thinly painted decal to do ..... no sticker edge to peel .

They obviously wasn't hand painted on , but probably some kind of rub on / transfer .

Anyway , I stripped it down and set about sorting out some new decals.
Luckily Del had already made Glynnyboy a set or two up for different models and after some tweaking , a week or so later a new set was in place , oozing with Del-icousness  :D






In this next photo , you can make out the slotted brake bridge bracket " to allow wheel and brake changes without having to modify your frame"  and see how the "seatstays bridge the seatmast and top tube for that ultimate balance of strength and style"

Not bad welds for a member of the Raleigh family . Roger Raleigh from Nottingham should have picked up a few tips from his American cousin ....
 



The R4000 came in two frame sizes with the regular frame having a 13" seat post tube , and the 'Super Squash' frame having a 9" seat post tube which is incidentally the size of my ......


..... frame  ;D

Not sure about the regular frame , but the 'super squash' has a decent 19.5" top tube  8)


« Last Edit: October 01, 2017, 10:12 PM by johnjo74 »

Offline johnjo74

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Re: 1983 Raleigh Racing R4000
« Reply #1 on: April 12, 2015, 12:42 PM »
Bored Yet ??

Good . Buckle up , I'm continuing anyway   ;D

Although the R4000 came fitted with a few half decent bits , it was let down by others , so I decided to fook the spec route off and build it how I think they should have built it if they'd have tried a bit harder .

I wanted it to resemble the original bike and for it to be feasible that Raleigh could have built it , so set about using (where possible) parts that would have already been in their US / UK stock bin or available to them at the time ... an upgraded  'Could have , Should have , Would have' build.


The Araya Aeros were originally laced to blue lacquered , chromed steel 'King Kong' hubs , which although seemed very nice weighed a fookin tonne.
I'd already picked up a set of nos rims , so didn't really want to lace these into them .....



Glynnyboy came up trumps with some rather lovely hubs , suitable for the build ......



Laced to these beauties along with a nice Suntour 16T freewheel .....



Stem and seat post clamp needed an upgrade too ......





Nos Suntour seat post clamp instead of a 'style' one ....



The Viscount Aero and 44T Sugino 'crossfire' chainwheel came early on in the search for parts , as did the DC Tech II's and Vee bars all of which were spec parts .....








It was never my intention to finish this in a hurry and as it sat in the loft for a couple of years , I bought some Race Inc straight bars which I thought would look much better on this than the vees .

The Tech II's would have to be replaced with something more suitable too .....




Re-anodised Dia Compe Pre Bent Levers



I was a little worried that the colour wouldn't be anywhere near a match with the calipers, but was pleasantly surprised when they turned up .

Here they are next to a nos DC 890 ......



With the R4000 being fitted with DC levers , you would have probably expected it to have DC calipers too ...... that's right , no you wouldn't , it's feckin Raleigh we're talking about here   ;D

They came with blue ano 'Raleigh Foreign' 890's , so matched the levers up with these instead .....

Nos '83 DC 890's , cables and clamps ....








Next up for replacement was the pedals . Originally fitted with HTI rat traps , these were another weighty component that had to go .....



Swapped over for SR MP 130's .....



The stock crank was in pretty good nick and slightly different to others I've had with it being stamped 'Chrome-Moly' on the arms , but ended up using a refinished Sugino Cro-Mo that I already had waiting in the wings.

Here's a photo of the original Sugino 'Chrome Moly' opc for reference ....




Raleigh's standard models usually came fitted with Cheng Shin tyres in a fat thin combo and did on this model too , using black snake bellys.

Although I'd stuck to the same colour scheme as the R4000 , leaving off the black 'smoked' chain guard (and possibly the pedal colour change) ,
made black tyres look out of place when fitted .

Not usually a big fan of coloured tyres , I think on a blue and chrome build they always seems to look well .

I thought this might be the case from the off , so had some blue Cheng shin Comp III's ready to go on instead  8)

.... and to finish it off , a very nice pad set from Steve Firebird 8)

« Last Edit: April 12, 2015, 12:50 PM by johnjo74 »

Offline johnjo74

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Re: 1983 Raleigh Racing R4000
« Reply #2 on: April 12, 2015, 12:43 PM »

























Naked






rodriguez

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Re: 1983 Raleigh Racing R4000
« Reply #3 on: April 12, 2015, 01:47 PM »
Been waiting for this to appear, brilliant stuff JJ,     :coolsmiley:

Offline Jaypeg

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Re: 1983 Raleigh Racing R4000
« Reply #4 on: April 12, 2015, 02:15 PM »
Great job bud, looks the nuts

Offline BMX1973

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Re: 1983 Raleigh Racing R4000
« Reply #5 on: April 12, 2015, 02:53 PM »
very very nice  :)

Offline babarnum

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Re: 1983 Raleigh Racing R4000
« Reply #6 on: April 12, 2015, 09:27 PM »
 :daumenhoch: good job , wel done !

Offline Mikku

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Re: 1983 Raleigh Racing R4000
« Reply #7 on: April 13, 2015, 02:22 AM »
Great build and thread!! Much prefer the lines of the "Super Squash" frame! :daumenhoch:

Don't know much about the American Raleighs so thanks for posting all that info!
From Dorset to Japan:- http://www.radbmx.co.uk/forum/index.php/topic,182215.0.html
Ok riders, random start. Riders ready, watch the gate old gaijin make a fool of himself! :D

Offline pickle

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Re: 1983 Raleigh Racing R4000
« Reply #8 on: April 13, 2015, 09:08 AM »
superb job!  that oooooozes 80's street BMX  :daumenhoch:

In2bmx

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Re: 1983 Raleigh Racing R4000
« Reply #9 on: April 13, 2015, 09:27 AM »
Looks Awesome .. :daumenhoch:

Offline Andy68

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Re: 1983 Raleigh Racing R4000
« Reply #10 on: April 13, 2015, 11:32 AM »
superb job!  that oooooozes 80's street BMX  :daumenhoch:

^^ x2  :4_17_5:

Offline johnjo74

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Re: 1983 Raleigh Racing R4000
« Reply #11 on: April 13, 2015, 07:53 PM »
Thanks for the comments guys  ...... much appreciated   8)

Offline eddie kidd

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Re: 1983 Raleigh Racing R4000 - Build Thread
« Reply #12 on: April 15, 2015, 12:14 AM »
Super Job... 8)

Great to see 'your' choice of parts on it... :daumenhoch:
Wanted Green Oakley B2 Grips...Nos...

Offline frankie30

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Re: 1983 Raleigh Racing R4000 - Build Thread
« Reply #13 on: April 15, 2015, 12:53 AM »
awesome work love it

Offline fischflo

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Re: 1983 Raleigh Racing R4000 - Build Thread
« Reply #14 on: April 15, 2015, 10:48 AM »
ooooh i like that! 8) ...great to see another member of the R line on here  :4_17_5: great thread ;  :radbmxsmilie:

Offline factory pilot

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Re: 1983 Raleigh Racing R4000 - Build Thread
« Reply #15 on: April 16, 2015, 10:58 AM »
A great thread and awesome build bud! Outstanding sir .. Outstanding!  :4_17_5:
I always loved these bikes ... I used to see them in BMX Plus as a kid ... Loved that they were so different to our Burners..... They were exotic!

Top work fella and a great thread!  "wantit" :smitten:
"Knowledge is the acceptance of ones own ignorance." Socrates 399BC

Offline deeman

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Re: 1983 Raleigh Racing R4000 - Finished / Build Thread
« Reply #16 on: April 21, 2015, 01:13 AM »
Great build and great thread too. Looks like the frameset is FAR nicer quality than the u.k offerings! lovely choice of parts and fantastic attention to detail....an outstanding build. I havn't seen a sugino crank like that original one  before either.... :daumenhoch:
SMALL MINDS TALK ABOUT PEOPLE....
MEDIUM MINDS TALK ABOUT EVENTS...
GREAT MINDS TALK ABOUT IDEAS....

Offline wilsey72

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Re: 1983 Raleigh Racing R4000 - Finished / Build Thread
« Reply #17 on: April 28, 2016, 05:17 PM »
Absolutely love this thread.
There's a R4000 hanging in my garage waiting for some severe TLC... this has given my the buzz to get on with it.

 explosion BOOM!!!
GLOUCESTER RIDE 28th July 2018

Offline factory pilot

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Re: 1983 Raleigh Racing R4000 - Finished / Build Thread
« Reply #18 on: April 28, 2016, 06:39 PM »
This bumping business is great ...I love this thread ... Great to re-visit it again  explosion
"Knowledge is the acceptance of ones own ignorance." Socrates 399BC

Offline oldscool

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Re: 1983 Raleigh Racing R4000 - Finished / Build Thread
« Reply #19 on: April 28, 2016, 07:20 PM »
Cracking build nice job  :daumenhoch:
If in doubt flat out.

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