I currently have six or seven or maybe even eight or more projects and builds happening at the moment. But lots of projects means lots of money, and that is something that is thin on the ground at the moment. Shhh… I’ve been saving for something rather nice so my funds have been temporarily diverted! As well as a lack of available funds, there has also been a lack of nice warm weather – it seems like it has been such a long winter. It’s been so cold and snowy which has meant the garage where I normally apply a little bit of paint has been out of bounds until now. But spring seems to have sprung, the weather has turned and as there appears to be a touch of heat in the air, it is time to divert some of my attention back to my SB6560 project.
I did the frame repair ages ago, fitting two new gear lever bosses which fixed the damage it had when I received it.
A little bit of file work, a bit of silver and some careful heat and the new bosses were finished.
This was the transfer scheme when it arrived… a mixture of wrong transfers, wrongly located transfers and missing transfers.
And here is what I am aiming for… this is GH6175, a 1975 TI-Raleigh team frame which was re-painted by the SBDU at the start of the Panasonic Raleigh era, making it spot on for my frame number of SB6560.
The Panasonic Raleigh transfer scheme for this period consists of…
- RALEIGH on the seat tube and down tube
- Red and Yellow chevrons on the seat tube and down tube
- Red and Yellow bands on the top tube
- Blue, Red and Yellow chevrons on the chain stays
- Reynolds 531c transfer at the base of seat tube
- Small 531 TI fork blade transfers
- SBDU oval at the top of seat tube
- 1980 TDF Winner transfer at top of the down tube
- I’ll refit the 3 pin Raleigh head badge when the paint is done
As it is a Services des Courses frame I’ll also fit white coloured ‘Services des Courses’ transfers either side of the down tube, sandwiched between the end of the yellow chevron and gear lever boss.
With the transfers sourced from H Lloyd Cycles, everything, including the weather is ready for paint.
I now prefer to have everything ready before I start a build. Building SB4059 bit by bit over a period of a few years taught me that, it was painstaking to do. Rather than bolting individual parts to a frame each month I now pack them away until everything is ready.
I decided a long time ago that this build was going to be Dura-Ace 7400. The original 7400 6 speed group would be ideal for this 1984 frame. My later 1988 SB8868 is a great example of a period correct Dura-Ace 8 speed 7400/7402 mix. My Dura-Ace 7400 Timeline gives a lot of detail about the changes that happened during the lifetime of the 7400 series.
Last year I found a seller local to me who had a box full of Dura-Ace 7400 from an old exhibition bike, some of the kit had been fitted and some was still boxed. Amazingly it was all 7400 6 speed.
One of the best finds was the pair of 7400 brake levers, they had never been fitted, had no marks on the levers and had perfect condition hoods. These hoods are now seemingly impossible to find and hugely expensive when they do appear for sale – so I’m very happy to have them. There were even some original grey colour Dura-Ace cables.
The Dura-Ace kit contained a band on 7400 derailleur; thankfully my frame is band on too!
The chainset and bottom bracket are still boxed. There are only a few storage marks on the arms of the chainset.
The rear hub is a Dura-Ace 6 Speed 126mm OLN cassette type. It has been laced but is as smooth as a new hub and has minimal marks from the lacing. The QR is clean without any marks or corrosion.
Deciding to go for an original 6 speed 7400 group isn’t without problems. Some parts can be difficult to source. The new brake levers and unmarked chainset are two of these difficult to find pieces so I’m pleased I don’t need to worry about those. The two I’m probably going to struggle with is a Dura-Ace specific 6 speed cassette and an unmarked 7400 rear derailleur.
The cassette body on these hubs has a step down thread for the last sprocket which is unlike other Shimano 6 speed Uniglide hubs. The rear derailleur tends to have a hard life and so many examples are ripped to pieces with marks and scratches. The 7401 rear derailleur is very similar so does provide an alternative; it differed with different pulley bushings and on some, a very small change to the shape of the lower plates. But it was essentially the same derailleur with the exposed plate axle assembly bolt and was marked as 6-7 speed.
The remaining Dura-Ace parts that I need aren’t too difficult to find. To finish the build I already have a nice Turbo saddle and some good Cinelli bars and 1A stem. If I can find some new old stock GP4/MA40 rims then I’ll build with those, but if I can’t, I’ll go with my favourite H PLUS SON TB14 rims.
So the search is on for the last few bits and pieces while I finally sort out the paint and transfers…
