This frame has eventually made it to the top of my list of projects. This is a Jan Raas frame and it has waited too long; the yellow Chesini paint and transfers have to go and the classic TI-Raleigh colours with detailed Fischer fork crown and Carlton Capella lugs have to come back.
This is a brute of a track frame, built to be strong and stiff so that it could perform under the considerable power of the legs of a man like Jan Raas, while also resisting the forces of circling around the banking and sprinting around the track.
In many respects it is a classic SBDU track frame. It uses the Fischer track fork crown and round fork blades, it uses the period 4 slot bottom bracket shell and has large over size seat stay caps with Campagnolo 1053 track ends.
But one of the nicer features of this frame is the use of the modified Carlton Capella lugs. These were used on a handful of bikes in late 1974/early 1975, and again in 1977. The SBDU trimmed lots of excess metal and drilled a few additional holes before using them, which is why I always call them modified.
This is a team frame though, so although it is heavily influenced by the SBDU, it carries the hallmarks of a late 70’s period Jan le Grand/Raleigh build.
You can see traces of the previous red colour in the head lug image, and that is the colour I intend to put back. Here is the frame being ridden in anger around the track in 1978 at the six day in London.
Jan is riding with Gerrie Knetemann. Gerrie was the current World Champion on the Road, and Jan wore a matching jersey and went on to become World Champion the following year. You can see the number 3 on the back of Raas, corresponding to the team listings below.
That image gives me everything I need to get JR178T back to how it was. It is slightly different to the bike being ridden by Gerrie. You can clearly see the yellow highlighting in the Capella lugs and fork crown and what looks to be an additional circular TI transfer in the upper yellow seat tube panel. The Reynolds 531 transfer seems to be the standard diagonal style for the period.
I’m painting this frame myself so I’ll have complete control over the quality of the finish, transfer placement and lug detailing. This is one of several TI-Raleigh frames I’ll hopefully be painting this year, so I’ll be getting lots of good practice and experience with the paint gun in 2019!
