My TI-Raleigh SBDU Blog

It's been a few weeks since this little frame arrived, so after the small change of subject and posts about Dave Yates and his brilliant frame building course, it is back to the SBDU and Ilkeston built bikes ...

I started every morning by pulling my boots on and going to have a lovely cooked breakfast. The boots didn't hurt so much now, the Elastoplast on each heel and big toe were doing their job well! ...

Bikes are not much good if you can't attach cables for brakes and gears, it would also be nice to carry a water bottle or two. That means that day 4 was all about 'braze-ons' - those little guides that you pass cables through! ...

Bicycle forks... how hard can they be to make ...

Day 2 started with a plan, more pictures, sore feet, a huge blister and a tube box still full of tubes yet to be worked on ...

This is a little off topic, I normally keep this blog just for my SBDU Ilkeston bikes. However, I've just spent a fascinating week in Coningsby, Lincolnshire, with Dave Yates learning how to build a bike frame ...

While I was away last week, the post man delivered another Ilkeston frameset and it was waiting for me when I eventually got home ...

One thing I've tried to combine with my blog is a comprehensive photographic record. I try to capture each build or every workshop task with the best photography I can do ...

It's been 18 month since I claimed to have finished this build and posted the complete bike post and build specification. With most things however, nothing is ever finished ...

I've had a British threaded Omas Titanium bottom bracket with rather nasty bearings in the parts box for a little while and I thought it would be perfect for this build ...

After deciding to build this frame, I still have to decide on which parts to use. Do I stick with Campagnolo Super Record or do I go with something different like early Dura-Ace 7100/7200 DA-200? ...

Decisions, decisions... It's nice being in this position and having this dilemma. I know lots of SBDU collectors who would like to be in this position too ...

I'm really happy with how this rebuild has turned out! I didn't want to carry out a full nut and bolt strip down, clean and polish; I just wanted to get this bike back on the road again and make it 100% mechanically perfect! ...

It's been a couple of weeks since I did the strip down on this frame, but just before I started the full re-build, I re-fitted the headset for my previous post so that I could get it into the studio for some photographs ...

I always expect old bikes to be problematic when I come to take them apart. They are often suffering from years of neglect and lack of maintenance. This one however, was easy! ...

There I was, enjoying a quiet Sunday evening watching TV and browsing eBay, when a bike with an SB serial number popped up. The frame number was SB7660 and it was an Ilkeston Randonneur ...

Realistically, there may not be many 'original owners' of SBDU frames - I.E. those people who still own an SBDU frame that they ordered and bought for themselves from Ilkeston. There may be even fewer original owners who have a frame with an 'H' reference ...

I have a list of frames that I want in my SBDU collection. That list of frames is slowly getting smaller; but on that list was a 753 Time Trial Special ...

I have a few SBDU frames and recently decided that if I'm going to add to the collection, it had to be something different to the red/black/yellow 'Team' livery frame ...

It's been a while, spare time has been tight, but I finally got some time today to fit this Chris King 2Nut headset ...

Anything that is stuck or seized in a frame is bad news. It is even more bad news when the wall thickness of the frame tubing is extremely thin. Reynolds 753 tubing of this type has a wall thickness less than 1mm ...

Since getting this frame I've been trying to figure out what it is? ...

Now this is a little something very special for me. This frame came up in a topic on the Retrobike forum. It got my attention because of the SB frame number and the 'DENTON' decals ...

Another complete bike! I'm getting through them, slowly but surely I'm turning frames into complete bikes ...

I've just realised that I have never detailed the build of this bike. I tried my best to recreate a build specification that was sent by Gerald O'Donovan to a customer in 1982 ...

It must be a few months since I finished building my TI-Raleigh Team Pro, so it's time to move onto frame number 2 ...

I'm going to use a term that my 13 year old daughter Lauren uses... "Oh My Gosh!", it's finished! Christmas has come early, I have a complete Raleigh Team 753!!!! ...

After a few diversions with other Raleigh frames, I'm back to my 753 Team Pro. A lot has been happening although it's still not quite there... yet ...

I wanted to write a new blog post but it has been so long since my last post, I nearly forgot my password! After a few attempts, I'm finally in ...

It's been a long while since I wrote anything here. This is because I've had no money, meaning I couldn't buy parts to add to my 753 Team Pro ...

I used to get a new bike every Christmas. This was in the mid to late 70's, and I loved them. They weren't anything special, I had 2 older brothers and a younger sister, who all got a bike, so there wasn't much money to spread around on quality ...

While I'm saving up the pennies and trying to source more parts for the Raleigh build, I thought I would reminisce a little. One of the best memories from the many I have while working at Denton Cycles was building the Salsa bikes for Jason Mcroy ...

This may be a lengthy post but I want to recap of what's happened so far in my project to put together my Raleigh TI Team frame. It's been a long 5 months since I bought this frame and that's meant 5 long and slow months of wanting to get as much ...

My frameset came with an extremely loose and mangled Chorus headset; I really couldn't stand the look of it sitting in this frame, so without waiting till I had a replacement, I took it straight out, throwing it to the bottom of the bin ...

I have a particular method of building a bike; always have, always will. The 2 things you need to get in first are bottom bracket and headset. You wouldn't believe the problems sourcing a headset but that's a story for another post ...

When my frame arrived it was using 3 terrible self tapping screws to hold the head badge to the frame... ebay!!!!! Problem solved! ...

Is my frame 753? How old is it? These are 2 very important questions that need answers. You might also think I'm daft for buying a frame without being sure of it. You're right, I bought it on a hunch, but an educated hunch ...

After a long time watching frames come and go on the internet, I found a likely suspect on ebay. Other frames that I have seen have always been way too small or way too big; this was perfect, a 57cm ...

Why create a blog about this? What exactly is this? What am I going to blog about? ...