Good afternoon,
i think the Raleigh Team Replica has struggled for two reasons; one is the high price, the second is the fact that it isn't a true replica. Therefore it's too expensive for anyone who just wants steel, and not historically faithful enough for those enthusiasts who want an actual Team bike copy. Thus it ends up pleasing almost no-one............
That describes me very well.
I have been looking at the Raleigh site for a while hoping for a clearance sale, it has too much bottom end equipment for me to say "let's just pay a bit more than it's worth as it's a special edition and not worry about it".
I was then hoping that people would think that it's a Europa and not bother nicking it as they aren't worth much.
What I have noticed is that a lot of 525/725 frames on the market pre covid were Reynolds branded main tubes and unbranded stays and forks, at least the Raleigh is 753 throughout.
Even the newish Croix De Fer12/12 which is marketed as
Built entirely from 725 tubing has the spec sheet saying
Frame Reynolds 725 Heat-Treated Chromoly 12mm Thru-Rear-Axle, Fork Chromoly Disc Fork With Anything Cage Mounts With 12mm Thru-Axle. Which is easy to read as non 725 forks.
The previous version had non Reynolds stays and forks.
Ribble seem to avoid this question, they say on the website
The frameset is manufactured from British Reynolds 725 steel tubing which would make me think 725 stays but the bike has a CF fork and to me frameset has always meant frame and forks. The older stickers that were very clear about this seem to have gone out of fashion, the Ribble has a Butted Frame Tubes sticker, but then so does the Genesis.
I appreciate that in reality this makes very little difference, except to the price, £10 per stay to Genesis or £20 per stay or £80 by the time the frame is sold and maybe an extra 100g or 2 Mars bars? But by that reasoning you could go for unbranded or Genesis own brand, Mjolnir, throughout.
So there is a strong case for saying that it is a £1k frame, even if the rest of the bike may only cost around £600 if you bought the bits individually retail.
I am also curious about the reality of 10 speed downtube shifting, I love 10 speed, but my only experience of it is with Di2 and making a lot of gear changes to get the most out of it when riding fast (for me). I wonder if with DT shifting the reality is that it would be ridden like an 8 speed as changing gear for a single tooth would be too much hassle?
Prior to breaking it, I would decide if I was going out for a slow or fast ride and if slow then pick the 8 speed downtube bike, stick it in 52x19 and almost forget about the gears.
I realise that "back in the day" 6 speed 13-18/19 freewheels existed but the rear mech movement was greater along with a bit more tolerance to a slightly imperfect shift.
Bye
Ian