Specialist Bicycle Development Unit

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SB8790 1987 Raleigh SBDU Nottingham Reynolds 531c – Model Classification

November 23, 2018November 23, 2018 Neil McGowran Leave a comment

When I add a traditional horizontal top tube SBDU bike to my collection it can sometimes take a few careful measurements and a little bit of knowledge of the bike’s history to figure out something as subtle as whether it was built for road racing or time trials. The obvious style of SB8790 leaves me with no doubt about it’s intended purpose – I’m still going to measure and document it because that’s my process, but the 24″ front wheel and the top tube that slopes dramatically to meet the fork tells me all I need to know!

SB6560 531c Services des Courses 1984 SBDU Ilkeston Raleigh – Fork Restore

November 21, 2018November 21, 2018 Neil McGowran 3 Comments

While I’m patiently waiting for the final few Dura-Ace 7400 series 6 speed components to arrive, I’m going to begin the paintwork restore on SB6560, starting with the fork. The fork on SB6560 isn’t too bad at all but it has a few marks and scratches that would look better with a little bit of TLC.

SB8200 1986 SBDU Ilkeston 531c Randonneur

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SB8200 1986 Raleigh SBDU Ilkeston Reynolds 531c Randonneur – New Arrival

November 18, 2018November 18, 2018 Neil McGowran Leave a comment

I haven’t written many ‘New Arrival’ posts this year after slowing down my collecting habit and being a bit more picky, so it really is nice to get a new frame on the workbench. An astute eBay bid, a couple of messages followed by a few hours drive and SB8200 was in my hands. This new frame is from 1986, making it a late Ilkeston built frame that appears to follow the spec of the SBDU Randonneur.

My TI-Raleigh SBDU Ilkeston Yearly Frame Collection

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My Specialist Bicycle Development Unit Wanted List – An Update

November 13, 2018November 13, 2018 Neil McGowran 1 Comment

Over the years since bike number one arrived (SB4059), I’ve continued to look at what I’m collecting and I’ve tried to add frames that plug any gaps that my collection has. It’s been nearly three years since I last wrote about my “wanted list”, so as 2018 is coming to a close, I thought I would spend a little time and look again at how my collection and the “wanted list” is doing.

SB4059 1980 TI-Raleigh Team Pro Reynolds 753 Frame and Fork

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Buying a Specialist Bicycle Development Unit (SBDU) Bike with Confidence

November 10, 2018November 10, 2018 Neil McGowran 2 Comments

I always find this topic a sad one to write about. I get sad when I know that someone is spending money on a bike that may not be what they think it is and I could have helped to provide some info if only I was asked. That sad feeling prompts me to write blog posts like this; seeing SBDU bikes mis-represented by sellers; unintentionally or not, isn’t good. Do the sellers really not know what they are selling, or do buyers really just not know what they are buying? I can’t stop some sellers writing what they write in their ads but I certainly can help buyers with some helpful advice, and help them to read the signs and to spot a potential dud. I never call out a seller directly, their business is their business, but I’m always available to help any potential buyer.

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The Tools of My Trade – A Tour of my Workshop

October 18, 2018October 21, 2018 Neil McGowran 1 Comment

I always get nice comments about my work space. It is often commented on when I post bike images. So I thought I’d write quite a self indulgent post and show a few images of my tools and work space for a change instead of the bikes.

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Frame Weights of Specialist Bicycle Development Unit (SBDU) Reynolds 753 and 531 Frames

September 30, 2018September 30, 2018 Neil McGowran Leave a comment

Frame weight… it’s often talked about, requested and used as a measure to try and determine tubing type. From my own experience I can see several factors that affect final weight and I frequently see through my own documentation process that frame weight can be very random and time and again I see that it can be impossible to correlate frame weight to frame size to frame tubing.

SB6560 SBDU Ilkeston 531c Services des Courses Raleigh Team Colours Transfer Mockup

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SB6560 531c Services des Courses 1984 SBDU Ilkeston Raleigh – Planning the Team Colours Transfer Layout

September 29, 2018September 29, 2018 Neil McGowran 2 Comments

SB6560 arrived in terrible condition with missing gear lever bosses and poorly applied transfers. It is a frame that has always been overlooked and put on the back burner while other projects came in and took over. Underneath the skin however, it is a lovely 531c SBDU Services des Courses frame that now deserves to hit the top of the project pile!

Raleigh Frame Numbers 1973 Onward Blog Header

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Raleigh Frame Numbers 1973 Onward. Worksop Carlton and Nottingham Lightweight Unit Frames, Specialist Bicycle Development Unit (SBDU) and Raleigh Special Products Division

August 30, 2018August 30, 2018 Neil McGowran Leave a comment

This isn’t intended to be an Internet resource of Raleigh frame numbers! If you are reading this for anything other than SB number sequences from the SBDU then please make sure you corroborate my information with other resources.

This blog post covers a basic background of things I’ve learnt about Raleigh frame numbering systems during my own research over the last few years, from the introduction of ‘W’ numbers at TI-Raleigh’s Worksop Carlton factory in late 1973, extending through to the late 1990s and Raleigh’s Special Products Division. The only numbers I’m confident about are the Specialist Bicycle Development Unit (SBDU) SB frame numbers at Ilkeston. Some of this blog post, especially the late 80s / early 90s is what I will call ‘work in progress – thinking out loud – still formulating things in my head‘ type of work, there just aren’t enough bikes available at the moment to provide more accurate detail.

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SB8790 Raleigh SBDU Nottingham Reynolds 531c 1987 Lo Pro Road – New Arrival

July 11, 2018July 16, 2018 Neil McGowran Leave a comment

Emails dropping into my Inbox on a lazy Saturday afternoon are quickly becoming the best kind of email! The one I received last Saturday offered a mint condition frame together with it’s original Raleigh box and some documentation! Now that is an offer that needs serious consideration. The images came through a couple of days later and they displayed a frame that was every bit as described… built up but probably never ridden, maybe the closest I’ll ever get to a New SBDU frame.

SB7393 1985 SBDU Ilkeston Reynolds 531 Professional Geometry and Design

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SB7393 Raleigh SBDU Ilkeston Reynolds 531 Professional 1985 – Geometry and Design

July 9, 2018 Neil McGowran Leave a comment

Time Trial frame? Road frame? Or a bit of both? What exactly is it?

SB7393 came with a story that it was built and used for time trials and ridden by a junior. I was also told by Rob, the previous owner, that it was a “lively” ride! It looks like a conventional SBDU road bike, but then again, SB time trial frames can look like conventional road bikes too; and with vertical and horizontal ends as options on both types, it is ultimately down to geometry to unravel the puzzle.

SB4059 1980 TI-Raleigh Team Pro Reynolds 753 Seat Lug Thread Repair

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SB4059 SBDU Ilkeston 1980 TI-Raleigh Team Pro Reynolds 753 – Seat Lug Thread Repair

July 1, 2018July 2, 2018 Neil McGowran Leave a comment

I’m gradually working my way through the snagging list on SB4059, all those little jobs that I know about and that require attention are slowly getting done. Not so long ago I swapped the original Campagnolo grey outer brake cables for original Campagnolo black alternatives, and I also updated some of the frame transfers so that SB4059 correctly reflected the 1980 TI-Raleigh scheme. This time I’m repairing the threaded seat lug so that I can fit a correct and original SBDU threaded bolt.

SB7393 1985 SBDU Ilkeston Reynolds 531 Professional Paint Renovation

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SB7393 SBDU Ilkeston Raleigh Reynolds 531 Professional 1985 – Paintwork – Part One

June 29, 2018July 13, 2018 Neil McGowran Leave a comment

When you have a get a good look at the paint on SB7393 you can see that it isn’t the best. Although it is all there and from a distance it looks ok, there are one or two areas of rust, the paint is dirty, flat and covered in previous brushed on rust treatments with other paint drips and garage related debris including several cobwebs. I was sure when I bought this bike that I could breathe some new life into it. This is the first step…

SB7393 1985 SBDU Ilkeston Reynolds 531 Professional

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SB7393 SBDU Ilkeston Raleigh Reynolds 531 Professional 1985 – Stripdown

June 26, 2018July 13, 2018 Neil McGowran 6 Comments

Now that Eroica Britannia is out of the way and work on SB4059 is complete (for now), I can turn my attention to looking at SB7393. This is a complete Reynolds 531 Professional SBDU bike that I bought a couple of weeks ago. Each part of this bike could cause problems, and now was the time to open the toolbox and see what was in store for me.

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Eroica Britannia 2018 – My TI-Raleigh SBDU

June 21, 2018June 25, 2018 Neil McGowran 1 Comment

I’ve planned before and never got there, I’ve bought a ticket before and never got there, but this year I actually did get there. Karen and I booked up, bought tickets, sorted parking, arranged an Airbnb nearby in Buxton, packed the van and headed out on the three hour trip from Newcastle to Eroica Britannia.

SB4059 1980 TI-Raleigh Team Pro Reynolds 753 New Transfers Fitted Blog Header

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SB4059 SBDU Ilkeston 1980 TI-Raleigh Team Pro Reynolds 753 – A New (and Correct) Look

June 13, 2018June 13, 2018 Neil McGowran 2 Comments

It has been a long couple of days but I’ve finally completed this small and difficult project to bring SB4059 up to spec in terms of a 1980 period SBDU TI-Raleigh transfer scheme. Deciding to go for it and wreck the paint on a perfectly good frame meant that there was no going back. Thankfully my patience and care have paid off and SB4059 is done!

SB4059 1980 TI-Raleigh Team Pro Reynolds 753 Frame Transfer Removal Masked Frame Painted Header

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SB4059 SBDU Ilkeston 1980 TI-Raleigh Team Pro Reynolds 753 – Removing Transfers From Underneath Clearcoat – Part Two

June 12, 2018June 12, 2018 Neil McGowran Leave a comment

I think I must have been slightly bonkers to start this project but the desire to get SB4059 looking correct was too much! That morning when I took a knife to the clear coated transfers left me with a lot of work and once started, I had no option but to continue. And it is all because the person that renovated my frame all those years ago didn’t do their research. The moral of the story… if you are going to do something do it right and do it once.

SB7393 1985 SBDU Ilkeston Reynolds 531 Professional Blog Header

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SB7393 SBDU Ilkeston Raleigh Reynolds 531 Professional 1985 – New Arrival

June 9, 2018July 13, 2018 Neil McGowran Leave a comment

Another email, another road trip, another bike.

I was sitting with my feet up on holiday at the end of May, just relaxing and watching the boats go by on the Norfolk Broads, when I received an email asking for a valuation on a bike. After a few more emails and some shared pictures, I ended up agreeing to buy it. SB7393 is an original paint SBDU bike built with Reynolds 531 Professional tubing and spec’d with a great selection of parts… and best of all, it is my size, 57cm.

SBDU Ilkeston SB6827 1984 Frame Transfer Locations

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SB6827 SBDU Ilkeston Frame Transfers – Testing My Own Data

May 20, 2018June 9, 2018 Neil McGowran Leave a comment

I’ve recorded and blogged what seems like an amazing amount of detail relating to SBDU frames over the years and I’ve always strived to make everything I publish as accurate as I can. It has been a goal of mine to keep assumptions, unchecked facts and internet myths off the blog. What I’ve found is that my findings and posts are challenged on an almost daily basis when I’m contacted regarding frames, and so far, everything I’ve published has remained rock solid.

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Specialist Bicycle Development Unit (SBDU Ilkeston and Nottingham) Gear Lever Positioning

May 11, 2018May 11, 2018 Neil McGowran Leave a comment

Following on from my previous blog posts about SBDU fork ends and seat stay caps, here is another short post in a series I’m writing about individual areas of SBDU frame design. This time I’ve chosen to write about gear levers, or more precisely, where they are positioned on the downtube. I’m quite sure that many people have never even considered this, after all, they are just levers mounted on a tube. And let’s face it, who actually does think about the small stuff like this… apart from me!

SBDU Ilkeston SB6827 1984 Reynolds 531c Transfers

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SB6827 SBDU Ilkeston Raleigh Reynolds 531c 1984 Road Bike Unridden Condition – New Arrival

May 3, 2018June 9, 2018 Neil McGowran 1 Comment

Sometimes when I see a bike that someone else owns I feel a little pang of jealousy, I can’t help it. And that is exactly how I felt nearly two years ago when I was first sent images of SB6827. The images were of a beautiful SB bike, it was original, the red paint was gleaming and all the Super Record parts were in perfect condition – I was then told that it had never been ridden and my jealousy feelings went off the scale.

Specialist Bicycle Development Unit (SBDU) Frame Design Seat Stay and Seat Lug Attachment

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Specialist Bicycle Development Unit (SBDU Ilkeston) Seat Stay Design and Seat Lug Attachment

April 29, 2018May 2, 2018 Neil McGowran Leave a comment

You probably think seat stays are quite boring, why on earth would I devote a blog post to the two narrow tapering tubes on the back of a frame? Well as you hopefully all know by now, I do like my details, especially the small details! The various designs and subtle differences in seat stays can tell me a lot about an SBDU frame, even the frame age and tubing type.

SBDU Ilkeston Panasonic Raleigh Services des Courses Reynolds 531c 1984 SB6560 7400 Brake Levers

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SB6560 531c Services des Courses 1984 SBDU Ilkeston Panasonic Raleigh – Planning a Build

April 22, 2018April 22, 2018 Neil McGowran Leave a comment

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.

SB4059 1980 TI-Raleigh Team Pro Reynolds 753 Transfer Removal

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SB4059 SBDU Ilkeston 1980 TI-Raleigh Team Pro Reynolds 753 – Removing Transfers From Underneath Clearcoat – Part One

April 12, 2018April 21, 2018 Neil McGowran 2 Comments

I wasn’t planning to do this job today, it just happened. I’d been thinking for the past week about how to tackle the task of removing the transfers from SB4059… the problem is that they are sealed under a good layer of thick glossy clearcoat. While I was standing in the workshop, contemplating what to do, I decided to pick up a sharp blade and couldn’t resist having a sneaky pick at the corner of a transfer, just to see if I could break the seal of the clearcoat and get the blade under the vinyl… and that was it, once I had started I just couldn’t stop. And now there is no going back!

SB4059 1980 TI-Raleigh Team Pro Reynolds 753 Chainset Pedals and Bottle

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SB4059 SBDU Ilkeston 1980 TI-Raleigh Team Pro Reynolds 753 Stripdown

April 2, 2018 Neil McGowran Leave a comment

It’s just over six years since I fastened the first component to this frame and four or five years since I completed the first build on a long road to making this the best example of a restored TI-Raleigh Team Pro 753 that I could make, and now the time has come to take SB4059 apart. Yes, I am taking it apart to make it even better. Each step in building SB4059 has added a bit more accuracy and detail. Then a little while ago I blogged about fitting some NOS black Campagnolo brake cables, which meant that there were only two more items stopping this bike from being perfect, they were the top tube and Reynolds frame transfer, transfers that have really bugged me since day one of the journey.

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SB9000 SBDU Nottingham Raleigh Banana Reynolds 753R Low Profile Track Pursuit Frame – New Arrival

February 2, 2018 Neil McGowran Leave a comment

eBay! Love it or loathe it, every now and then it does serve a purpose.

Personally I loathe it and while I’m definately not a fan, it has actually accounted for a small amount of my new arrivals. I do prefer to collect frames that fly under the radar but sometimes you see a frame that is too nice and too special to ignore. So I watch the bids and try to figure out where an item’s price is going and what, if anything, it could add to my SBDU collection. On balance, SB9000 had more positives than negatives. The benefits I’d gain for my collection outweighed the one big negative which was that it had been viewed by thousands online and I clearly wasn’t the only bidder who wanted it.

SB3800 Mid 1980s TI-Raleigh Re-Paint Transfer Details

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SBDU Ilkeston SB Frame Transfer Layout and Lug Detailing for TI-Raleigh Restorations (1974 – 1983)

January 6, 2018September 13, 2018 Neil McGowran 8 Comments

SBDU frames and the TI colours have become hugely popular. More people are seeking to buy an SBDU frame and recreate the red black and yellow TI-Raleigh scheme. With this recent resurgence, sellers are looking to sell and buyers are readily buying. The demand for these frames is producing a seemingly never ending supply of TI painted frames. With so many looking to buy and then repaint, and so many looking to repaint and then sell, the amount of freshly painted frames I’ve seen recently by both buyers and sellers has spiralled. My concern based on what I’ve seen is that the detail of the SBDU TI scheme is in danger of being lost forever.

SB8868 SBDU Nottingham Reynolds 753R Raleigh Banana 7402 Rear Derailleur

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Shimano Dura-Ace 7400 7401 7402 7403 7410 Series Road Component System 1984 – 1996

December 1, 2017December 1, 2017 Neil McGowran 5 Comments

The year was 1984. I was only 14 and riding a beat up Raleigh Grifter around the estate. My parent’s shed was my workshop and I was kept busy fixing the bikes for all the local kids. My own bikes were fitted with names such as Sturmey Archer, Simplex, Huret and Weinmann. At the same time, unknown to me, two giants of the cycling world were about to go head to head for market supremacy. In the red corner, fighting out of Italy were Campagnolo, the makers of beautiful looking and precisely engineered components that graced the bikes of the professional peleton; they were up against Shimano in the blue corner, the Japanese corporation often only known for freewheels, hub gears and fishing reels.

SB3327 1979 SBDU Ilkeston Raleigh Reynolds 753 Time Trial Special

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SB3327 1979 Raleigh SBDU Ilkeston Reynolds 753 Time Trial Special – New Arrival

November 22, 2017December 21, 2017 Neil McGowran Leave a comment

It was just another night in front of the television when an email dropped into my Inbox regarding an SBDU frame, this is a situation I’ve been in a few times now. Another frame with a case of mistaken identity came up on my screen, actually, this time it was more a case of confused identity. A frame that looked like a Panasonic/Weinmann but with the name of Wes Mason emblazoned on the tubes. After a couple of emails a deal was done and the frame was with me two days later.

SB4059 1980 TI-Raleigh Team Pro Reynolds 753 TEAM RALEIGH Transfer Replacement

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SB4059 1980 SBDU Ilkeston TI-Raleigh Team Pro Reynolds 753 Replacement Frame Transfers

November 15, 2017January 24, 2018 Neil McGowran 2 Comments

Following the change of cables on SB4059 there is now only one thing that I need to do, one more thing to sort out, one more thing that has bugged me the most about this build over the last couple of years. The one thing I’m talking about just happens to be SB4059 itself! Yes, the frame that all the bits hang from.

Tag: Specialist Bicycle Development Unit