Oh my god! MY BROTHER DID THAT. He had the Apple crate (or maybe Cherry Crate it was red). He hit something and went flying into the stick shift so hard, he actually tore his sack! I had forgotten about this, thanks for dredging up traumatic childhood memories. He was ok in the end... The bike was eventually stolen from me (in person), in East Buffalo outside of the legendary Fields hobby shop. I had parked the bike and gone in with my friends. A gang of kids waited for us to come out and for me to unlock the bike, and then encircled us and tried to threaten me into giving up the bike. I I would not. So, they physically removed me and took it. Not a good day for me. Sorry Brother!
Oh hell yeah, my older brother had the blue version. It was stupid expensive when it was new, wish we would've kept it. My little brother had a the black/pink Predator that was popular. I never had anything that was more than a freestyle knockoff.
No pics but oh yes I was into bicycles. Stopped before the Carbon Fiber phase though. I still have a Raleigh Powder Blue professional frame made from Reynolds 531 tubing. It's a bit mismatched with Campy small hub wheels and Suntour Superb II crank, brakes and derailleur front an rear. Who remembers the day of glued on tubeless tires that would come of the rim and send a rider flying They finally went back to clincher's like it use to be.
My Gitane Tour de France still has those on it now! Tubies we called them. Inner tube was sewn up inside the rubber part of the tire and was almost impossible to patch, not that you'd really want to. VERY subject to stone bruising and made a heck of a noise when they popped. One avoided gravel at all cost.
No way!! Are you still riding the bike? and how old is the glue that keeps them on the rim. I don't know to many custom bike builders so i'm going to look up the Gitane bike. I rode on Tubies for a while till I swapped to clinchers even though the high quality light weight clinchers had come a long way for a while. The stupid kid in me liked the look to where the pro riders would keep the spare tubie tire strapped behind the seat, even though I saw pictures of riders on the ground with blood pouring down their head after the tubie rolled off the rim. Now I like saying the word 'Tubies" as you can see. I remember having to cut a good portion of the outer stitching on these tires and pulling out the tube and patching it and putting it back in and re sewing the stitching. It was a hell of a time trying to find where the leak was before doing any repair.. Of all things to use to keep a tire on a rim was glue..wow.
Your bike sure brings back memory's.. My Raleigh Pro was in the same catalogs from 1972 to 1976? as yours that I used to look at over and over as a kid hoping one day I would have my favorite bike.. That was when England sure made some nice bikes.. It's funny i'm on another forum "not car related" and someone posted the exact bike as yours. Raleigh sure sold alot of them for good reason
Never did have a tire roll off the rim, lucky I guess. My technique was to not use too much glue on the rim, install the tire and blow it up to at least 110 psi and leave it there for a week. Had to have a couple of spare wheels to do that however. Alas, my knees are worn out from too many miles and riding is very painful, so it sits.
Use it as decoration. You'd have to replace all the tubes and at that point, what do you have? Not the bike you started with, kind of like George Washington's ax. Head replaced twice and the handle 5 times...
