Retro Gravel Bike: 1980 Raleigh Reliant Restoration
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- čas přidán 22. 06. 2019
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Walk around of 1980 Raleigh Reliant custom gravel bike/urban assault build. US-made by Huffy under Raleigh license. This was a lower level road bike. Cold-set to modern road axle spacing and converted from 27” wheels to 700c with Panaracer GravelKing SK 32 tires. Original brake calipers with vintage Shimano GS levers. 1x converted vintage SR Sakae crank on a Shimano UN-55 cartrige BB. Modern cartridge headset, indexed Shimano thumb shifter. Fun and fast rolling bike.
Great build! Looks very clean, I love that! And great tires to go with it.
Thank you!
I've got this same bike and looking to do this sort of restoration, but the brake calipers don't quite reach a 700c wheel. I'm curious how yours did. Are you still riding the bike 3 years on?
You will need to look for “long reach” calipers for your conversion. You can measure from the caliper mounting hole, to the center of the brake track, perpendicular to the seat stays. Get that measurement (in mm) and look for a long reach caliper with a specification in that range. There are long reach center-pull and side-pull calipers available that should work. I have yet to find a 27” frame that couldn’t be converted to 700c. I recommend looking at Tektro for long reach center-pull or side-pull calipers.
That bike was sold, but I do know that he still rides it. The original calipers just happened to have enough reach for 700c wheels. It was a beautiful riding bike. The geometry worked well with the flat bars. The Gravelkings and steel frame rode fantastic. Good luck!
You can definitely see in the video that the pads are nearly at the max of the range. All frames are a little different, even the same manufacturer and model. You may just need that extra few mm that another set of calipers will allow.
What size tires did you fit?
jeepnie87 These are 32c Panaracer Gravelking SK. Fantastic tire.
Nice build! Do you think this bike will fit 35mm tires?
Benjamin Hinderink Thank you! I think a 35 would’ve fit in front for sure. In the back, the 32 was pretty close at the chain stays. A 35 would probably fit, but there would not be much clearance at all.