Help with my 1985 Raleigh Team USA road bike.

[Macintosh.]

Quite sure this is a 1985 Team USA road bicycle. I purchased it last year from a family friend for only $40 which is quite a steal for a Raleigh.

The only thing I noticed while riding was when I tried to ride with no hands, the bike would automatically lean to the right. I'm a guy who occasionally likes to ride hands free so I can stretch out every once in a while while riding. I've never had this happen on any other road bike I've owned.

I was just wondering if anyone could shed some light on this topic; I don't think the fork is bent, but that could be the case. Or if track bikes were weighted on one side for racing, I haven't a clue. I'll attach a picture of what my bike looks like, it's the same thing, but mine has a few more chips since it was a daily rider back in the day.

Anything helps, thanks.

[DaveM]

Either bent fork, bent frame, or misaligned wheel. It doesn't take much of a bend or off center wheel to make the bike pull. If it's the frame/fork it should be fixable, but it takes someone who knows what they're doing to get it realigned well.

FYI, that's not a "track" bike, but a road bike and no normal bikes are designed to pull like that. Nice classic racer!

[Macintosh.]

(06-03-2011, 12:42 PM)DaveM Wrote:  Either bent fork, bent frame, or misaligned wheel. It doesn't take much of a bend or off center wheel to make the bike pull. If it's the frame/fork it should be fixable, but it takes someone who knows what they're doing to get it realigned well.

FYI, that's not a "track" bike, but a road bike and no normal bikes are designed to pull like that. Nice classic racer!

I know it's not a track bike, but clearly you knew what I meant. Thank you and I'll definitely have someone take a look at it.

[Macintosh.]

I finally got everything sorted out. My friend and I decided to just strip the entire bike down to the frame, clean up all the components, oil up and grease which parts needed to be greased, and put it back together. All in all it took about four hours, and when we were finished the bike rode straight when I rode it with no hands instead of leaning to the right like it did before. I'm pretty sure something was just tightened wrong in the stem, all in all I'm pretty happy that my bike is 100% rideable now instead of sitting in my garage gathering dust.