Dave Yates Diabolo (1993?) Project

[Snippettysnip]

Here is my owned since new Dave Yates Diabolo, currently in “barn find” condition. Back in 199x, I was too poor to afford fancy components and in effect it started life a a bit of a parts bin build on a nice frame, so I thought after all these years I’d like to rebuild this in a way that does the frame justice and makes for a nice light trail riding bike for me or maybe may daughter. This bike really took me places, I loved riding it mainly in the South Downs, but all over the place really. For a while it was used as a commuter round London, loosing various bits and pieces, ending up after a few (ahem) years in storage in the present state.

I’m going to strip down to the frame and (project two) forks and pretty much bin the old tatty parts.

I’m in need of some ideas/tips on restoring the paint. I know back in the day you could send the frames back to Dave Yates for a refresh! I’m OK with a re spray, but I’d be sad to loose the decals, so I was also wondering about other options for restoring the existing paint, or re-coating it?

Ideas please!

Looking forward to posting future progress reports here!

 

[KermitGKona88]

Welcome to our happy band,

Diabolo frames are fantastic, and although that has some very dubious parts on it there are also some that are worth saving, the whole cockpit, bars, stem, brake levers, and Deore DX thumbies, also the brakes Dia-compe 986 are nice if a bit rusty...

I would strip everything off and give the frame and forks a good was in warm soapy water, then stand back and give it three coats of looking at...

There is a list of recommended paint shops on the site somewhere, but as often said on here paint is only original once...

Looking forward to seeing progress on this.

Cheers

Mark.

 

[KermitGKona88]

Here is a link to the paint shop thread...

https://www.retrobike.co.uk/threads/official-recommended-or-not-paint-shop-thread.232111/

 

[Snippettysnip]

Welcome to our happy band,

Diabolo frames are fantastic, and although that has some very dubious parts on it there are also some that are worth saving, the whole cockpit, bars, stem, brake levers, and Deore DX thumbies, also the brakes Dia-compe 986 are nice if a bit rusty...

I would strip everything off and give the frame and forks a good was in warm soapy water, then stand back and give it three coats of looking at...

There is a list of recommended paint shops on the site somewhere, but as often said on here paint is only original once...

Looking forward to seeing progress on this.

Cheers

Mark.

Hi!

Thanks for the welcome and the helpful comment. I’ll get it stripped and see how bad the paint actually is under the crud.

Those Deore DX levers are great, I think they were retro even when this bike was new. The brakes were pretty nice in their day, but they’re in a bit of a state now.

Cheers,

Guy

 

[Gtpulse]

Lovely bike.

As has already been said a really good wash and you’ll be surprised how good it comes up. The forks may be beyond polishing but aren’t specific to this frame, could easily got hold of some better replacements or have those painted. For the frame it’s self I’d strip the parts so you can get in all areas to clean. Not entirely necessary but I find it much easier. At the same time it gives you a chance to assess/recondition/replace the bits you want to ready for rebuild. After a wash/degrease I usually go over with some sort of cutting compound like t-cut though at the moment I’m on the Farecla G3 followed by G10 then a wax. Depends how bad it is.

Even the scabby bit on the top tube will be much reduced once you are done. You could try a localised repair on that - remove the rust (I use a dremel with sanding bit) treat with rust converter then paint with nearest nail varnish colour you can find!

The good news is that purple is a colour I know there are loads of nail varnish options for as it’s a popular colour with people who paint their nails.I’ve got a Yates road bike in the same colour and raided my wife’s collection to get it looking nice!

Some of that sounds like a lot of effort compared to leaving it with someone else to do at a paint shop etc but as has already been said it’s only original once.

 

[mk one]

Paint doesn't look that bad from here, clean and polish, maybe t-cut and it could end up looking great. Hopefully nothing is seized after these years.

Looking forward to seeing it back to its glory

 

[MR OX]

Echoing the above, it's amazing what a good wash & a little touching in can do. Looking forward to seeing your progress

 

[kingoffootball]

The SS5's original paint is not very durable, but on the plus side that makes them easy to strip:

https://www.retrobike.co.uk/threads/aende.263438/post-2919246

 

[Snippettysnip]

Lovely bike.

As has already been said a really good wash and you’ll be surprised how good it comes up. The forks may be beyond polishing but aren’t specific to this frame, could easily got hold of some better replacements or have those painted. For the frame it’s self I’d strip the parts so you can get in all areas to clean. Not entirely necessary but I find it much easier. At the same time it gives you a chance to assess/recondition/replace the bits you want to ready for rebuild. After a wash/degrease I usually go over with some sort of cutting compound like t-cut though at the moment I’m on the Farecla G3 followed by G10 then a wax. Depends how bad it is.

Even the scabby bit on the top tube will be much reduced once you are done. You could try a localised repair on that - remove the rust (I use a dremel with sanding bit) treat with rust converter then paint with nearest nail varnish colour you can find!

The good news is that purple is a colour I know there are loads of nail varnish options for as it’s a popular colour with people who paint their nails.I’ve got a Yates road bike in the same colour and raided my wife’s collection to get it looking nice!

Some of that sounds like a lot of effort compared to leaving it with someone else to do at a paint shop etc but as has already been said it’s only original once.

Thanks for the tips. I’ll strip the frame down and give it a polish then, that seems to be the consensus here anyway!

Out of interest, you mention alternative forks, I think there was a DAve Yates fork, not sure why I got the P2s (probably the DY ones were too pricey). What alternatives are out there? Or is it worth trying to track down the DY forks?

 

[slackboy]

I think P2's were a standard option on the diablo, with Pace RC30 or RC35 (suspension) being options. but a straight blade fork like the P2 is a must.
RC30's are fairly available, but prices are getting high - around £150-200 now.

edit: there's a lot of diablo's rocking P2 forks e.g. this one:

https://www.retrobike.co.uk/threads/92-dave-yates-diablo-p2s-sold.420755/