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Ooo blimey - looks like my old bike for sure. Marks on the cranks look the same..... Paid £30 for it, sold it for circa £150 (after a full strip, clean and rebuild). Think I sold it late 2020 (so much for the "it's a keeper" statement :LOL: ). Here's one of the last pics I took for the ebay...

Shakedown ride a few weeks ago. What a bike! Rolls so smoothly......best "first ride" of a project I've had. No tweaks needed. Next up - replacement saddle and trying to get a matching Maillard hub for the rear to match the original front.

Regarding bartape/saddle/cables I decided on a cool grey scheme for this - seeing as it's a white bike. Grey cables and grey bar tape - with the plan of finding a grey saddle too for full-on matchy matchy. Cotton velox bar tape in grey - whilst it offers little comfort compared to modern...

Lovely that! I'm tempted to fit some mudguards to mine at some point..... Cleaned up and repaired the Weinmann gum hoods as best I can. I always like to retain these if I can - sometimes they're past their best though. I've got one good and one reasonable... Simplex retrofriction levers...

After giving the frame a good paint cut and polish and a coat of wax I moved onto components. Original bars were nice - but bent so I had a rummage in the shed and found some not-period-correct GB bars. Bit of light corrosion but they're cleaned up reasonably well. After junking the...

Good idea...... Can't remember how you summon @Peachy! .......say his name 3 times whilst looking a mirror or summat like that (or I could just ask him on facebook). :LOL:

I think that's the receipt from the '92 built frame (he mentions having a second frame built in 92 for his missus in the writeup). The '81 bike in that article has the same frame colour and font as my bike but much more plain lugs.....but has the same canti brakes. No mention of its frame...

I've certainly seen evidence of Nervex pro lugs on 80s machines......on the ClassicLightweights page for Nervex pro lugs they show a 1986 Mercian as an example. Would love to decode the frame number but there seems to be very little on EG Bates bikes online......

Yeah - compared side by side with my '82 Raleigh Gran Sport and bb looked to be a similar height. After a couple of rides I could resist the urge no longer and stripped the bike down to give it a good once over. Frame number under bottom bracket. Hard to make out but I think its 2961 - not...

Yeah, brakes and shifters are really good......now they're clean and fixed. There's a blind fixing on the back of the fork and it has got mudguard eyes too so I'd assumed it was a tourer. Canti brakes of that style were a CX thing weren't they? Yep - the end of the spring in the shifter for...

Ha! Yep - pretty much all reference images of Bates from that era I could find online are in white. "You can have it in any colour as long as it's white......."

Loving that - looks very fresh.......top job :)

Picked up a couple of months ago......a sorry looking E.G Bates. Recognising the Bates name as being something of potential quality I dropped the seller a message and within the day I was the new custodian. Eddie Bates was the Bates brother who was based in Plaistow (Horace Bates being the...

PM incoming re: SR Laprade seatpost

Thanks Tony - looks perfect! Drop me a PM with your details for payment and I'll get it paid for! Cheers :)

Ha! I like bringing them back from the dead. Very rewarding. Looking forward to riding this I must say - reckon it'll fly. Looking at bare frame weights its the same frame size as my Gran Sport yet 250g lighter. Gave the frame an initial t-cut and polish - the photos are quite flattering -...

Cracked dropout - dammit. I guess related to the snapped rear axle....... Stripped the bike down to bare frame and fork. Bottom bracket was a weird cartridge affair with a lock ring at either end. All seized and knackered....most of it crumbled and cracked away with corrosion so it didn't...

Shagged out commuter is probably the best way to describe it. Probable scenario - run into the ground with no maintenance......rear axle has snapped, rear wheel's gone all wobbly, buy another cheap bike, stick old Orbit in the shed and forget about it.......

Spotted on fb marketplace earlier in the year......a very sorry looking Orbit. Now - I was aware of the brand but not in any great detail - but was pretty sure they made good, light touring bikes, so I made inquiries. Haggled and agreed on the price before looking at it (not sure why I did it...

Yeah black decals would work well. Not sure what I'm doing with mine yet. It'll mainly be ridden backwards and forwards to work as that's all I seem to have time for at the moment....so I guess it won't be a "tourer" as such (no pannier rack or bags). Fast commuter/racer at the weekends? :LOL: