Pretty sure Dave Marsh is still going strong, he has a shop called Universal cycles in Maltby near Rotherham, He built me a bike in 2000 from a Cougar 653 frame he had kicking around the shop. It was painted a similar blue to yours and covered in Campag mirage and he used decals with "Renovated" on them.
I fall in love with that bike all over again every time i ride it, he did a great job.
I spoke to Dave Marsh about this frame just after I picked it up, a really nice guy, he was just finishing restoring a Raleigh Team TI bike. He was quite keen to get my frame back and restore it, but I wanted to keep it as original as possible.
I have started to build it up now, the daylight was fading so some artsy pictures . . .
It's coming together now. . .
I picked a set of Campagnolo wheels up off the eBay about six weeks ago, I had taken a chance on them, but on the face of it, it looked like I'd crashed and burned on these.
Although with fresh grease the bearings spun forever and they were perfectly round and straight, they hadn't fared well being stored for 20 + years. The spokes, nipples, hubs and braking surfaces had been ravaged under all the crud, so I put them aside as a bit of a bad job.
Most of the decals were missing so I ordered a set of reproduction decals from Grey Softley (Cyclomondo).
The decal set arrived this week, and very nice they are too. Thanks Greg.
The time had come to look at the rather sad wheels again and see what I could be done with them. Firstly, I cleaned all he spokes and nipples with wire wool. They turned out to be a complete matching set of ACI-Sacchetti (Milano) S Brand Stainless spokes.
After a thorough hand polish with Autoglym Metal polish they came up lovely.
Next was the gnarly barking surfaces, the Hardox coating had been warn through and after cleaning the exposed alloy with wire wool, there was still quite a lot of surface corrosion there. 400 grit wet and dry dealt with this nicely and to give them a final even 'machined' finish I spun them up against the 400 grit on a soft sanding block. Few tiny dimples, but on the whole not to shabby.
That left the Campagnolo Athena hubs. They were very dull and looked like they had bad chicken pox! I was sure they weren't anodised so carefully sanded them back allover with 1500 grit wet and dry until all the blemishes were flattened out.
I Had to resort to the Dremel here. Two felt polishing mops and heaps of Autoglym Metal polish later I am rather pleased with results. Apart from a couple of inaccessible spots under the spokes, they have come up with a nice even mirror polish. I guess quality always shines through eh :?:
A quick rub with wire wool and the matching skewers now look the business too.
So, not such a bad lot after all.
Tyre wise I wasn't sure which way to go. :? I found a thread on here about amber wall tyres, that helped me decide :idea:
Seeing as the wheel set components were all Italian, it seemed only right to go for some Italian open tubulars, VeloFlex Master 23's for that authentic retro amber wall look.
Finally just about finished it off now. . . Really pleased how it’s turned out and I’ve enjoyed building it over the winter.
(It’s on its ‘casual’ wheel set at the mo, I haven’t got it up and running on its Campagnolo Omega/Athena ‘Sunday best’ wheel set. The Veloflex’s had to be returned. )
Saddle: ISCA 406 Black Suede
Seatpost: Kalloy 27.0 mm Alloy
Seatpost Binder: Chrome Generic
Bottle Cage: Elite Cussi
Extras: Christophe Toe Clips and Straps
Weight: Nice n' Light (no scales)
Will post some more pics when I get the Campy wheels set up, some random pictures to be going along with. . .
Nice rear cluster.
Cheezy decal hiding a scruffy bit of paintwork.
Bars n’ Levers.
Brakes.
Rear Mech.
The Suntour Cyclone MkII didn’t have a cable adjuster when I got the bike, couldn’t find any evidence on google to suggest they ever had one, maybe it pre-dates index shifting ?
I made one up from a Campagnolo adjuster and an outer brake cable ferrule. Works a treat, no way I was going to be able to dial in the index shifters without it.
Front Mech.
Crank Set.
Nice Chromed Reynolds 531 Fork Blades.
And a little bit of black and white artsy nonsense . . . :roll:
Thanks for all the positive comments I have received as I have gone along. Hope you like how it’s turned out too.
