sjcprojects
Orange 🍊 Fan
Having admitted to myself that my Ribble winter bike was really too small, but wanting to keep the modern 105 groupset and other parts, I figured I'd attempt my first restomod. Eventually I found a Holdsworth locally for the frame donor, which seemed to fit the bill. It turned out to be the epitome of a parts bin build, with mismatched wheels, brakes, and cranks - plus a weird arrangement with MTB shifters on the middle of the bars. Good thing it was going to be stripped down, I suppose. The frame also had the wrong decals, and a home printed 531 decal which was about 4 times bigger than it should be.
Thankfully, it was actually a Holdsworth, though, and a bit of Googling told me it's a Special (cable guides on the top of the bottom bracket were the giveaway).
This is how it looked:
I'm going to get the frame powder coated, as my aim is to have a winter bike that actually lasts, which my previous ones have not so well for various reasons – the last steel one I used which had a regular spray paint job got pretty badly rusty despite having full mudguards and me wiping it down after every ride. I think I've finally learnt to not get ahead of myself with this sort of thing, so I figured I'll build it up first, see how it rides, and then get the powder coating done once I'm definitely happy with it – hence starting a winter bike build in the middle of summer.
After a strip-down, this is how it looks with the parts swapped over, plus the headset and quill adapter that came with the bike (at some point I will probably use a quill stem instead when I source a black one plus new bars) – obviously it's not properly cabled up yet – I need to get some new outer cables first. I also need to add the mudguards to check the clearances with the brakes.
One question is, which colour is this going to end up being? I did a bit of testing with a mock-up in Photoshop, and I think I've settled on a dark blue metallic, which ideally would look like this once decals are added (and a black headset is used):
The powdercoaters said they can do a frame and fork in any RAL colour for £100, so I'm hoping to get somewhere close to this colour, but obviously it's hard to tell without seeing the metallic colours in person. I guess I'll go and see what comes closest when I drop it off. Also I've not used them before, so fingers crossed they do a good job.
Anyway, first I need to get this properly built to see how it rides...
Thankfully, it was actually a Holdsworth, though, and a bit of Googling told me it's a Special (cable guides on the top of the bottom bracket were the giveaway).
This is how it looked:
I'm going to get the frame powder coated, as my aim is to have a winter bike that actually lasts, which my previous ones have not so well for various reasons – the last steel one I used which had a regular spray paint job got pretty badly rusty despite having full mudguards and me wiping it down after every ride. I think I've finally learnt to not get ahead of myself with this sort of thing, so I figured I'll build it up first, see how it rides, and then get the powder coating done once I'm definitely happy with it – hence starting a winter bike build in the middle of summer.
After a strip-down, this is how it looks with the parts swapped over, plus the headset and quill adapter that came with the bike (at some point I will probably use a quill stem instead when I source a black one plus new bars) – obviously it's not properly cabled up yet – I need to get some new outer cables first. I also need to add the mudguards to check the clearances with the brakes.
One question is, which colour is this going to end up being? I did a bit of testing with a mock-up in Photoshop, and I think I've settled on a dark blue metallic, which ideally would look like this once decals are added (and a black headset is used):
The powdercoaters said they can do a frame and fork in any RAL colour for £100, so I'm hoping to get somewhere close to this colour, but obviously it's hard to tell without seeing the metallic colours in person. I guess I'll go and see what comes closest when I drop it off. Also I've not used them before, so fingers crossed they do a good job.
Anyway, first I need to get this properly built to see how it rides...
