1987 Saracen Kili Flyer

[sparkybhp]

I picked this up yesterday after a fellow RB’er linked the Facebook ad in the eBay/marketplace watch forum:

It’s mostly original from what I can tell, although I would say the Shimano 600 headset was an addition and I’ve since discovered it also has a 600 freewheel.

I stripped it down this weekend and there is some bad news however. The front hub is cracked on one of the spoke holes.

Shame really as they were cleaning up really nicely.
Bit of a dilemma now as at 19” the frame is going to be a bit small so I don’t think it’s really worth tracking down another hub. Obviously the remaining parts are still worth what I’ve spent on the bike so not too sad.
Can’t decide whether to part this out now or build a big bmx style cruiser using parts I have, I’ll think on it a bit and see where this ends up.

Any thoughts are welcome of course. I know the bmx bars are too narrow but you get the idea..

 

[sparkybhp]

Had a bit more time this afternoon so I thought I’d give the frame and fork a clean up and polish. It’s come up pretty well.

I think the plan is to get this built up with whatever parts and see how it rides. If I can make it fit me and it rides good I might switch some parts around with my current beater and use this instead.

Panniers, front rack etc.. Could be a decent upgrade from the mystery frame above which does the job but isn’t anything special.
Let’s see how it goes.

 

[sparkybhp]

Had a bit of a play with this to figure out which direction to go with it. I landed on this, not factory correct but makes a nice riding bike all the same:

I went 1x7 with this neat short cage XT rear mech/Deore thumbie. Cranks are 90’s road bike Campagnolo with a 39t chainring.
XT v-brakes with dia-compe levers and stx hub wheels with Billy Bonkers tyres. The saddle I had in my parts stash and I swear I’ve seen old Saracen bikes fitted with this sort of thing? Looks right to me anyway!
Nice and simple and it’s really light for what it is too.