gradeAfailure
Senior Retro Guru
Was looking recently for a retro bike to use as a commuter to save putting road miles on the modern FS, and a good few weeks of trawling turned up an old looking Saracen on Gumtree locally, complete with mudguards and rack.
Bit of Googling of the seller revealed an older advert listing it as a Blizzard, and further searching led me back here to drystonepaul's thread about his. Seems to be quite an uncommon bike (if not exactly rare) in that they were only made for the 1988MY. Anyway, it looked like it might be quite a good option, so after a few missed calls I ended up at the seller's house.
As it turned out, the bike was completely 100% original, right down to the pedals, grips, saddle, brake blocks - everything! I couldn't hand over the cash fast enough, and away we went.
The original Specialized Ground Control tyres were in fantastic condition bar a couple of cracks at the base of the knobs on one tyre, so rather than trash them on the road or risk 30yr-old rubber offroad, they have found a new home (and essentially covered the cost of the bike
). Apart from that, it's had a cartridge BB fitted to provide a maintenance-free option over winter (the original open-race Shimano is safely in the toolbox), a new SRAM chain with a quick link, new Jagwire inner/outer cables, new brake blocks, and a pair of the ever-ubiquitous Schwalbe City Jet skinwalls. All remaining open-bearing parts (pedals/hubs/headset) have been regreased, and bolts replaced with stainless socket cap versions.
Original spec - image swiped from drystonepaul's thread!
Bit of Googling of the seller revealed an older advert listing it as a Blizzard, and further searching led me back here to drystonepaul's thread about his. Seems to be quite an uncommon bike (if not exactly rare) in that they were only made for the 1988MY. Anyway, it looked like it might be quite a good option, so after a few missed calls I ended up at the seller's house.
As it turned out, the bike was completely 100% original, right down to the pedals, grips, saddle, brake blocks - everything! I couldn't hand over the cash fast enough, and away we went.
The original Specialized Ground Control tyres were in fantastic condition bar a couple of cracks at the base of the knobs on one tyre, so rather than trash them on the road or risk 30yr-old rubber offroad, they have found a new home (and essentially covered the cost of the bike
). Apart from that, it's had a cartridge BB fitted to provide a maintenance-free option over winter (the original open-race Shimano is safely in the toolbox), a new SRAM chain with a quick link, new Jagwire inner/outer cables, new brake blocks, and a pair of the ever-ubiquitous Schwalbe City Jet skinwalls. All remaining open-bearing parts (pedals/hubs/headset) have been regreased, and bolts replaced with stainless socket cap versions.
Original spec - image swiped from drystonepaul's thread!
