zerogravitas
Retro Guru
Hi folks. I'm usually on the road side of the forum but this daft project has had me lurking over here a whole lot more.
I bought this bike secondhand as a 17 year old in the early 2000s. I believe its from 1990, possibly 1991? The lad who owned it before me had made a few little upgrades to the original spec but hadn't ridden it much. To make up for that I rode it a lot! To school, to and from summer jobs and plenty of messing about in the woods. I took it to university and it was my daily hack for a few years before I'd ridden it into the ground and the world of road bikes started to call to me.
My dad hung it up in his shed, where it remained for the last 16 years. He was having a clear out this summer so I took it back and decided to do a bit of a refurb. Like all the best projects getting it back to decent order will take way more time and money than its worth!
Even though its a pretty low spec machine it has lots of great memories so still fun to give it a new lease of life.
First job was completely stripping it down as almost everything was filthy, worn or broken (or all three).
I'd completely worn out the crankset so my dad had put these old road cranks on to ride it to the pub! One of many many items that needed total replacement.
Eventually I got it stripped; the bottom bracket was a struggle but gave up in the end.
The frame is 4130 CroMo, it feels pretty overbuilt and hefty but that might be my lightweight road prejudice showing.
Lots of parts to replace; the wheelset, the crankset, the front derailleur, handlebar, seatpost and the chain, cassette and cables. Some of this I've dug into my stash for, along with some trades here and a few bargains from the local bike coop and a jumble.
More soon.
I bought this bike secondhand as a 17 year old in the early 2000s. I believe its from 1990, possibly 1991? The lad who owned it before me had made a few little upgrades to the original spec but hadn't ridden it much. To make up for that I rode it a lot! To school, to and from summer jobs and plenty of messing about in the woods. I took it to university and it was my daily hack for a few years before I'd ridden it into the ground and the world of road bikes started to call to me.
My dad hung it up in his shed, where it remained for the last 16 years. He was having a clear out this summer so I took it back and decided to do a bit of a refurb. Like all the best projects getting it back to decent order will take way more time and money than its worth!
Even though its a pretty low spec machine it has lots of great memories so still fun to give it a new lease of life.First job was completely stripping it down as almost everything was filthy, worn or broken (or all three).
I'd completely worn out the crankset so my dad had put these old road cranks on to ride it to the pub! One of many many items that needed total replacement.
Eventually I got it stripped; the bottom bracket was a struggle but gave up in the end.
The frame is 4130 CroMo, it feels pretty overbuilt and hefty but that might be my lightweight road prejudice showing.
Lots of parts to replace; the wheelset, the crankset, the front derailleur, handlebar, seatpost and the chain, cassette and cables. Some of this I've dug into my stash for, along with some trades here and a few bargains from the local bike coop and a jumble.
More soon.
