veganhaggis
Dirt Disciple
- Feedback
- View
Picked up this lovely metallic blue 1990 US Express "ATB" from marketplace at the end of May. It had clearly had a fairly gentle life up til that point, very little in the way of rust or corrosion, everything original and everything working (with the exception of the rear dynamo light). Steel wheels & rear rack, tipping the scales at a svelte 18.25kg.
I rather liked the cutesy town bike styling on it, but after a few rides I decided to remove a few of the accessories and see what was going on underneath. Purely for practical reasons the lovely wide steel wheels had to go (I like being able to slow down when/if required) so I picked up a £40 set of alloy wheels locally (with a free mixed Suntour groupset thrown in!) I would love to say the wheels transformed it but really they just made it slightly less heavy.
The next step was to put on some wider bars to increase the reach a little from the standard issue early 90s 560mm flat bars (which weighed an absolute ton I might add, weight saving was definitely not a priority when they specced this one). I still wanted to maintain the look & feel of the bike, so I opted for some SimWorks Get Around bars in chromed cromoly. They cost me a fair bit more than the bike itself but I think they suit it nicely.
I also swapped in some spare LX cantilever brakes & levers that I had lying around (after upgrading to V's on my Rockhopper) along with fresh pads & tyres. I'd not spent any real time messing with canti brakes before owning this bike and V brakes definitely wouldn't fit the look, so it was a good opportunity to learn. I think I'm officially a convert.
I quite like the shiny riveted steel chainset but the shifting is dreadful, so that's next to go.
I've got a big pile of parts waiting to go onto it, a mix of mid/late 80s and early 90s. Watch this space
I rather liked the cutesy town bike styling on it, but after a few rides I decided to remove a few of the accessories and see what was going on underneath. Purely for practical reasons the lovely wide steel wheels had to go (I like being able to slow down when/if required) so I picked up a £40 set of alloy wheels locally (with a free mixed Suntour groupset thrown in!) I would love to say the wheels transformed it but really they just made it slightly less heavy.The next step was to put on some wider bars to increase the reach a little from the standard issue early 90s 560mm flat bars (which weighed an absolute ton I might add, weight saving was definitely not a priority when they specced this one). I still wanted to maintain the look & feel of the bike, so I opted for some SimWorks Get Around bars in chromed cromoly. They cost me a fair bit more than the bike itself but I think they suit it nicely.
I also swapped in some spare LX cantilever brakes & levers that I had lying around (after upgrading to V's on my Rockhopper) along with fresh pads & tyres. I'd not spent any real time messing with canti brakes before owning this bike and V brakes definitely wouldn't fit the look, so it was a good opportunity to learn. I think I'm officially a convert.
I quite like the shiny riveted steel chainset but the shifting is dreadful, so that's next to go.
I've got a big pile of parts waiting to go onto it, a mix of mid/late 80s and early 90s. Watch this space
Last edited:
