1990 Raleigh Dyna Tech Cronos Titanium (54)
- Thread starter Benandemu
- Start date
Thanks for the appreciation.
Again, I had a bit of spare time today where I could get a bit more done on the build-up. I was really keen to get the bars and stem on along with the seat post and saddle. A bit of cleaning and some polishing beforehand though - mostly with the bars. As they still had remnants of part of their old 3TTT Forma logo. I'd rather they were badgeless too, as it allows the stem and its Dura Ace logo to take centre stage.
I also managed to retain the rear derailleur outer cable and its fittings. This was completely covered in Black paint, but some gentle rubbing with emery cloth did the trick.
The rear derailleur was cleaned up and fitted, as were the brake levers, then I installed all the cables and cut them to size. Last job was to wrap the bars, and I was careful to use my old favourite from the early 90's; it's like a plastic leathery high density foam. Ambrosio used to make it, and it was simply referred to as bike ribbon. It took a while to find any, and in the end it had to come from a shop in Spain!
Decals should be here early next week, and have been carefully copied from what was left. Using the original brochure is impossible as the one picture shows very little detail.
The original rear derailleur cable was resurrected with various abrasive substances
...
The genuine late 80's Regal Girardi saddle I've had waiting on the shelf for years...
A close up of that bar tape/ribbon...
Again, I had a bit of spare time today where I could get a bit more done on the build-up. I was really keen to get the bars and stem on along with the seat post and saddle. A bit of cleaning and some polishing beforehand though - mostly with the bars. As they still had remnants of part of their old 3TTT Forma logo. I'd rather they were badgeless too, as it allows the stem and its Dura Ace logo to take centre stage.
I also managed to retain the rear derailleur outer cable and its fittings. This was completely covered in Black paint, but some gentle rubbing with emery cloth did the trick.
The rear derailleur was cleaned up and fitted, as were the brake levers, then I installed all the cables and cut them to size. Last job was to wrap the bars, and I was careful to use my old favourite from the early 90's; it's like a plastic leathery high density foam. Ambrosio used to make it, and it was simply referred to as bike ribbon. It took a while to find any, and in the end it had to come from a shop in Spain!
Decals should be here early next week, and have been carefully copied from what was left. Using the original brochure is impossible as the one picture shows very little detail.
The original rear derailleur cable was resurrected with various abrasive substances
...
The genuine late 80's Regal Girardi saddle I've had waiting on the shelf for years...
A close up of that bar tape/ribbon...
Last edited:
HansOberlander
Dirt Disciple
Re:
Damn, that's nice!
Everything looks awesome and you even took my favourite saddle, the Regal Girardi. Been looking for one for months now.
Just great!
Damn, that's nice!
Everything looks awesome and you even took my favourite saddle, the Regal Girardi. Been looking for one for months now.
Just great!
Ive still retained the original wheels, but I also had some 28h hubs with some Campagnolo Omega Strada rims (which will be used elsewhere). I always wanted Wolber on this build, but was divided between buying old rims which are designed for 19mm tyres (plus let's not forget that old rims are old rims, and will always have an amount of wear unless they're NOS), or using very similar modern rims with a 23mm width. As I'm keeping the original wheels still, I became less attached to the idea of being totally retro with these new wheels, so I bought some H Plus Sons Archetype hard anodised rims. I can comfortably use modern 23mm tyres with these rims too. They look so much like an older rim, that I was quite happy to include them on this build, and I've ordered a set of Wolber decals for them, which will have most people fooled.
The hubs are the pretty rare Uniglide/Hyperglide crossover, which allows either type of cassette to be used. I've got a NOS Dura Ace 7400 cassette, but I really want a nice 8 speed Titanium one. Mechanically, the hubs are sound, but visually they were very tired, and I knew I had to rub down all the pitting and anodising to smooth bare alloy before hand polishing them. Here they are after hours of rubbing...
The hubs came without any skewers, and the original Dura Ace skewers on the other wheelset are pretty grubby despite my best efforts to clean them up; rust being the main issue!
Over the years I've learnt to keep a list on my phone of suggested gifts my family could buy me, rather than second guessing and getting it wrong so often. A set of NOS Dura Ace skewers from a seller in Germany was on that list when my parents asked if I'd any preference on my birthday gift. A weird present for most, but perfect for me...
PICS TO FOLLOW
All the frame and wheel decals are in the post, so that will likely be the next update.
The hubs are the pretty rare Uniglide/Hyperglide crossover, which allows either type of cassette to be used. I've got a NOS Dura Ace 7400 cassette, but I really want a nice 8 speed Titanium one. Mechanically, the hubs are sound, but visually they were very tired, and I knew I had to rub down all the pitting and anodising to smooth bare alloy before hand polishing them. Here they are after hours of rubbing...
The hubs came without any skewers, and the original Dura Ace skewers on the other wheelset are pretty grubby despite my best efforts to clean them up; rust being the main issue!
Over the years I've learnt to keep a list on my phone of suggested gifts my family could buy me, rather than second guessing and getting it wrong so often. A set of NOS Dura Ace skewers from a seller in Germany was on that list when my parents asked if I'd any preference on my birthday gift. A weird present for most, but perfect for me...
PICS TO FOLLOW
All the frame and wheel decals are in the post, so that will likely be the next update.
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Decals arrived, and it didn't take me long before I was applying them...
Like I said before, these are a close copy of the originals, but with a slight twist. Where the steel work would have a Raleigh worded decal, I thought it better to recognise the quality of tubing they'd chosen. Also, Reynolds were doing that strange thing with Raleigh, and changing their tube names from 753 to 2080 etc. and nobody really knew what 2080 was, so I retained the 753.
The main tubes are identical to the originals, but I've left out the silly oblong with a marble type finish to it.
The cranks were badly scuffed up when I inspected them, and they'd way more chunks out of them than I'd have liked, but I stuck with them to retain as much originality of the original bike. They've gone through many hours of 320 grade wet and dry paper, working through to final polishing you see here. I guess that now they're polished, they've been given a new lease of life, and it's quite easy to keep on top of them every now and then. If I'd left them as they were, they were almost junk! I switched the original rusted chrome steel bolts for some nice alloy ones. Also, both of the rings were covered in black paint, which took an age to get off without damaging anything.
I even had to get a little Black paint touch-up pen to colour in the logo properly...
PIC TO FOLLOW
Other than that, there's been a few Titanium bolts used, namely to replace the seat pin bolt, and the bottle cage bolts.
Like I said before, these are a close copy of the originals, but with a slight twist. Where the steel work would have a Raleigh worded decal, I thought it better to recognise the quality of tubing they'd chosen. Also, Reynolds were doing that strange thing with Raleigh, and changing their tube names from 753 to 2080 etc. and nobody really knew what 2080 was, so I retained the 753.
The main tubes are identical to the originals, but I've left out the silly oblong with a marble type finish to it.
The cranks were badly scuffed up when I inspected them, and they'd way more chunks out of them than I'd have liked, but I stuck with them to retain as much originality of the original bike. They've gone through many hours of 320 grade wet and dry paper, working through to final polishing you see here. I guess that now they're polished, they've been given a new lease of life, and it's quite easy to keep on top of them every now and then. If I'd left them as they were, they were almost junk! I switched the original rusted chrome steel bolts for some nice alloy ones. Also, both of the rings were covered in black paint, which took an age to get off without damaging anything.
I even had to get a little Black paint touch-up pen to colour in the logo properly...
PIC TO FOLLOW
Other than that, there's been a few Titanium bolts used, namely to replace the seat pin bolt, and the bottle cage bolts.
Last edited:
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