1993 Condor Professional 653

[Kempes]

View attachment 954682

Finally the frame arrived today. Overall, I'm happy with how it's come out. The paint job is very good, and the colour is exactly as I had hoped – it's a dark metallic blue that looks very dark at times, but when light hits it, the blue shows a lot more, as does the metallic shine.

View attachment 954683

Some of the stamped areas which have been filled in white are a bit rough around the edges, which is a bit of a shame. I suppose white against a dark background is pretty unforgiving, plus those areas will be rougher inside than they were originally due to the rust that had built up in parts, but still ideally they would be a bit cleaner.

View attachment 954684

Hopefully I'll start the build tomorrow. I'm only slightly petrified of dropping a tool on the frame, the sort of thing I am inclined to do...

Looks lovely

 

[SteelNipple]

View attachment 954682

Finally the frame arrived today. Overall, I'm happy with how it's come out. The paint job is very good, and the colour is exactly as I had hoped – it's a dark metallic blue that looks very dark at times, but when light hits it, the blue shows a lot more, as does the metallic shine.

View attachment 954683

Some of the stamped areas which have been filled in white are a bit rough around the edges, which is a bit of a shame. I suppose white against a dark background is pretty unforgiving, plus those areas will be rougher inside than they were originally due to the rust that had built up in parts, but still ideally they would be a bit cleaner.

View attachment 954684

Hopefully I'll start the build tomorrow. I'm only slightly petrified of dropping a tool on the frame, the sort of thing I am inclined to do...

Beautiful frame and love the color. I just dropped a 10mm socket on forks, chipped the paint and lost the damn socket

 

[sjcprojects]

Beautiful frame and love the color. I just dropped a 10mm socket on forks, chipped the paint and lost the damn socket

Thanks, and I feel your pain

 

[Rapparee87]

Beautiful frame and love the color. I just dropped a 10mm socket on forks, chipped the paint and lost the damn socket

Little bit of patina. No harm at all.

 

[sjcprojects]

The headset is installed, plus a few other parts. I wasn't going to use the Veloce headset that came with the bike due to it not being in the best cosmetic condition, but due to the low stack height I was quite limited with options. The bearings and races are good, so after much deliberation I went for it. The top nut is not the original Campagnolo one due to the bad spanner marks that were on it, so I'll see if I can get a replacement at some point. There's a bit of patina to the headset but I think it's okay.



The wheels look pretty nice with the Rubino Pro 25s on, I think, and the cassette cleaned up very nicely.



Bottom bracket and chainset next. The stem and handlebars will have to wait a little bit as I'm still deciding about those.

 

[Kempes]

View attachment 955391

The headset is installed, plus a few other parts. I wasn't going to use the Veloce headset that came with the bike due to it not being in the best cosmetic condition, but due to the low stack height I was quite limited with options. The bearings and races are good, so after much deliberation I went for it. The top nut is not the original Campagnolo one due to the bad spanner marks that were on it, so I'll see if I can get a replacement at some point. There's a bit of patina to the headset but I think it's okay.

View attachment 955392

The wheels look pretty nice with the Rubino Pro 25s on, I think, and the cassette cleaned up very nicely.

View attachment 955393

Bottom bracket and chainset next. The stem and handlebars with have to wait a little bit as I'm still deciding about those.

My 90’s Condor came with an ITM eclypse stem and super italia (or europa bars can’t remember now). Would recommend. Also has the same veloce headset which I’ve always been happy with.

Dave Yates built Condors have to be right up there for the best British bicycles of that era?

 

[sjcprojects]

My 90’s Condor came with an ITM eclypse stem and super italia (or europa bars can’t remember now). Would recommend. Also has the same veloce headset which I’ve always been happy with.

Dave Yates built Condors have to be right up there for the best British bicycles of that era?

Thanks. I’m hoping to use the pantographed ITM stem that the bike came with. Unfortunately I was unable to save the pantographed areas, so it will be entirely resprayed in black, leaving a very (very) subtle pantograph still visible. I can’t decide if this will look weird or not so I’m going to try it and see.

I have some nice 3ttt ErgoPower Due bars, replacing the original bars as I prefer the classic bend they have over the anatomical style that was all the rage in the early 90s.

I’m certainly interested how the ride will compare to the other British bike from the same era (94 to be exact) that I have.