AlexTemper
Dirt Disciple
A project that has been very long overdue but I have finally started on getting my Roberts back up and running. First off a little bit of background history of this frame...
I purchased the frame, fork and stem in 1993 and was one of 10 limited production SE frames available to the public which made use of lighter tubing compared to the standard DB frame. For anyone interested there were 16 SE frames in total produced with the other 6 possibly being pre-production/demo or personal frames for staff.
Fast forward to around 8 years ago and the frame developed a crack in the underside of the top tube, near were it meets the seat tube so was stripped with the plan to send it off to Roberts for repair and respray. Unfortunately that didn't materialise and the frame ended up collecting dust while I rode my FS Bikes and other priorities came and went. Eventually I got around to looming to get the frame repaired but by this time, Chas had decided to shut shop and take his sabbatical in France leaving me to ponder on alternatives.
Then, late last year, I discovered that Chas's brother, Geoff, was starting to advertise his frame building and repair services down in Sussex so a phone call was made and we had an interesting chat about the bikes, company, himself and finally my frame. The decision was made to replace the top tube with the same Columbus tubing and paint the frame up as per the classic DB white/black colour scheme and original graphics which have changed a little through the DB's life cycle. Geoff also mentioned that he hand built the SE frames so he would have put my frame together back in 1993 which is pretty cool.
Which leads us to the present day. The frame is repaired and has been sprayed. I'm going to collect it in a few weeks time after Easter but Geoff kindly send a couple of photo's of it done from his Sussex workshop. Then will be the fun part of building it up again and getting to ride it after 8 years. For the build I will be going against a conventional true retro build with components of the same era and will be using up-to-date components where I can but without compromising the classic look of the bike.
I purchased the frame, fork and stem in 1993 and was one of 10 limited production SE frames available to the public which made use of lighter tubing compared to the standard DB frame. For anyone interested there were 16 SE frames in total produced with the other 6 possibly being pre-production/demo or personal frames for staff.
Fast forward to around 8 years ago and the frame developed a crack in the underside of the top tube, near were it meets the seat tube so was stripped with the plan to send it off to Roberts for repair and respray. Unfortunately that didn't materialise and the frame ended up collecting dust while I rode my FS Bikes and other priorities came and went. Eventually I got around to looming to get the frame repaired but by this time, Chas had decided to shut shop and take his sabbatical in France leaving me to ponder on alternatives.
Then, late last year, I discovered that Chas's brother, Geoff, was starting to advertise his frame building and repair services down in Sussex so a phone call was made and we had an interesting chat about the bikes, company, himself and finally my frame. The decision was made to replace the top tube with the same Columbus tubing and paint the frame up as per the classic DB white/black colour scheme and original graphics which have changed a little through the DB's life cycle. Geoff also mentioned that he hand built the SE frames so he would have put my frame together back in 1993 which is pretty cool.
Which leads us to the present day. The frame is repaired and has been sprayed. I'm going to collect it in a few weeks time after Easter but Geoff kindly send a couple of photo's of it done from his Sussex workshop. Then will be the fun part of building it up again and getting to ride it after 8 years. For the build I will be going against a conventional true retro build with components of the same era and will be using up-to-date components where I can but without compromising the classic look of the bike.
