Change of plan, or rather there are now two plans.
The ultimate goal remains - to get it back as close as possible to original spec, that will be a long term, expensive and ultimately perhaps an impossible project, but that is what I am aiming for.
In the short term the plan is to get the bike set up more how I might have wanted it had I bought it myself BITD. I make no secret of the fact that I'm not a massive fan of the rasta trend, I know a lot of people love it and it is very evocative of that era. This bike will one day return to being a full on celebration of red, yellow, green and anodized blue madness, but until that day it's going to have to cool its jets and wind its neck in a bit.
I'm going complete the XT M737 group, by pure chance I already have a wheelset, it came fitted to another bike that has already undergone a full period resto. I didn't even know for sure they were 737 until i checked this morning. They just need a good clean and service.
Minty brifters are on the way from Romania, so all that's needed for the group is a chainset.
As for the other bits - stem, handlebars, saddle and seatpost, I'll begin a hunt for anything that matches the year and suits the bike, and I'll stick with new rideable rubber as this bike is going to be ridden a lot this summer, and hopefully for many more summers. Which brings us to the main benefit of doing it this way, being able to better preserve the bling that currently adorns the bike, until I have everything else needed for the catalogue restoration.
The ultimate goal remains - to get it back as close as possible to original spec, that will be a long term, expensive and ultimately perhaps an impossible project, but that is what I am aiming for.
In the short term the plan is to get the bike set up more how I might have wanted it had I bought it myself BITD. I make no secret of the fact that I'm not a massive fan of the rasta trend, I know a lot of people love it and it is very evocative of that era. This bike will one day return to being a full on celebration of red, yellow, green and anodized blue madness, but until that day it's going to have to cool its jets and wind its neck in a bit.
I'm going complete the XT M737 group, by pure chance I already have a wheelset, it came fitted to another bike that has already undergone a full period resto. I didn't even know for sure they were 737 until i checked this morning. They just need a good clean and service.
Minty brifters are on the way from Romania, so all that's needed for the group is a chainset.
As for the other bits - stem, handlebars, saddle and seatpost, I'll begin a hunt for anything that matches the year and suits the bike, and I'll stick with new rideable rubber as this bike is going to be ridden a lot this summer, and hopefully for many more summers. Which brings us to the main benefit of doing it this way, being able to better preserve the bling that currently adorns the bike, until I have everything else needed for the catalogue restoration.
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