1996 P7 update! 05/10/13

[jonnyboy666]

first of all thanks to Ollie, aka xioly, he posted a come and get this free frame thread, i was slightly quicker on the draw than grannygrinder for this one and was lucky that it was in southampton

we agreed that i'd pop over to his place of work today at midday, i turned up shook hands and was then shown to a side gate, ollie went to open a door to a storage room, i was expecting a rusty old beater to be honest, this i said after seeing the little beauty he pulled out, what a corker!! :shock: then he said "do you want the other bits aswel?" :shock: wheels, tyres, chainrings, mech, forks :shock: :shock:

what a star!!! i then handed over some becks!

so thanks very much to xioly!

i will be doing a karma thread to spread some of the wealth, it's only fair.

before i tell you what i'm gonna do i'll give you a little history. i used to work at john lewis in southampton, every year in the partnership you get a bonus, in 96 i got about 1200 an my normal wages, i went straight to GA cycles (the shop i later came to run) and ordered a p7 nickel with judy xc forks, xt 8speed groupset with xtr mechs and x-lite and syncros finishing kit. best mtb i had ever bought and what a bike it was.

cut to 6 months later and i had started work at a GT dealer a was pressured to swap to a zaskar, so i did. it was a decision i later came to regret.

so i have been looking for a p7 nickel for a while, a few have come up but unfortunately i have not been in a position to get them. then this happens!

so the build plan is to build it similar but not exactly as i previously had mine.

here's the pics from when i got it home

 

[fingers]

The finest bicycle ever made.

Enjoy

 

[Mr Panda]

Like it - must try a set of those forks one day

 

[MarkLG]

That looks like it should build up into a tidy bike.
I had one of the early P7's as well - I can't remember what year exactly, but I must have bought it around 1995. I think it may have been the year they first started making them. It came with the same rigid forks and I had it spec'd with LX components - I couldn't afford the upgrade to XT at the time.
I had a massive crash on it coming down off High Street in the Lakes and bent the forks, which got replaced with Pace RC30's, before eventually selling the bike to pay for the deposit on my first car.

 

[quentinfarquar]

Just working on a similar build, it's a 97 frame thou, and I'm planning on leaving it unstickered.

It s a great looking frame...

 

[Augustus]

that chainset's a right optical illusion.

 

[Pickle]

Like it a lot, especially the forks.

 

[legrandefromage]

that chainset's a right optical illusion.

extreme biopace.

I had the same P7 but with RC30 forks. The frame went to 'Lurch' at Mike's Bikes Cambridge and the forks still adorn a very early Clockwork.

 

[Ziggy]

I've still got mine and the RC30s - both in the depths of my mum's garage at the mo, but they'll be back in use at some point!

 

[jonnyboy666]

that chainset's a right optical illusion.

i just hung the other 2 rings over the cranks, just wanted to show just how generous xioly was giving me all those bits, then i found another bag of stuff in the car he'd given me that i hadn't realized was still in the car! :shock:

like i said though, karma thread will start on thursday, after i finish my nightshifts, didn't want to start that without being around for all the PM's etc and then i can do all the posting in one go aswel. i have a mountain of stuff i'm gonna give away, not just from this aswel.

@ quentin, surprised you painted it, i love the nickel finish, i'm gonna see how it comes up but worst case i'll send it to argos, they remove the laquer then clean and polish then re-laquer, i want to keep it how it is.