1996 Saracen Rufftrax

[tim75]

Ok here we have Saracens bottom of the range offering for 1996, kindly sold to me by Piperdave for a very reasonable sum, thanks Dave!





It all came apart fairly easily which was nice and it wasn't long before I had the frame stripped down and a nice box of bits.







I had intended to just give it a bit of a polish and then stick it all back together but it was particularly rusty on the rear stays and around some of the cable stops so I've decided to take it down the powder coaters. I didn't really like the grey/green colour anyway. hopefully I'll have it back in a week or so.

 

[tim75]

Re:

Eagle eyed viewers will have noticed that the bike didn't come with any wheels so whilst I'm waiting for the frame to be painted I thought I'd sort that out. I've had these wheels in the shed for a while, they're not really that good and the rear hub is totally knackered but apart from that they're in fairly good condition.



My plan was to get some new hubs of roughly the same size and shape so that I could just rebuild them with the same spokes and not have to buy anything else. Luckily I managed to buy these off fellow Retrobiker Swede for a very reasonable sum and they were ideal.



A few minutes later, or maybe a few days I had a new set of wheels with some nice blue Kenda rim tape.





Got some cheap halfords tyres and some Michelin tubes ready to go.



Finished wheels ready for when the frame comes back.

 

[KeepItSteel]

Nice resurrection forming there Tim. Working on an old Saracen myself ATM, built like tanks, but rather comfy!

 

[Graham_hkr]

Re:

Yeah following this with interest, pressures on Tim...

 

[tim75]

Re:

Thanks guys. Working on a Saracen eh Jamie, I thought you were strictly a Kona or maybe a GT guy! Which model is it, let's see some pictures?!

 

[tim75]

Re:

Ok, got the frame and bits back from powder coat today. I was after British Racing Green but the painters described it as garden furniture green. Didn't sound quite as good but looks ok.

 

[tim75]

Re:

A bit of progress. Not sure if getting the stem and bars powdercoated was a mistake as it's so thick I can't get the stem in to the steerer tube, working on that one at the moment.

 

[KeepItSteel]

Re: Re:

Thanks guys. Working on a Saracen eh Jamie, I thought you were strictly a Kona or maybe a GT guy! Which model is it, let's see some pictures?!

Sorry for delay, having major issues resizing photos for upload - to the point of furious anger and misery.

Lovely original bike, just requires a deep clean really. Although do have plans for thumb shifters.

 

[tim75]

Re: Re:

Thanks guys. Working on a Saracen eh Jamie, I thought you were strictly a Kona or maybe a GT guy! Which model is it, let's see some pictures?!

Sorry for delay, having major issues resizing photos for upload - to the point of furious anger and misery.

Lovely original bike, just requires a deep clean really. Although do have plans for thumb shifters.

Looks nice, what model is it, I've got a Traverse from the same year I think?

 

[KeepItSteel]

It's an Eiger. I'm lead to believe it was a Halfords only variant.