1996 Saracen Tufftrax completed 100221!!

[prezza]

Acquired this recently from my mate who bought it new. He used it and loved it but it was time for a full renovation back to standard.

Was mainly original bar the unbranded riser, road biased tyres, shifters and LX V brakes. Saddle had been upgraded at some point to a nice Flite Ti.

I’ve been chipping away at this build for several weeks between other projects and it’s finally coming together.

First pic shows how it was when I acquired it a month ago...

I’ve since fully stripped it and machine polished the paintwork which has come up a treat! The colour is amazing in the flesh.

New decals applied today , including new stem decals (courtesy of the brilliant Gil M).

I also sourced a NOS Ritchey Forcelite straight bar.

I found some almost NOS period STX shifter/levers along with STX cantis to fit and some nice new skinwall tyres will be going on.

Anyway... Ill update further as this progresses but here it is so far....

 

[charcoalchef]

Re: 1996 Saracen Tufftrax

Love this, I had one for a while a few months ago which I sold on but it rode so well, I'm regretting it now!
The stickers on mine had had it, awful state, but the paint work was absolutely flawless like this one... Lovely colour.

Looking forward to seeing more

 

[Blackers]

Re: 1996 Saracen Tufftrax

Thats really nice . There a great bike and undervalued a bit imo .
I've a 90 tufftrax extreme and I picked up this yesterday in superb condition.

 

[malt]

Re: 1996 Saracen Tufftrax

I always liked how clean Saracens from that era looked. I was working in a Saracen dealership at the time and the mid to high range ones always built up well and felt great to ride.

Strangely though, I never owned one. Nearly bought a Kili Ultra, but the Zaskar LE won me over...

 

[HoldsworthBen]

Re: 1996 Saracen Tufftrax

Looking good!

 

[oliverrr]

Re: 1996 Saracen Tufftrax

The older Saracen logo on your bike looks great. The letter a on the modern Saracen logo looks a bit like the iron laundry symbol

 

[prezza]

Re: 1996 Saracen Tufftrax

I ain’t replaced the head badge decal as it was fine. Only replaced the Tufftrax on seat tube and Saracen on down tube...

 

[prezza]

Re: 1996 Saracen Tufftrax updated 310121

So... bit of an update...

The wheels have all been cleaned and serviced, NOS tyres fitted along with ODI grips, some purple ano bottle cage bolts.. Flite titanium restored and refitted, BB and chainset all degreased and polished along with new cassette fitted....almost there!

Had to get a few pics of it outside as the colour really pops and is so deep. I prefer the colour of this over all my other restro bikes at the mo...

Cheers
Andy

 

[Blackers]

Re: 1996 Saracen Tufftrax

That's looking really nice .
Lovely colour and shines like new

 

[Pointer]

Re:

Looks great, nice work bringing the paintwork back. Their paint (polyester?) from that era is rock solid.