Well, this evening I managed to fit and cable up my CORRECT
front mech and was able to actually ride the bike a bit up and down the street. It sure felt weird to be back on full suspension again - almost to the point of feeling unsafe.
Also this evening I fitted new brake pads all round - The ones on there were probably the originals knowing me, and the screws, etc were all rusty. New ones I've had in a packet for a while had new everything.
Also, thanks to a video on this forum, or a link from it, I managed to correctly setup the V-brakes and they feel pretty good now, even with new pads!
Sadly the cable started fraying for my rear mech so had to abort cabling up the rear gears, but I still rode it a small way in "8th" gear, to test the brakes and the front mech's movement.
The one thing I have noticed, and I recall from the last time this bike was roadworthy, was a quite horrid creaking noise from (what I am 99% sure) is the suspension fork/s leg/s under very heavy front end braking. Can see in the long run maybe having to change the Pace' for something else.
(maybe a switch back to Girvin Vectors?)
No pics from tonight though. Left my phone in my bedroom, but it looks the same as the last pic, only it now has a front mech, a (new) chain, and some grips on the handlebars.