PhillB
GT Fan
I am really poor at putting together build threads. Part of the problem is I don't take enough photographs along the way to illustrate it. Its doubly poor as I get a lot of enjoyment reading other's build journeys on here, so I must get better at it!!
Anyway, I've entered this bike in the 1998+ BOTM so, in the spirit of the competition, I really ought to give some background on it.
I bought this bike in July last year - although it seems longer ago than that. It turned up on Marketplace, not far from me so I contacted the guy and went to have a look. He wasn't quite sure if he was selling at the right price, but he was about right. He had seen a couple of other examples on eBay for £1500 and above and I explained that they had been on there at that price for months already and would be unlikely to sell (In fact they still are there a year later!!)
This is it when I bought it home. Well used as a commuter, but had had a yearly service at his LBS, or so he said.
It was pretty much original spec. and my plan was to clean it up and upgrade it. Decals had gone, but the frame was pretty much unmarked. The finish on these is hard to restore, so that was a plus.
So I started to strip it down... and then I hit the seat post. It was stuck....not unusual to those of us who restore old bikes of course, but this one was REALLY STUCK...
I tried all of the old recipes, Plus Gas, WD40, CocaCola, vice leverage...etc.etc.etc.
In the end the seat post broke off. What seems to have happened is that someone jammed a seat post in that was .2mm too big... no anti seize and the rest is galvanic corrosion....
In the end I resorted to carefully cutting it out using vertical cuts down the tube without damaging the frame itself. This took forever... from August 2023 to February 2024. I would saw for a bit, get frustrated and then put it to the back of the workshop... then a few days later repeat the process...
After a while I cut off enough that I could get another (right size) shorter seat tube in safely.
So I built the bike up and took it for a ride.
I replaced the LX kit with some nice XTR950 cranks, derailleur, brakes, and shifter. and changed the lumpy old saddle for a more comfortable Flite.
I took it out for a ride or two - but the bit of seat tube still in the frame not only rattled
...but it was a botch-job...and I hate botch jobs...It bugged me so much, that I stripped the bike down again and hung the frame in the back of the workshop and got on with other stuff.
A few months later, I picked up the hacksaw again and had another go. Of course, I could have achieved this a lot quicker, but I had other more interesting projects it was also complicated by the fact that because the bottom of the seat tube fell down inside the frame, I had to pull it up with a hook I devised with one hand and saw it with my other hand at the same time. It was annoying as f...
Then, one sunny day, it collapsed inside the down tube, I turned it upside down and it all fell out. YES!!!
My neighbours already think I am a bit odd, but if any saw me dancing around the bottom of my garden waving a bike frame in the air above my head, it probably confirmed it to them.
Now I could build it up properly.
I bought some replacement decals and then swapped out the Kore stem and bars for some Syncros ones.
I also liked the idea of adding red accents like the red in the decal so wired it up with red cables and red brake bolts.
It's done for now - although I am looking for some anodised red Mavic x517 or Rolf Dolomite rims, which I think would work nicely.
Cheers!
Anyway, I've entered this bike in the 1998+ BOTM so, in the spirit of the competition, I really ought to give some background on it.
I bought this bike in July last year - although it seems longer ago than that. It turned up on Marketplace, not far from me so I contacted the guy and went to have a look. He wasn't quite sure if he was selling at the right price, but he was about right. He had seen a couple of other examples on eBay for £1500 and above and I explained that they had been on there at that price for months already and would be unlikely to sell (In fact they still are there a year later!!)
This is it when I bought it home. Well used as a commuter, but had had a yearly service at his LBS, or so he said.
It was pretty much original spec. and my plan was to clean it up and upgrade it. Decals had gone, but the frame was pretty much unmarked. The finish on these is hard to restore, so that was a plus.
So I started to strip it down... and then I hit the seat post. It was stuck....not unusual to those of us who restore old bikes of course, but this one was REALLY STUCK...
I tried all of the old recipes, Plus Gas, WD40, CocaCola, vice leverage...etc.etc.etc.
In the end the seat post broke off. What seems to have happened is that someone jammed a seat post in that was .2mm too big... no anti seize and the rest is galvanic corrosion....
In the end I resorted to carefully cutting it out using vertical cuts down the tube without damaging the frame itself. This took forever... from August 2023 to February 2024. I would saw for a bit, get frustrated and then put it to the back of the workshop... then a few days later repeat the process...
After a while I cut off enough that I could get another (right size) shorter seat tube in safely.
So I built the bike up and took it for a ride.
I replaced the LX kit with some nice XTR950 cranks, derailleur, brakes, and shifter. and changed the lumpy old saddle for a more comfortable Flite.
I took it out for a ride or two - but the bit of seat tube still in the frame not only rattled
...but it was a botch-job...and I hate botch jobs...It bugged me so much, that I stripped the bike down again and hung the frame in the back of the workshop and got on with other stuff.A few months later, I picked up the hacksaw again and had another go. Of course, I could have achieved this a lot quicker, but I had other more interesting projects
it was also complicated by the fact that because the bottom of the seat tube fell down inside the frame, I had to pull it up with a hook I devised with one hand and saw it with my other hand at the same time. It was annoying as f...Then, one sunny day, it collapsed inside the down tube, I turned it upside down and it all fell out. YES!!!
My neighbours already think I am a bit odd, but if any saw me dancing around the bottom of my garden waving a bike frame in the air above my head, it probably confirmed it to them.
Now I could build it up properly.
I bought some replacement decals and then swapped out the Kore stem and bars for some Syncros ones.
I also liked the idea of adding red accents like the red in the decal so wired it up with red cables and red brake bolts.
It's done for now - although I am looking for some anodised red Mavic x517 or Rolf Dolomite rims, which I think would work nicely.
Cheers!
