'97 Breezer Lightning

[Jimmy oldskool]

During a bored flick through FB Marketplace whilst away with my 2 boys on an under 11 football tournament a couple of weeks ago, I came across this stunner!...



After much back and forth through messenger with @markjohnson76 it's now mine and I have to say...I'm pretty excited!!!



Mark's a great lad and is kindly holding onto it for me until the 8th, so I'm yet to savour how good these really are, however reviews are good...Anyone have any solid opinions either way?




Plans are just to keep it and enjoy it with a possible repaint along the way, although the patina is lovely, the top tube marks have a great back story and things are only original once...So we'll see!




Component wise it's well specced, however I may change a few small items like front mech, shifters etc as and when the right bits come along...




...After concluding this sale, Mark then threw another stunner at me which I couldn't say no too, so I ended up with 2 bikes and a significantly lighter wallet!

I'll do a separate thread for the other one...

 

[enc]

I’m not one for patina but that looks waaaay too nice for a repaint.

 

[ferrus]

Fab. These D Fusion tubed frames ride superbly; my ‘97 Jetstream (same frame as Lightning) is the nicest handling bike I’ve ridden, - soo smooth yet lively.
Personally I think Breezers are better complimented by a supple rigid fork eg. Ritchey Logic than period suspension, but opinions vary

 

[br0qn]

Knew I recognized that first photo, Mark's bikes always look great.

Sweet Breezer! I vote for no repaint.

 

[Jimmy oldskool]

With my workload being off the scale over the last few weeks, today was the first opportunity to get out on the Breezer and give it a shakedown…What a thing!!!




…Although in typical ‘retro’ fashion (read that as ‘old shit’) the USE carbon post gave way at the saddle mount, so back to the motor for some running repairs!

Riding a mile off road with no saddle is no fun!!!





…USE post in the bin and trusty old Thomson post on order! …

This one’s a keeper!!!

 

[Prodigal Son]

Get a ritchey logic fork! That´s how those bikes rode. The black and white scheme is beautifull. I would rather repaint the car.

 

[Jimmy oldskool]

After a few rides out on the Breezer, I’ve decided that the Rockshox Judy XC's that are fitted are just not suited to it, making the front end feel pretty lifeless and dead...




With that in mind, and a few other little changes on the cards I've decided that a change of front end is the best course of action.
Having run Pace forks for years and having them fitted to both my Stumpjumper and my Zaskar, I reached out to Tim @justbackdated .
The message was initially to discuss why a set of Carbon Bridges wouldn't fit the freshly rebuilt fork on my Stumpjumper, however a few minutes into the conversation it was determined that the fork on the Stumpy was a '98 and the bridges were for a '97 RC36!
Tim then dropped into our chat the fact that he had a '97 RC36 that needed a full rebuild, but could be built 'custom' for me and would sit perfectly on the Breezer! After a bit of back and forth, the deal was done and he set to work, resulting in this lovely thing arriving a few days later!



Apparently Pace had to rebrand their forks as 'Raceware' outside of the UK due to licensing issues, so as my Breezer is a '97 and was originally purchased from Cycle Sports in Oakland, California, Tim made the suggestion to brand them as such and fit the Carbon bridges, therefore making them correct as a possible period correct custom mod in '97 Cali...





I'll update again when the other bits arrive and it all starts going together!

 

[MattiThundrrr]

Stunning bike. Following with much envy

 

[Jimmy oldskool]

After a good few weeks of parts collecting, I finally have all of the bits for the rebuild!

I’ve been backwards and forwards on finishing kit for ages, first deciding that I’d stick with my ‘go to’ Thomson kit as its no nonsense stuff, but just a bit mainstream…



After a chance scan through eBay I came across these 2 pieces…Ritchey WCS carbon seatpost and stem! A perfect addition to the Breezer and in keeping with the whole Joe Breeze, Tom Ritchey relationship…And they’re beautiful in exposed carbon!

The bar is a NOS USE Atom, again, exposed carbon and is a favourite of mine across a few of my bikes.



The old Flite was looking tired, so @carlhcyc supplied me with an old alpes that he had. I refinished it and it’ll go on…I love how different these look with the trimmed corners!



Then onto rolling stock…



…A lovely set of hope hoops, all finished in black with just a touch of patina to make them look ‘period’ (all my stuff are riders don’t forget) courtesy of the legend that is @longun



So now just the boring bits left…



A lovely NOS M950 bottom pull to replace the rattling old XT fare and Shimano cables and KMC gold chain!!!



I also have a hope headset in red to go in before the Pace are fitted, so all together should make something quite nice and rideable!

 

[madjh]

Nice one. I always like the Lightning specially the rigid one with xtr900 and ritchey componentes.
I´m that kind of person that looks all chips and think how to fix it. But I don´t like repaint. I love the original paint job.

I had the Alien many years ago ... it was cool but I didn´t like they system. Some noyses and that was all for me.

PD: I follow Yanni , cool guy