BSA Tour de France Mk2 Resurrection
- Thread starter allenh
- Start date
That'l do for now, all in one bit and ready to go under the Christmas tree, although the old girl might need to keep away from the Christmas pud as she's a bit on the heavy side..
But its conclusive proof that you might not be able to polish a turd but if you put a bit of effort in you can make one very shiny indeed.
But its conclusive proof that you might not be able to polish a turd but if you put a bit of effort in you can make one very shiny indeed.
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The saying is, and correct me if I’m wrong, you cant polish a turd, but you can roll it in glitter!
BUT this ain’t no turd - it’s made by Raleigh ( I think) and it has a very famous and illustrious name - along with its very own history - it doesn’t need to be rolled in glitter!
Wonderful job - you’ve made her shine and took the years off! Thanks for sharing this and long nay you enjoy and ride !you've inspired me to tackle another project -
BUT this ain’t no turd - it’s made by Raleigh ( I think) and it has a very famous and illustrious name - along with its very own history - it doesn’t need to be rolled in glitter!
Wonderful job - you’ve made her shine and took the years off! Thanks for sharing this and long nay you enjoy and ride !you've inspired me to tackle another project -
Ha Ha thanks for that, I was being a little self depreciating as this old girl isn't upto the standard of a lot of the machines in these pages and I'll bet there are those who would wonder why I bothered doing it at all, but as I said at the start this would have been at the top of a lot of children's Christmas lists (mine included) and if people don't invest some time and effort in these sorts of machines all that will be left will be pictures on the internet.ibbz":2spjr2p8 said:
You're right though it was made by Raleigh and is actually quite a nice everyday machine (if a little on the gas pipe side) and I would say this machine is possibly more deserving of preservation than some of the lower end Raleigh's you see people asking quite a lot of money for. Raleigh though did dumb down that illustrious BSA name as they did with Sun and used it for the bottom end of the Raleigh range, when this one was made I think they were all intended for the mail order catalogue market.
Either way I really enjoyed doing it, am very happy with the end result and I bet when I'm riding it I get more admiring looks than I do riding some of the more high end machines in my garage.
To add a little bit of info for readers not familiar with the BSA Tour de France I originally thought there were only a couple of versions of the TDF but in researching them I found there were at least six distinct versions and the model had a pretty long life. The later ones were certainly sold in proper bike shops alongside with the more mass market outlets and I have another TDF in the queue which I think is two versions after this one and was originally bought from local bike shop. I've got the original receipt and the Raleigh manual that came with it but I'm not sure what to do with it yet, I can't get the decals for it and by the time it was made the components had taken a slide deeper down into the Raleigh parts bin so its not as nice a machine. But colour and decals aside the frame is identical to this one and I've got most of another set of bits so I could do another basically the same but in red. Not sure yet and I sat on this one long enough so perhaps someone will do the decals for the later one and make the decision for me.
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SirLurkalot
Retro Guru
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Faboulous job, well worth saving.
Faboulous job, well worth saving.
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I took the old girl out for her maiden run yesterday and all went well but (there's always a but) I need to get some better quality tyres as the cheap far eastern ones I had to hand are so huge it took a few miles to work out the bell type sound I was hearing was the ineffectual mudguards ringing as they touched the crown of the tyre and they just don't roll very nicely.
That aside it is a perfectly acceptable machine, not really what you'd call fast or very good when it gets hilly (decent tyres will help a bit) so I'm not going to break any records on it but still a nice comfortable old thing to ride into town for socially distanced fish and chips and a pint or two at the weekend.
Thanks for that and yes I think so as well. It's an itch dating back to at least 1980 that has now been scratchedSirLurkalot":2p5hvqd1 said:
I took the old girl out for her maiden run yesterday and all went well but (there's always a but) I need to get some better quality tyres as the cheap far eastern ones I had to hand are so huge it took a few miles to work out the bell type sound I was hearing was the ineffectual mudguards ringing as they touched the crown of the tyre and they just don't roll very nicely.
That aside it is a perfectly acceptable machine, not really what you'd call fast or very good when it gets hilly (decent tyres will help a bit) so I'm not going to break any records on it but still a nice comfortable old thing to ride into town for socially distanced fish and chips and a pint or two at the weekend.
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I'm pretty certain there were but even when with Raleigh there was at least one 531 frame the Prima although I expect it was just main tubes and at one point in the TDF's life there was a model above which was the Premier 12 although I don't know what type of frame that had.ibbz":3r79ek1a said:
chickendrumsticks
Senior Retro Guru
The usual superb job allenh. Lovely to see another old thing deservedly restored.
On the "Prima" subject - yes they had a 531 main tubes frame. No mudguard eyes to make it look like a real road bike and equipped about the same as the TDF I guess. But made in Worksop so some quality there. You may remember my old thing from 1980, which ended up with some nice 531 forks too as the originals were kaput!
Link here for anyone interested... viewtopic.php?f=23&t=398384&start=0
Keep up the great work!
On the "Prima" subject - yes they had a 531 main tubes frame. No mudguard eyes to make it look like a real road bike and equipped about the same as the TDF I guess. But made in Worksop so some quality there. You may remember my old thing from 1980, which ended up with some nice 531 forks too as the originals were kaput!
Link here for anyone interested... viewtopic.php?f=23&t=398384&start=0
Keep up the great work!
Thanks and yes I do remember your Prima and quite fancy doing one myself.chickendrumsticks":2rn6p6de said:
My TDF has been upgraded quite a bit so although the chainset came fitted when I bought the bike I'm not sure it was original as its a Prima spec one, I've upgraded the mechs and shifters, brake levers, saddle stem, put a longer than original reach but same spec bar stem on it and re laced the original hubs with alloy rather than steel rims so it's a sort of Prima light (or should that be heavy).
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