Hello - I acquired a Reynolds steel frame which was unbranded and around the late 70 early 80s decided to build it up into a Nod to Dave Yates as I'm from Tyneside. It will be a bit of a classic Vs modern but it's a lovely frame to ride. It's been stripped and resprayed and Ive replaced pretty much everything with a french connection but looking to take it to the York Cycle Festival in the summer. Just a slow build nice ride kind of thing. No worries. I can share a few photos from start to end.
Started off like this. I'd never stripped a bike to the full frame and forks so a first for me. The Bottom Bracket was a learning curve working out techniques how to gently remove that but most other parts were ok.
On
Once cleaned and a new coat I noticed under the light some Campagnolo rears which was nice. I think they were fitted to a lot of 80s racers but good nonetheless.
And so I went for a nice green colour and wrapped the bars in newbalms cotton acid green bar tape. I've never wrapped bars at all but followed a great tutorial on YouTube and had a go. They have turned out good.
I always remember Dave Yates growing up and lived in the next street to M Steel cycles in Gosforth, Newcastle in my early 20s. I'd often pop into that bike shop and assume it would always be there. So... I thought I'd build up a Dave Yates racer pretty much for that reason. The decals were a little larger in size than the original but looked good.
And I started to whack the decals on. I found a lovely Solida crank set as I was originally going to build it up as A Gitane but then started leaning back to my local roots. The original bicycle had Simplex rear and front derailleurs so I started down the french connection.
Up to about here as of the weekend. I've decided to fit modern side pull brakes after a bit deliberation. I might try a light tour with this so stopping had been pushed higher up the list of fancy things to have. Will have a go at fitting brakes then come back
