Dawes 531c........help needed

[davester1965]

Arggghhh! I had a Dawes Imperial when I first went to Uni - Everything went wrong with it in three months, the rear cassette went, bottom bracket packed in, and then the head lug started to come away with poor brazing. DAWES never again!!!

Judging by your experience, i assume my plan to retrofit with a full Shimano 600 EX groupset is a good idea then?

 

[Robbied196]

Thanks you two, some cracking detail pics on flickr, now i'm confused, Robbied's Imperial is the same colour as mine and a year newer, Biggsy's looks a bit older than mine (guessing from the 531 decals at very early 80's) but both have the same top tube decal 'Dawes Imperial' in a plain font similar to the downtube decal. I've downloaded a copy of the 84 Dawes catalogue and the pic in there shows a top tube decal which simply says 'Imperial' in an italic style font. Any ideas why guys?

Mine was all original for 1985, I wouldn't get to concerned about slight differences in spec or decals. Dawes can have a bit of variety within the same model range, I've come across it a few times. I can only guess it depended on what was in stock at the factory so production could continue. 'Somewhere' I have the name of the font they used for the top tube model name, leave that with me and I'll try and dig it out