Early Saracen Lovers Anonymous......

[Sn76]

Re:

I have a 91 saracen sahara that I inherited from my brother in law who knows nothing about bikes and let me have for free.It is a work in progress and has recently had a new bb and a brake and gear tune up so it runs smoothly now.Next up is a new cassette and suspension fork,but will need a headset reducer to swap to a 1 inch threaded situation. It does some miles on and off road and I can see it evolving into something I'll be proud of in the coming year. It feels good to ride and needs an lx upgrade, 200gs is ugly, heavy and offends my eyes.I love old mtb s from the 90s my old specialized with full lx was dope and thats the standard for this one too..Let's see

 

[coomber]

Sahara.. A workhorse. Nice bike you have looks in good condition.

Not sure a suspension fork would add much except make a heavy bike heavier. I'd go lx and lose the 200gs but keep it rigid.

 

[Sn76]

Cheers Gold Trader,she's coming up nice since all the knackered stickers were removed along with 20yrs of grime.Going to stick with 7speed true those wheels or replace depending on budget, and get that godawful biopace chainset replaced with something actually round!Seatpost is pretty hooky too.I still fancy putting on the suspension fork for novelty because it's laying about, but yep weight may force me to swap back.All in all she's a good bike with great potential for improvement. I notice a tufftrax frame on the bay in Wokingham for 18 quid.. But one thing at once!

 

[coomber]

Re:

What forks do you have for it?

 

[Sn76]

Some Zoom ones I scavenged,they are in good condition but yeah they're heavy and 1 inch, the bikes 1 and 1/8th.17 quid sorts the conversion. I like to tinker

 

[steve 1000]

I remember Saracen putting brooks saddles on the mountain bikes in the mid80s while the few others used soft saddles.
Saracen had been going a long time before the mountain bikes came about.

There are two brothers Nick and dick crane who came to us in the eighties at muddy fox and wanted two bikes to go over I think, killimanjiro and for some reason or other what I remember ended up with Saracens. One of the brothers I saw on TV a few weeks ago doing a programmes about our coast line
I think Saracen also went bust and two sisters and they husbands took it on and at the cycle shows the two sisters dressed the same, made heads turn.

 

[Sn76]

Good stories..can't imagine anyone being inspired to tackle killer man giro on a modern muddy fox or Saracen. A crying shame when you consider the top bikes they used to make.I would still consider swapping parts of my anatomy for that pink aluminium Muddy Fox that I used to drool over as a 12 yr old.! Still with a bit of tlc we can show em what's up by restoring yesterday's heroes.There ain't any mtbs that cost less than car money that I would swap for a high end 90s rig
.

 

[Sn76]

Now new and improved. New back wheel and cassette, yellow skyway bmx grips, New seatpost. It's hammering along now.

 

[Carlos the Slackal]

There are two brothers Nick and dick crane who came to us in the eighties at muddy fox and wanted two bikes to go over I think, killimanjiro and for some reason or other what I remember ended up with Saracens. One of the brothers I saw on TV a few weeks ago doing a programmes about our coast line

They were on very early Evans/Saracen, I believe.


The brothers were the Stanforths and they screwed the brand sideways. Ruined it.

Oddly, one of their sons is now churning out this stuff;

Which looks to me like someone is trying to pre-empt the hipsters moving from fixies to MTB!

 

[Sn76]

Yeah, can see the hipster appeal.I like it, not a fan of that fixie stuff, okay in flat old London but seriously limited anywhere else other than the fens.