First post and advice sought ..

[JN23]

Decided against the 31 yr old Raleigh Apex in the end and have bought a ten year old flat bar version of the Dawes Galaxy, with double butted 4130 frame and average Shimano components, incl discs. It's not a pretty bike and a heavy old thing but it's had virtually no use at all and comes with guards, pannier racks and bags. Fits my wife well and with no work to do for me, my donor bike stays intact - for now. Plus no pressure to be ready in time for our tour at the end of May

 

[Shaggy1979]

Greetings from a newbie.

I'm looking at buying a decent old steel MTB for my wife, to be used as a comfortable expedition/touring bike, with rear rack and guards to be added. The cost of the new equivalent bike these days is getting silly, not to mention poor availability, so it's got to be used.

Have got my eyes on two nice examples - one is a 1996 lugged "Reynolds Cr-Mo" 21 speed Claud Butler Oracle with Acera-X and the other is a 1988 Tange double butted 18 speed Saracen Limited Edition with Exage.

Pros and cons of each. I think the Saracen has the better frame (not sure what the "Reynolds Cr-Mo" is but no mention of 501/531 on the frame?). The Saracen has a rear u-brake which I no nothing about! The CB has Campag rims on Shimano hubs, and has a 7spd cassette rather than a 6spd screw-on etc..

My gut tells me to go for the better frame but I like them both so I though I'd ask the experts

Many thanks

My friend I have a 1992 claud butler oracle xct that was in an attic untouched for most of the 32 years it's been around
I got it for £100 as complete original standard apart from the brake pads...
I've since spend..........let's say a thousand pound on it and got her almost the way I want and I wouldn't trade it for a multi thousand pound electric at all I'll try own for ever
What I mean is get the bike that feels natural to your body shape /stance or even which is the best condition and just over time add upgrades from people selling amazing bits and bobs on this platform
If your keeping totally original as some here do then if you want some of the standard things from my oracle let me know .
Welcome to retrobikes mate
....

 

[JN23]

Decided against the 31 yr old Raleigh Apex in the end and have bought a ten year old flat bar version of the Dawes Galaxy, with double butted 4130 frame and average Shimano components, incl discs. It's not a pretty bike and a heavy old thing but it's had virtually no use at all and comes with guards, pannier racks and bags. Fits my wife well and with no work to do for me, my donor bike stays intact - for now. Plus no pressure to be ready in time for our tour at the end of May

The Dawes Galaxy turned out to have had a hard old life, a real dog in fact, so I decided to do up the family hack instead as Im runnning out of time to get my wife a comfortable tourer for our forthcoming trip, and its looking rather good with its sprinkling of NOS parts