This will probably appeal to chaps of a certain vintage but back in the 70's and 80's before the gravel bike was a glint in a marketing mans eye, long before the advent of the Mountain Bike and for that matter the Raleigh Bomber, those of us that couldn't convince our mums to buy us a Raleigh Grifter had to be resourceful.
During that time the Tracker was born, no one knows who was first to fit a set of inexplicably wide cowhorn handlebars on a bicycle but when they did it sparked something in a generation. They were a hodgepodge of whatever the builder could lay his hands on but all had a very similar look.
I must admit I had pretty much forgotten about these cycling mongrels until someone posted a picture of theirs in one of the Facebook cycling groups and it breought back a lot of memories of the things I'd put together in my youth.
So due to work and home commitments I haven't built anything for a good while but I bought some bars and grips in preparation and when they'd arrived had a free day yesterday and set to work digging in my boxes of tat I'd probably not use.
First stop was this Falcon 531 frame, but its a bit too good but also too scruffy even for this build.
So next up was this old BSA TDF I'd been looking at doing something with for ages, its a bit too modern as it would have been a current bike when I was a lad but is the correct level of frame for this purpose.
Next up was to collect some bits together.
The forks were intended to replace the very scruffy ones on the Falcon frame and might still end up on there at a later date for a different build
During that time the Tracker was born, no one knows who was first to fit a set of inexplicably wide cowhorn handlebars on a bicycle but when they did it sparked something in a generation. They were a hodgepodge of whatever the builder could lay his hands on but all had a very similar look.
I must admit I had pretty much forgotten about these cycling mongrels until someone posted a picture of theirs in one of the Facebook cycling groups and it breought back a lot of memories of the things I'd put together in my youth.
So due to work and home commitments I haven't built anything for a good while but I bought some bars and grips in preparation and when they'd arrived had a free day yesterday and set to work digging in my boxes of tat I'd probably not use.
First stop was this Falcon 531 frame, but its a bit too good but also too scruffy even for this build.
So next up was this old BSA TDF I'd been looking at doing something with for ages, its a bit too modern as it would have been a current bike when I was a lad but is the correct level of frame for this purpose.
Next up was to collect some bits together.
The forks were intended to replace the very scruffy ones on the Falcon frame and might still end up on there at a later date for a different build