Hello to all and a couple of photo's of my recent work

[allenh]

Firstly hello to all,
First post on here as I've lurked for a while reading a fair bit and filling in some of the many gaps in my knowledge and thought it about time I introduced myself and some of my bikes.

I'd like a bit of opinion really on whether you think I'm going the right way with some of my restorations, I've not always been faithful on colour etc which is more a case of the paint to hand and what I fancy colour wise, and not always been totally accurate on the components used which depends on what I'm going to use the bike for.
I won't waste everyones time with a load of photo's but can take more as I know these aren't particularly good.

The first is a Nottingham Sun I've spent quite a bit of time on, I could just about make out Snipe Prestige on the original transfers so that's what I've done it as. This came as a complete bike but in very poor condition, I'm not sure of it's age as I've never really worked out the Sun numbering.

Before

And after

Next is an 80's Holdsworth Elan that I've built up as a daily ride with a little more modern components

Before

And after

the next two get the most attention when I'm out riding them about with the ooh I wanted one of them as a kid remarks.

This is a Raleigh Record that i built up from a very poor condition early 80's Record Ace frame, no before picture I'm afraid as my before pictures are for transfer placement etc.
The bike is actually bright orange, more orange than the picture shows it as anyway.

Next is pretty much as the 1st record frame wise but built up as a Hybrid with more modern components for pub runs which people might or might not frown upon for it's total deviation from original

The following picture hopefully shows the colour of the above two better

Please feel free to comment both good and bad. It's opinion I'm after. and thanks for both before i get them.

I've got a few more I've done and a few more I'm going to do and will be posting soon asking for help in identifying a Sun Birmingham frame I have so any help on that one will be gratefully received.

 

[kingbling]

You seem to be doing Ok, looks like you paint them yourself with a rattle can and as long as your happy with the finish all's good. As for how a bike is built it's your bike your choice no arguments. As for identifying frames Midlife is pretty good and for Sun frames speak to Spokesman he knows his stuff there.

Welcome to the forum and thanks for sharing

 

[Jamiedyer]

They all look pretty good to me
I'm really liking that Sun, it really smart looking, the colour really suits it. Great work.
As for build and componentry, its my opinion that its really up to the owner and what they want to use it for. Some people build every machine so it is like it left the factory, quite often, better than it left the factory and then there are the ones who build it to ride and make an old frame better with more modern componentry etc.
I just pulled my Mercian out the loft after a couple of seasons hibernation and fitted it with what I had about due to finances. It may not be everyones cup of tea but at least it gets it back on the road and its being used. Runs lovely and suites me fine.
Keep posting and maybe start a thread for each of them. Look forward to seeing more.

Jamie

 

[Midlife]

I love the way the Sun has turned out . The chainset is a real killer, just what people wanted bitd, even down to the red crank screw hole covers

Shaun

 

[Nob]

Re:

The Holdsworth could benefit from a full Nuovo Record Gruppo or if modern Athena 11 speed in polished silver.

The Raliegh Record should have been kept with original components IMO.

Your Sun looks good

 

[allenh]

Re:

Thanks for the replies chaps

I'm never sure with these things how strong the consensus on accuracy would be and yes king of the mountains I'm not but king of the rattle cans yes guilty.

The Sun I am quite proud of and used as many of the components that came with the bike as possible although I'm not sure of their originality, the only things I replaced are the saddle and seatpost, gear levers (it had Shimano stem mount ones on when I got it), Replaced the handlebar stem with the same GB part but a little longer for fit and re built the wheels but using the original hubs. everything else, gears, cranks, bars, and brakes were on it when I got it although all in a pretty manky state. The paint is pretty close to original, well a lot closer than I normally get anyway.

I did think about build posts for all of them but just never got round to it, there are a good few more in my garage so I'll probably do so with those.

The rest being built from bare frames gave me a little more scope for build and I'm surprised no one commented on the Raleigh's not being red.

 

[Jamiedyer]

Variety is the spice off life as they say
Personally I think its better to see them out getting used, regardless of the colour, rather than left rusting in someones shed or worse still, in the metal scrappers.
Keep up the good work

Jamie

 

[Spokesmann]

Hey, some great builds here!

I do love the Sun Prestige, I would venture its a Worksop built frame!

Thanks for showing.

 

[cbasic]

Re:

Nice. What paint do you use? I like classic road bicycles.

 

[allenh]

Re:

Thanks Spokesman, yes it is a Worksop frame although I haven't dated it I'm assuming early to mid 60's but could do with a little help on that if you could spare the time? And if so what do I need to date it?
I also have a Birmingham frame that I need to identify, I've taken a few photo's of various bits of that so will post those up in a new thread when I can.

The Snipe I used to commute to work with the other day, it was about a 30 mile round trip along the north Kent coast then inland towards Canterbury and it ran flawlessly considering it was it's first outing since being finished, a little bit of tweaking and tightening to do here and there but nothing to speak of.

cbasic I use very cheap rattle can paint that I get from the local market, there's a wide range of colours and it goes on nicely, I do look out for specific colours on occasion if I get the accuracy bug like I have a 2 tone green Dawes Galaxy to do at some point and I want to get that as accurate as possible. The sun paint is a very close match and if it weren't I would have sought out as close a match as possible and the same is true of a Carlton Continental I've just finished where the standard colour I had was a pretty close match.
I always base coat and then lacquer with the transfers on the base coat and then lacquered over.