Went to my folks today to drop off the Christmas presents of new 'retro' bikes. While I was there I rescued my dads old bike that I built for him in the early 90's and for one reason or another (lack of time and the fact it was far too big for him 21" frame and 5' 7" don't mix well) it has sat unused for 99.9% of the intervening time.
It is now sat in my garage in a very sorry state and the first thing I need to decide is if it is worth rescuing.
It was sold to me by a college mate who claimed it to be a reasonably highend Saracen, but as it had a rather fetching (read crap) respray and a set of terrible decals put on this has never been confirmed.
Somethings definitely scream '88 Saracen to me such as the fork crown, the seat/top tube cluster/lug, the dual cable guide braze ons for the gear cables and the crimped chainstays. I cannot though see anything in the readers bikes that fully matches. The Trekkers are Wishbone design, Tufftrax's are still on a rear U-brake and Kili's have vertical dropouts (this has older horizontals), so could it be a later '87 (with the '88 fork) of some description or is it not a Saracen at all?
Components are mostly Deore MT-60 (I pinched the front cantis and rear mech for another bike and I think the M400 mountain chainset is a replacement), Headset is a 1" Shimano 600 sealed, rims I can't work out but will clean up well, spokes are stainless.
The resto will be my biggest to date as the frame will need stripping and paint to original colours (plus new decals) and the seatpost is currently stuck. If it needs MT-60, that's what it will get so the frame needs to be worth it for this undertaking.
Anyway here's some pics and any help is appreciated.
Carl.
It is now sat in my garage in a very sorry state and the first thing I need to decide is if it is worth rescuing.
It was sold to me by a college mate who claimed it to be a reasonably highend Saracen, but as it had a rather fetching (read crap) respray and a set of terrible decals put on this has never been confirmed.
Somethings definitely scream '88 Saracen to me such as the fork crown, the seat/top tube cluster/lug, the dual cable guide braze ons for the gear cables and the crimped chainstays. I cannot though see anything in the readers bikes that fully matches. The Trekkers are Wishbone design, Tufftrax's are still on a rear U-brake and Kili's have vertical dropouts (this has older horizontals), so could it be a later '87 (with the '88 fork) of some description or is it not a Saracen at all?
Components are mostly Deore MT-60 (I pinched the front cantis and rear mech for another bike and I think the M400 mountain chainset is a replacement), Headset is a 1" Shimano 600 sealed, rims I can't work out but will clean up well, spokes are stainless.
The resto will be my biggest to date as the frame will need stripping and paint to original colours (plus new decals) and the seatpost is currently stuck. If it needs MT-60, that's what it will get so the frame needs to be worth it for this undertaking.
Anyway here's some pics and any help is appreciated.
Carl.
