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I've just noticed this, thats lazy but at least you have braze ons for shifters or cable stops
Lock down fun - autopsy on eBay bargain Dawes Galaxy
- Thread starter epicyclo
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Who forgot to book the weather?
epicyclo
Senior Retro Guru
This isn't going to be a restoration.
Seeing as it's pissing rain here and it's lockdown anyway, I'll blether on.
The bike was bought for a purpose. That's how I rationalise almost every N+1 purchase, it's not a want but a need, but then one day you need, not want, a bigger shed.
Before lockdown I had been discussing with Jamie my ambitions for a long ride this year with a bit of bikecamping, and no doubt a fair bit of the unsurfaced stuff (can't help myself). I was going to do this last year, but family obligations meant I had to go and suffer in Oz instead. Time is running out for me to do this.
I have previously toured on a lightweight bike, and quickly found the limitations.
Put a heavy load on and you get wallowing, and long reach calliper brakes aren't the best for stopping from downhill speed when you really really need to.
(Apologies to the bunch of elderly folk I scattered crossing the road near the bottom of the old Shap road a few decades ago, you weren't really a bunch of deaf stupid copulating decrepit illegitimates. However you would have been wise to look and listen beforehand. I wasn't madly tinkling the bell and shouting as a musical accompaniment, the smoking stinking brake blocks weren't a special effect.
)
Anyhow, the obvious bike is already in my shed, an On-One Pompino, a fine sturdy workhorse. It even has gears in a concession to my age and frailty.
Its only problem is it has track ends (horizontal dropouts to some). If you have ever had to repair a puncture on a laden bike in the dark and in the rain, then those are a bit of a pain. On the other hand, forward facing dropouts are easy. I did consider welding in new dropouts, easy enough to cut out of a steel plate, but (N+1)ism prevailed.
I looked at a few modern bikes, eg the likes of a Surly Cross-Check looks nice, but they all have the disadvantage of being aimed at derailleur riders and so have wide rear ends.
They would be perfectly ok as singlespeeds, but because I'm getting old and frail I'm going to need gears for loaded touring. The wide backends on modern bikes will not take a Sturmey-Archer 3 speed like the Pompino.
The answer to that was obvious, get an old British tourer, preferably one with canti brakes because they are much better than callipers, especially when you want clearance for decent sized tyres.
There's 2 obvious candidates, Raleigh Randonneur, and Dawes Galaxy. I wanted from the late 1980s after they switched to canti brakes (if necessary you can fit V-brakes).
There is obviously a far wider choice if you look at the specialist bikes, but that's a rabbit-hole I don't want to go down. Get one, and you'll soon spot another, and "obviously" it would be a good idea to get that as well. In no time they start breeding in your shed, and soon the shed isn't big enough (eh, Jamie?).
So a late 1980s Dawes Galaxy ticks all the boxes.
Canti brakes for reasonable braking, 531ST tubing so there should be no wallowing, fork offset to allow for a loaded front end, narrow rear end to take a S-A 3 speed, and a forward facing slot dropout to allow for chain tension adjustment and easy wheel removal. There is also the advantage of it having a significantly lower BB than the Pompino.
I looked at some rather nice Galaxies on eBay, but the problem with a nice one is I'd be tempted to try to keep it original whereas I want a free hand.
As it was I caught myself just in time with this one. I liked the look of the headset, seemed decent quality for a 1980s Japanese job so I thought I'd try to find another that wasn't sullied by rust. I did, and it was £55 2ndhand. I didn't realise Swan Hatta headsets were so highly regarded, but apparently they're a must fit in Japan.
So I'll stick to my original intention, replace all the running gear with new so I don't have any concerns about nursing old iron over rough stuff.
There's just one job left. The remains of the rusty bolt broken off in one of the rack braze-ons. It's getting plenty WD40 in the meantime. I don't have a small enough Ezy-Out so that job will have to wait.
Looks like it's drying up. Time to start the resurrection.
Off to do some bike fettling...
Seeing as it's pissing rain here and it's lockdown anyway, I'll blether on.
The bike was bought for a purpose. That's how I rationalise almost every N+1 purchase, it's not a want but a need, but then one day you need, not want, a bigger shed.
Before lockdown I had been discussing with Jamie my ambitions for a long ride this year with a bit of bikecamping, and no doubt a fair bit of the unsurfaced stuff (can't help myself). I was going to do this last year, but family obligations meant I had to go and suffer in Oz instead. Time is running out for me to do this.
I have previously toured on a lightweight bike, and quickly found the limitations.
Put a heavy load on and you get wallowing, and long reach calliper brakes aren't the best for stopping from downhill speed when you really really need to.
(Apologies to the bunch of elderly folk I scattered crossing the road near the bottom of the old Shap road a few decades ago, you weren't really a bunch of deaf stupid copulating decrepit illegitimates. However you would have been wise to look and listen beforehand. I wasn't madly tinkling the bell and shouting as a musical accompaniment, the smoking stinking brake blocks weren't a special effect.
)Anyhow, the obvious bike is already in my shed, an On-One Pompino, a fine sturdy workhorse. It even has gears in a concession to my age and frailty.
Its only problem is it has track ends (horizontal dropouts to some). If you have ever had to repair a puncture on a laden bike in the dark and in the rain, then those are a bit of a pain. On the other hand, forward facing dropouts are easy. I did consider welding in new dropouts, easy enough to cut out of a steel plate, but (N+1)ism prevailed.
I looked at a few modern bikes, eg the likes of a Surly Cross-Check looks nice, but they all have the disadvantage of being aimed at derailleur riders and so have wide rear ends.
They would be perfectly ok as singlespeeds, but because I'm getting old and frail I'm going to need gears for loaded touring. The wide backends on modern bikes will not take a Sturmey-Archer 3 speed like the Pompino.
The answer to that was obvious, get an old British tourer, preferably one with canti brakes because they are much better than callipers, especially when you want clearance for decent sized tyres.
There's 2 obvious candidates, Raleigh Randonneur, and Dawes Galaxy. I wanted from the late 1980s after they switched to canti brakes (if necessary you can fit V-brakes).
There is obviously a far wider choice if you look at the specialist bikes, but that's a rabbit-hole I don't want to go down. Get one, and you'll soon spot another, and "obviously" it would be a good idea to get that as well. In no time they start breeding in your shed, and soon the shed isn't big enough (eh, Jamie?).
So a late 1980s Dawes Galaxy ticks all the boxes.
Canti brakes for reasonable braking, 531ST tubing so there should be no wallowing, fork offset to allow for a loaded front end, narrow rear end to take a S-A 3 speed, and a forward facing slot dropout to allow for chain tension adjustment and easy wheel removal. There is also the advantage of it having a significantly lower BB than the Pompino.
I looked at some rather nice Galaxies on eBay, but the problem with a nice one is I'd be tempted to try to keep it original whereas I want a free hand.
As it was I caught myself just in time with this one. I liked the look of the headset, seemed decent quality for a 1980s Japanese job so I thought I'd try to find another that wasn't sullied by rust. I did, and it was £55 2ndhand. I didn't realise Swan Hatta headsets were so highly regarded, but apparently they're a must fit in Japan.
So I'll stick to my original intention, replace all the running gear with new so I don't have any concerns about nursing old iron over rough stuff.
There's just one job left. The remains of the rusty bolt broken off in one of the rack braze-ons. It's getting plenty WD40 in the meantime. I don't have a small enough Ezy-Out so that job will have to wait.
Looks like it's drying up. Time to start the resurrection.
Off to do some bike fettling...
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