Mid Eighties E.G Bates Tourer

[sherlylock]

This is my 82 Mistral with over BB guides and long dropouts which are ideal for mudguards or fatter tyres. Originally built for 27inch wheels but now running with 700c for better tyre options up to 40mm. The bottom bracket height is quite high at 185mm which is handy when riding off road on heavily rutted tracks...

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Lovely that! I'm tempted to fit some mudguards to mine at some point.....

Cleaned up and repaired the Weinmann gum hoods as best I can. I always like to retain these if I can - sometimes they're past their best though. I've got one good and one reasonable...

Simplex retrofriction levers stripped and cleaned in the ultrasonic cleaner - spring repaired and re-assembled.

Brake levers cleaned / polished and bars wrapped.

Canti brakes stripped, ultrasonically cleaned and reassembled.

 

[sherlylock]

Regarding bartape/saddle/cables I decided on a cool grey scheme for this - seeing as it's a white bike.

Grey cables and grey bar tape - with the plan of finding a grey saddle too for full-on matchy matchy.

Cotton velox bar tape in grey - whilst it offers little comfort compared to modern foam type grips you can't beat it for looks I think

Played around with cable lengths for a while until I was happy from all angles on loop length and routing. Any comments gratefully received on this as I'm never sure on how long the loops should be and whether to go in front or behind the bars etc. Appreciate the cable loop near the seat post is a bit excessive - this did get cut back a bit......

 

[sherlylock]

Shakedown ride a few weeks ago.

What a bike! Rolls so smoothly......best "first ride" of a project I've had. No tweaks needed.

Next up - replacement saddle and trying to get a matching Maillard hub for the rear to match the original front.