Sketchyxup
Retro Guru
Not anything exciting, nor a nut and bolt restoration but more of a rebirth for daily use. This is the one that pre-dates the Record Sprint model that came with all the gold bits.
After the steady death of a modern but cheap disc brake commuter bike I wanted to have something cheap and simple to perform commuting duties. I knew I wanted to head down the singlespeed route and needed mounts for guards, no requirements for a tight clearance race frame.
This beast turned up in one of those charity bicycle shops, missing a few bits but appeared tatty but sound and it's the right size.
It was treated to a full strip down to check condition, after a bit of a scrub it was looking okay. I took the approach of masking over the original decals and giving the paint a refresh with a rattelcan which worked out nicely.
Starting to come back together I thought the old girl could do with a bit of bling to pick out the gold in the decals, hence the gold chain and brake outers. The wheels are just some basic shimano 700c (r500 i think) that came off my wifes roadbike, these had the decals removed which I think looks a lot neater.
The original cranks shown on this picture turned out to be scrap, the tapers were shot which was a bit of a shame as they looked cool.
With a bit of luck these nearly new Sturmey archer cranks popped up on the 'bay, not my first choice of colour but I took a punt and put them on. Still deciding if they are staying red or getting sprayed silver/black.
And here it is back together, new black cloth tape to finish off along with some new brake pads, just not sure how much i trusted the original 37y/o pads that were on. I'm quite pleased with how it turned out.
One final thing to do, take if for a spin in the sun to check it's all okay. Rides smooth as a dolphin.
After the steady death of a modern but cheap disc brake commuter bike I wanted to have something cheap and simple to perform commuting duties. I knew I wanted to head down the singlespeed route and needed mounts for guards, no requirements for a tight clearance race frame.
This beast turned up in one of those charity bicycle shops, missing a few bits but appeared tatty but sound and it's the right size.
It was treated to a full strip down to check condition, after a bit of a scrub it was looking okay. I took the approach of masking over the original decals and giving the paint a refresh with a rattelcan which worked out nicely.
Starting to come back together I thought the old girl could do with a bit of bling to pick out the gold in the decals, hence the gold chain and brake outers. The wheels are just some basic shimano 700c (r500 i think) that came off my wifes roadbike, these had the decals removed which I think looks a lot neater.
The original cranks shown on this picture turned out to be scrap, the tapers were shot which was a bit of a shame as they looked cool.
With a bit of luck these nearly new Sturmey archer cranks popped up on the 'bay, not my first choice of colour but I took a punt and put them on. Still deciding if they are staying red or getting sprayed silver/black.
And here it is back together, new black cloth tape to finish off along with some new brake pads, just not sure how much i trusted the original 37y/o pads that were on. I'm quite pleased with how it turned out.
One final thing to do, take if for a spin in the sun to check it's all okay. Rides smooth as a dolphin.
