Hello folks,
This is my first posting here, play nice - looks like a fantastic site!
I couldn’t find an ‘introduce yourself’ thread, so no idea if that is what is required?
If so, Mid 40’s male, biking since the mid 80’s on and off depending on job/family at the time, living in the cold and damp NE UK. A garage full of modern road bikes, mainly belonging to my other half at the minute! A couple of MTB’s squashed in there – nothing exciting – hope to change this sooner rather than later!
The point of the post – cutting a long story short; I wanted to build/restore a couple of bikes for myself, I’d pulled apart bikes as a kid/teenager and rebuilt them with odd bits, road bikes rebuilt as single speeds with massive ‘cowhorn bars, refurbed bikes for pals etc. but never got around to a complete restoration.
A recent prolonged episode of ill health, illustrated life is way too short to put stuff off, so I decided I would restore a road bike while I recuperated (my other half is a ‘proper cyclist’) and get out and about with her, as it turns out I bought a road bike so I could get on with getting out and about.
Living in the NE I used to see Dave Yates bikes in the LBS and always thought one day I’ll have one – so I bought one – well a frame at least to restore.
I picked up this Dave Yates/M Steel frame, Reynolds 531 tubing with chromed 531 forks, frame number is MS079. I contacted Dave and unfortunately he no longer holds any records on frames of that age. He suspects its early 80’s as that is when he started with M Steel. (Apologies for the rubbish photos, I was in a hurry) :facepalm:
So the crux is; do I go down the road of a period correct restoration or a modern restoration. I have a modern road bike and whilst it does everything on the tin I need it to do, it’s soulless!
The frame is in great condition - the dullness on the frame is condensation after I brought it in from the garage to photograph; I don’t believe it requires a respray at this time, it’s been refurbed at some point as the Reynolds decal states Cycle Tube Respray.
It came with a nice Pantographed seat post marked Brev 27.2 and what appears to be GG engraved in script form on the rear of the seat post – as yet I have no idea who the manufacturer is of the seat post – any idea?
So, I’m looking for some pointers as to the route to take with the resto. If I go down the route of originality then can anyone suggest a suitable period groupset, another option is the modern groupset route such as this example I found with google-foo (anyone’s here?) This example has some form of conversion on the braze-on gear lever mounts, any ideas how this is done?
Thanks in advance with any feedback, I look forward to getting the restoration and thread going.
Andrew
This is my first posting here, play nice - looks like a fantastic site!
I couldn’t find an ‘introduce yourself’ thread, so no idea if that is what is required?
If so, Mid 40’s male, biking since the mid 80’s on and off depending on job/family at the time, living in the cold and damp NE UK. A garage full of modern road bikes, mainly belonging to my other half at the minute! A couple of MTB’s squashed in there – nothing exciting – hope to change this sooner rather than later!
The point of the post – cutting a long story short; I wanted to build/restore a couple of bikes for myself, I’d pulled apart bikes as a kid/teenager and rebuilt them with odd bits, road bikes rebuilt as single speeds with massive ‘cowhorn bars, refurbed bikes for pals etc. but never got around to a complete restoration.
A recent prolonged episode of ill health, illustrated life is way too short to put stuff off, so I decided I would restore a road bike while I recuperated (my other half is a ‘proper cyclist’) and get out and about with her, as it turns out I bought a road bike so I could get on with getting out and about.
Living in the NE I used to see Dave Yates bikes in the LBS and always thought one day I’ll have one – so I bought one – well a frame at least to restore.
I picked up this Dave Yates/M Steel frame, Reynolds 531 tubing with chromed 531 forks, frame number is MS079. I contacted Dave and unfortunately he no longer holds any records on frames of that age. He suspects its early 80’s as that is when he started with M Steel. (Apologies for the rubbish photos, I was in a hurry) :facepalm:
So the crux is; do I go down the road of a period correct restoration or a modern restoration. I have a modern road bike and whilst it does everything on the tin I need it to do, it’s soulless!
The frame is in great condition - the dullness on the frame is condensation after I brought it in from the garage to photograph; I don’t believe it requires a respray at this time, it’s been refurbed at some point as the Reynolds decal states Cycle Tube Respray.
It came with a nice Pantographed seat post marked Brev 27.2 and what appears to be GG engraved in script form on the rear of the seat post – as yet I have no idea who the manufacturer is of the seat post – any idea?
So, I’m looking for some pointers as to the route to take with the resto. If I go down the route of originality then can anyone suggest a suitable period groupset, another option is the modern groupset route such as this example I found with google-foo (anyone’s here?) This example has some form of conversion on the braze-on gear lever mounts, any ideas how this is done?
Thanks in advance with any feedback, I look forward to getting the restoration and thread going.
Andrew
