Saracen Race Elite - back in the saddle

[gmjgreg7]

Hi,

I've had my Saracen for a very long time and it has served me incredibly well every time I've called upon it. It's had very little TLC but is still great fun to ride.

I'm after a bit of advice and having seen a few posts on similar bikes have a rough idea of what I might need to do, but I thought I'd do a quick post and see if anyone had anything constructive to offer.

The most recent 'upgrade' I've done was to replace the old canti brakes with v-brakes (a revelation!) but the bikes has also had a recent replacement of the 7speed cassette and brake levers and shifters.

I'd really like to start using the bike to ride to work and use a different bike for anything that's a bit more off-road, but as I'm sure is the same for everyone else, I'd prefer to spend as little cash as possible!

The drivetrain is in pretty good shape, changing smoothly and quickly via the (base spec) Shimano bits, v-brakes also seem pretty decent. My main areas for improvement are rear wheel and tyre (original rim with some very worn wide off road tyres) and front forks (RockShox Mag 21 - not in great shape).

Any advice would be much appreciated, I'll try and get some snaps posted this evening to give you an idea of what there is to work with

Cheers,
Greg

 

[shinobi]

Hi Greg
If your looking to make it a bit more commuter friendly then a set of slicks would be a good start , they come up on here and ebay for reasonable money and would speed things along , or maybe save up for a spare wheel set with off road tyres so you can use it for both duties . some light mud guards might come in handy , no one wants to arrive at work with a wet a*rse lol !
look forward to seeing pictures
Cheers Paul.

 

[gmjgreg7]

Here are the pictures, not too shabby I hope.








Paul,

Thanks for the tip on the mud guards, I've got a TopPeak front (M1) on order to go with the DirtMonkey that I already have on the back. So with a bit of luck my arse will be covered... but not in mud!

-Greg

 

[shinobi]

Hi greg
Looks in nice condition , these saracens seem to wear really well , I have an 89 Tufftrax and a 92 Sahara elite in the pipeline and both frames are in great nick .
Its obviously a personal thing but i could not live with those shifters , im sure they work great but its such a classic bike i would have to treat it to something a bit nicer and more period , but hey thats just me
You dont live in west sussex do you ? i have seen one the same on my commute to work a couple of times.
Cheers Paul

 

[coomber]

If its on road buy some slicks or semi slicks if you fancy a bit offroad, makes it so much easier for commuting.

Also, if the forks are a bit shot, I would slap some rigid forks in there as well. The original saracen max drive (?) ones are nice and complaint, have a bit of spring in the steel, would make sense if you are riding mainly on road.

Would love to actually build one of these and use it, have had two in my possession and stupidly passed them both on when cash was short..

 

[gmjgreg7]

Thanks for the advice so far guys, I'll let you know how I get along... better start searching for some forks!

 

[gmjgreg7]

As it turns out adding a bit of air to the forks makes a world of difference, who'd have thought?... doh!

Ready to go for tomorrow morning though, brakes adjusted, tyres pumped, lights on, headset tightened (in a fashion, think I'll be searching for some spanners tomorrow)!

 

[gmjgreg7]

According to Strava I managed the 6.3 miles to work in just over 26 minutes, average speed just under 15 mph. The adjustments to the headset and in particular the forks made the bike feel 100 times better. Think I need a new rear wheel and tyre though... rim is quite concave, not to mention more square than round and the thread is showing through on walls of the rear tyre! Better get that resolved before the journey in on Monday!

 

[coomber]

Ace. Good speed.

Not sure how much you want to spend on the bike, but an eventual upgrade to the cranks would save a massive amount of weight. Those press steel altus jobs you have at the moment weight ten metric tonne!

 

[gmjgreg7]

Ace. Good speed.

Not sure how much you want to spend on the bike, but an eventual upgrade to the cranks would save a massive amount of weight. Those press steel altus jobs you have at the moment weight ten metric tonne!

Blimey that much, if I can get rid of them I'll probably knock 20 minutes off my journey! ;-)