Project Bike #4 - Dawes Galaxy

[zzpza]

Cheers all for the positive feedback, it is very much appreciated!

Glad to see you put some drops on - The bike just didn't seem right to me with flat(ish) bars.

I do like drop bars. The only bike I have without them is my mountain bike.

Well done on a loving restoration!

...I would guess 1983 but could be a couple either side. Mine's the same colour as yours was, has the same chainset (but not the rings - mine did a lot of miles so went through a few rings), and even the same rack. I was interested to see that yours has just the one set of bottle bosses, as mine does. I'd often thought that odd on a tourer.

I considered a respray but I love the midnight blue colour and its aged patina so I have kept it, surface rust and all. Mine was 6-speed but I cold set it to 130mm, upgraded it to 7-speed and fitted a set of RSX STIs which I got for very little.

Mine has the original canti brakes which work well (better than on my modern Super Galaxy, in fact) and accommodate 700c wheels no problem.

If you would allow me to criticise one thing about your restoration it would be painting the forks black. I associate that with modern, carbon forks. I'm not aware of it having been done in those days, when forks were either frame colour or chrome tipped, so it just kind of jars for me. But it's your bike, and I hope you get a lot of pleasure from it!

Thanks. Interesting that yours is an early 80's but has canti brakes. Mine doesn't have the bosses for cantis, so I assume the early 80's was the cross over period from callipers to cantis. As for the fork, well I ran out of paint! I only had one can of the 'Vauxhall Moonland' that I used on the frame, so instead of shelling out for another can I used what I had in the garage. I didn't think VW Mars Red would look right, so went with the black.

Just the motivation i needed to do an 80's resto myself,stunning bike mate you really have done well and i love the location of the rear light,never in a million years would i have thought of that,frees up space on the seat post,just whats needed on the wifes bike

Also, your second set of pictures made me realize that I could fit a second rear light to the seat tube of my Dawes Echelon, and it will still be visible between the seat stays. Never thought of that before - Thanks!

I had no idea I was such an innovator, though I have to admit I saw someone else doing it and copied them.

 

[frank9755]

I noticed that yours didn't have canti bosses shortly after I posted (I had thought the rack mounting points were them on first looking). Nor did the one in the catalogue, either.

So I did a bit more research and it looks like mine might be a year or two younger than I thought. It seems cantis came in in about '86 or '87.