Back from the dead - touring shed find resurrected

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Gary P

Über Member
I recently advertised in my local Friday Ad free ads for a traditional man's tourer in a 22" (in old money) frame. The owner was 5ft 7" tall and it had always been slightly too big for him. Lovely man and a real character.

I was rewarded with a lovely 531st (frame and fork) British Eagle Touristique of a vintage that I reckon is late 1980s, possibly early 90s. Cost? £60. I'm dating it in this era as it has a triple Biopace chainring set that is Shimano Exage 500 (remember them?).

However, this hasn't bothered me at all, despite having down tube shifters and a 7 speed rear set of cogs it's perfectly adequate for my daily commute and the odd leisure ride. It's been 20 years since I've ridden Biopace and despite their oval-ness they seem perfectly ok to me. I can't really tell the difference. Anyone else still ride them?

I've changed the tyres, tubes and rim tape as the old ones had rotted away, re-taped the bars with cloth bar tape that has grab-on foam underneath and changed the seat and pedals to some Lyotard touring and a Specialized racing saddle. I've also found a set of Altura panniers for £30 from the Friday Ad too. They work really well, are barely used and I've zip tied them to the pannier frame to stop them being nicked.

I've also had a member of the local CTC offer me a used but decent Brooks to go onto it so the Specialized will be replaced this week. The Brooks looks the part and is comfy too, plus he doesn't want any money for it.

I'm now trying to decide whether or not to have the frame sandblasted and sprayed as I've got a local bloke who will blast a frame for £15. It's currently scruffy but I can park it anywhere and no-one nicks it, which is a real bonus. Therefore, this may be a pointless exercise.

I feel really good about reinstating this lovely old machine to the roads as it had been unridden since the mid 1990s. It's cheap, comfy, ecologically sound transport. I'm also looking at buying a 2000 Dawes Horizon which is too small for me but is cheap and worth stripping for spares. If so, I'll offer the frame/fork on the classifieds section.

Anyone else resurrected a decent bike from the dead?
 

rh100

Well-Known Member
Gary P said:
I recently advertised in my local Friday Ad free ads for a traditional man's tourer in a 22" (in old money) frame. The owner was 5ft 7" tall and it had always been slightly too big for him. Lovely man and a real character.

I was rewarded with a lovely 531st (frame and fork) British Eagle Touristique of a vintage that I reckon is late 1980s, possibly early 90s. Cost? £60. I'm dating it in this era as it has a triple Biopace chainring set that is Shimano Exage 500 (remember them?).

However, this hasn't bothered me at all, despite having down tube shifters and a 7 speed rear set of cogs it's perfectly adequate for my daily commute and the odd leisure ride. It's been 20 years since I've ridden Biopace and despite their oval-ness they seem perfectly ok to me. I can't really tell the difference. Anyone else still ride them?

I've changed the tyres, tubes and rim tape as the old ones had rotted away, re-taped the bars with cloth bar tape that has grab-on foam underneath and changed the seat and pedals to some Lyotard touring and a Specialized racing saddle. I've also found a set of Altura panniers for £30 from the Friday Ad too. They work really well, are barely used and I've zip tied them to the pannier frame to stop them being nicked.

I've also had a member of the local CTC offer me a used but decent Brooks to go onto it so the Specialized will be replaced this week. The Brooks looks the part and is comfy too, plus he doesn't want any money for it.

I'm now trying to decide whether or not to have the frame sandblasted and sprayed as I've got a local bloke who will blast a frame for £15. It's currently scruffy but I can park it anywhere and no-one nicks it, which is a real bonus. Therefore, this may be a pointless exercise.

I feel really good about reinstating this lovely old machine to the roads as it had been unridden since the mid 1990s. It's cheap, comfy, ecologically sound transport. I'm also looking at buying a 2000 Dawes Horizon which is too small for me but is cheap and worth stripping for spares. If so, I'll offer the frame/fork on the classifieds section.

Anyone else resurrected a decent bike from the dead?

My Dawes Galaxy efforts are just beginning, I have another thread running in here about it.

Any pics?
 
OP
OP
Gary P

Gary P

Über Member
Will post pics soon. It's currently outside the office in the rain looking sorry for itself. Just read your other thread. Sounds like you've done more work than me but it looks good.
 

Gerry Attrick

Lincolnshire Mountain Rescue Consultant
Certainly have. Two in fact.

On returning to cycling eight or nine years ago, I pulled from my shed an old (early eighties) Dawes Shadow. I used to use it for commuting having bought it new, but it hadn't seen the light of day for about 18 years. It only need a clean, lube and new cables. Even the tyres and tubes are original, and this is my "pub bike". It is horribly uncomfortable to ride any distance as the frame is made from scaffold tube, and it weighs slightly less than a Chieftain tank. However, it gets to and from the pub no problem and is unlikely be nicked.

My other resurrection I bought from e-Bay a few weeks ago. Its a 1981 BSA Prima, made of course by Raleigh from 531. It's on tubs on period Mavic rims and was a bit sorry-looking when I got it. Only thing replaced were the saddle, cables, brake blocks and BB bearings. Everything polished up well and the tubs hold air with no problem. The frame is still tatty looking, but I will get it re-finished in the winter. The thing is, it is the most superb ride of any bike I own except for my tourer. It accelerates like the clappers and climbs superbly. I think we will have a long association.
 

rh100

Well-Known Member
he he.... haven't actually done much yet....it's all on a to do list :smile:

I really wanted to respray mine in black, then have a brown saddle and brown bar tape, however, the bike actually belongs to my brother and he's paying some towards getting it road worthy, and he would prefer to keep the original frame colour for now. Plus I'm keen to get it rolling soon, a paint job and the costs involved would just delay it, so that could be a winter project after using it in summer.
 

Fab Foodie

hanging-on in quiet desperation ...
Location
Kirton, Devon.
I picked-up exactly the same bike in greyish metallic from the local tip a few years back. Mine wasn't a runner, but it's all stripped and one day will go for re-spraying and rebuilding as a 9 speed Audax/winter bike.

Word is that they were better than the Galaxy of the day :smile:
There are still quite a few around, my friend has one and there's a nice restoration story + photos on yacf.

Lucky you!
Interested in how she rides.
 

Norm

Guest
Gary P said:
I'm dating it in this era as it has a triple Biopace chainring set that is Shimano Exage 500 (remember them?).

However, this hasn't bothered me at all, despite having down tube shifters and a 7 speed rear set of cogs it's perfectly adequate for my daily commute and the odd leisure ride. It's been 20 years since I've ridden Biopace and despite their oval-ness they seem perfectly ok to me. I can't really tell the difference. Anyone else still ride them?
I've got Biopace on a clunker I've had for 20 years and I rather like it. Encouragingly, so does Sheldon. :biggrin:
 

c2c

redredrobin
Location
east bristol
my bro in law said i could have his old claude butler road bike. it was in his dads garage for about 20 years. i was hoping it would be a classic claude butler but it turned out to be an eighties non reynolds framed example with a bent seat stay. anyway i set about stripping the whole thing down to a bare frame straightened it out using the ole string around the head tube method, greased and adjusted everything and now she rides quite nicely. ill post a photo asap.
 

c2c

redredrobin
Location
east bristol
c2c said:
my bro in law said i could have his old claude butler road bike. it was in his dads garage for about 20 years. i was hoping it would be a classic claude butler but it turned out to be an eighties non reynolds framed example with a bent seat stay. anyway i set about stripping the whole thing down to a bare frame straightened it out using the ole string around the head tube method, greased and adjusted everything and now she rides quite nicely. ill post a photo asap.


here is the aforementioned badge engineered CB, that i was hoping would be a real CB
 

brokenbetty

Über Member
Location
London
Gary P said:
Anyone else resurrected a decent bike from the dead?

This one is very close to resurrected. It's a Hercules Balmoral that my parents' gardener rescued when an elderly neighbour sold his house. I found it in the middle of a pile of scrap metal behind mum and dad's shed and he said if I could get it working I could have it! It's not decent like a thoroughbred road bike is decent, but it's decent like a workhouse bike designed to last a lifetime is decent. I started it last Autumn as a project to work on when I visit my parents. I thought it was done but found there's one frozen pedal to go. I'm really looking forward to getting it back to London - if I can make it up Stamford Hill on the 3 speed hub I think I'll commute on it for a while.

Before:
3958538871_7d91bebb3d_b.jpg


After:
4427400537_8b81d866ba_b.jpg


And this one I just finished today!

Before:
4609118469_bd7444cc2a_o.jpg



The original branding had been overpainted twice by shops that resold it over the years but I think it was a Viking Mileater - I bought it for the frame but it turned out I've been able to reuse almost all the components. Apart from cables, chain and brake pads the things I replaced have been because I wanted to. Sadly I couldn't keep the original paintjob because it was too shot and the bike doesn't really justify £100s on restoring it.

After to come when I've taken some photos tomorrow...
 
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