Sad old Dawes.

[simongt]

Walking into the city today ( yes, just for a change, not using my Brommy - ! ), I noticed a sad looking Dawes road bike locked up with a grotty cable lock. By the head badge, probably early '80's. Looking a bit closer, it had a flip flop rear hub; Presta valve, on an ally rim with the front rim; Schraeder valve, being steel. Weinmann sidepull brakes, cotter pin cranks with rubber block platform pedals, no evidence of a 'quality' frame and the trigger for a SA three speed still on the handlebars. The whole bike was tatty, but I still thought to myself that with a lot of tlc, that could be a decent bike again.

 

[steveindenmark]

Yes and given a lot of TLC it may become very nickable. There may be a reason that it looks as it does

 

[All uphill]

Walking into the city today ( yes, just for a change, not using my Brommy - ! ), I noticed a sad looking Dawes road bike locked up with a grotty cable lock. By the head badge, probably early '80's. Looking a bit closer, it had a flip flop rear hub; Presta valve, on an ally rim with the front rim; Schraeder valve, being steel. Weinmann sidepull brakes, cotter pin cranks with rubber block platform pedals, no evidence of a 'quality' frame and the trigger for a SA three speed still on the handlebars. The whole bike was tatty, but I still thought to myself that with a lot of tlc, that could be a decent bike again.

I've enjoyed doing up a few like that; so long as I don't add up what I've spent it's very satisfying.

 

[Gravity Aided]

I found this old Raleigh tossed out for the garbage men when my neighbors were cleaning their garage. It is beaten and rusty, but the frame is quite pristine, nothing some 3000 grit and a polish cannot revitalize. I may make it into a 650b gravel bike.

 

[FrankCrank]

Yep, nickability plays a big part in what what I'd gamble leaving locked up in the town centre. Last trip back there had a 50 quid folder stolen, maybe worth 100 quid with a few mods I'd made. Think I'd have to set the bar pretty low for nickability after that. Anyone who's visited Oxford will see more clunkers than they could shake a stick at, and all there with good reason. Not dissing the OP - I'm sure he realises that

 

[Time Waster]

The op has a different use for it than the owner I reckon. Namely a project bike or hobby bike to do up. Owner it's a near worthless looking nearly a scrapper that'll be there after the pub, work commute by train, etc.

We all have our own needs for a bike to fulfil. I hope the OP has enough bike projects to keep him happy.

 

[Gunk]

I rescued this from being thrown away last year

And turned it into this

 

[IanSmithCSE]

Good morning,

Looking at the cassette/freewheel please tell me that you use this bike for local time trials, with the rack and mudguards.

Bye

Ian

 

[T4tomo]

Lovely colour scheme, great find / rescue. as per above, not ideal gearing for hill climbing, but lovely bike for flat-ish sunday run to the cafe.

 

[GuyBoden]

Beware, some of the older, inexpensive at the time, vintage bikes are not worth investing the time and money in, unless it's as a nostalgic vanity project, a reminder of your long lost youth. Guilty as accused, I'm a multiple offender and it's very enjoyable too.

 

[Gunk]

Beware, some of the older, inexpensive at the time, vintage bikes are not worth investing the time and money in, unless it's as a nostalgic vanity project, a reminder of your long lost youth. Guilty as accused, I'm a multiple offender and it's very enjoyable too.

Very true, I was lucky to break even on the Orange CB above, it ended up being a labour of love

 

[SkipdiverJohn]

Might be a Dawes Diploma 3 speed town bike with a hi-tensile "supertube" frame. Nice enough but nothing exotic, much like an old Raleigh sports roadster.
Those scruffy old beaters serve a purpose, namely stopping your nice bikes getting nicked. Some of them are not as shite as they look either, as it wasn't uncommon to build commuter hack bikes around an old Reynolds 531 frame and give it a yard broom paint job and kit it out with low end mechanicals so it didn't attract unwanted attention.

 

[IanSmithCSE]

Good morning,

The problem with this is that you can nick these bikes and then sell them on as not being worth nicking.

If you are well organised you can then nick it back again along with a couple more, do a rattle can respray, swap a few parts around and then sell them back to the original owners via ebay.

Repeat the above until retirement.

Bye

Ian

 

[Illaveago]

This is my sad old Dawes. Some people said that it wasn't worth it. It was free and all it cost me was a lot of time and effort . I looked upon it as a challenge . I managed to salvage a lot of the parts and got it rideable . It rides well . It needs some more work doing to it but it is on hold for the moment .

 

[simongt]

This is the point here I think- is it worth it - ? If you're happy to spend time and effort on it and then it's up to you to decide how much money you want / need to spend to get the bike up and running.
Each to their own eh - ?