Graham Simmons
Active Member
- Location
- Southampton
I have to say, I don't know many cars from '88 that are as pretty as my bike (or indeed most bikes) from the year! This thing belonged to my mother when she bought it, in fact we even found the original receipt! It was the first bicycle I ever rode on, inside a huge plastic bucket of a child seat, and it's now done a thousand miles with me since October. It's two years older than me and much more reliable! As it is a working bike I've had to make a few upgrades, which I shall go into in a minute - I promise, by the way, that the bar tape and cables look white on any day where there is not snow everywhere!
The original women's saddle was the first thing to go - eighties ergonomics for women are not kind to a man's behind! I put on some new but fairly ageless bottle cages to replace the original bent aluminium one, and as I always keep them loaded they don't look particularly incongruous at all. To comply with both the law and common sense I've fitted the fantastic Lezyne Femto Drive lights front and rear, which perfectly match the colour of the frame, and I mounted a white Cateye on the stem for my own information!
Unfortunately the original mudguards failed around mile 50 at the rear brake bolt, so I switched them up for some SKS Chromoplastics in white to bring out the bars & saddle! SPDs went on as soon as I plucked up the courage, and soon after came some replacement white bar tape to remove the gouges that SPD pedals can cause (crash video)! Originally the bike had the extended "suicide levers", though I was able to find some replacements on gumtree for £10 from the same period, and they make the bike look fifty times faster
The most recent upgrade was to the wheels and cassette; I went from the original alloy Weinmanns to some much lighter Mavic Open Pros laced to Tiagra hubs, with a 7-cog Shimano 13-21 tooth cassette. I think these are the most obvious "new-part-on-old-bike" upgrade, but in my defense they've saved me an extra kilogram of rolling weight and have much more reliable stopping power!
I also have some Campag monoplanar brake calipers which were given to me by a friend; I'm not sure if they'll go on yet, as the caliper arms are on the "euro" left hand side and will require me to re-cable my brakes the opposite way round to maintain the lines of the bike and the central cross above the stem!
The rest of the bike is original; frame, forks, cranks, shifters, bars, stem and seatpost. Bizarrely also the derailleur cables are older than me; I found those for the brakes easy enough to replace, but I'm not so sure about messing with my drivetrain and due to the complexity of modern integrated systems bike shops always require you to leave your steed with them overnight to do the job as soon as you mention "gear cables" - no good for me, as this bike is my A to B!
Anyway that was my bike and her story; if you made it this far I can only thank you! And apologies again for the wall of text.
The original women's saddle was the first thing to go - eighties ergonomics for women are not kind to a man's behind! I put on some new but fairly ageless bottle cages to replace the original bent aluminium one, and as I always keep them loaded they don't look particularly incongruous at all. To comply with both the law and common sense I've fitted the fantastic Lezyne Femto Drive lights front and rear, which perfectly match the colour of the frame, and I mounted a white Cateye on the stem for my own information!
Unfortunately the original mudguards failed around mile 50 at the rear brake bolt, so I switched them up for some SKS Chromoplastics in white to bring out the bars & saddle! SPDs went on as soon as I plucked up the courage, and soon after came some replacement white bar tape to remove the gouges that SPD pedals can cause (crash video)! Originally the bike had the extended "suicide levers", though I was able to find some replacements on gumtree for £10 from the same period, and they make the bike look fifty times faster
The most recent upgrade was to the wheels and cassette; I went from the original alloy Weinmanns to some much lighter Mavic Open Pros laced to Tiagra hubs, with a 7-cog Shimano 13-21 tooth cassette. I think these are the most obvious "new-part-on-old-bike" upgrade, but in my defense they've saved me an extra kilogram of rolling weight and have much more reliable stopping power!
I also have some Campag monoplanar brake calipers which were given to me by a friend; I'm not sure if they'll go on yet, as the caliper arms are on the "euro" left hand side and will require me to re-cable my brakes the opposite way round to maintain the lines of the bike and the central cross above the stem!
The rest of the bike is original; frame, forks, cranks, shifters, bars, stem and seatpost. Bizarrely also the derailleur cables are older than me; I found those for the brakes easy enough to replace, but I'm not so sure about messing with my drivetrain and due to the complexity of modern integrated systems bike shops always require you to leave your steed with them overnight to do the job as soon as you mention "gear cables" - no good for me, as this bike is my A to B!
Anyway that was my bike and her story; if you made it this far I can only thank you! And apologies again for the wall of text.
