Following on from a chat at the vPY, this is my old Cannondale from 1997:
(bigger)
What else is lurking in sheds/garages/cellars?
CityCyclingEdinburgh Forum » Stuff
retrobiking
(19 posts)-
Posted 4 years ago #
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I've got all the bits for my mothballed "orange" mtb it wasn't actually made by Orange but was a nice metallic orange colour.
I can't remember exactly when I built it up but I bought the frame from a bike shop in the grassmarket and took it home on the bus when I was 16. (so not yesterday)
And my dad is dropping his antique rockhopper round for some repairs.
Posted 4 years ago # -
“old ... from 1997“
Pff my favourite (ridden) bikes are from the 80s
(Or does it only count if I had had them from new?)
Posted 4 years ago # -
This is my 1991 mountain bike that in 2004 had a repaint into blue, then was built up as a commuter, then full dress tourer, then winter hack, then a bare frame for seven years, and now back to mountain bike. Somewhere along the way it lost its XT groupset and gained DX, but currently is a mix of XT and DX*.
* Not your fancypants modern gnarly rad dude DX.
Posted 4 years ago # -
I spent yesterday doing a full bells and whistles on an Edinburgh Contour 200 Ultraglide for a friend who wants to ride with their 13-year old.
All original components - right down to chain and brake blocks. Canti brakes, Shimano Acera groupset with Rigida rims and the pièce de résistance a Kalloy suspension stem that needed an elstomer insert to be fabricated. Happened to have some material spare from my own seatpost's service kit.
I reckon it was bought in 1996 or 7, ridden once or twice in summer and put in the garage.
It's a total hoot to ride (if quite twitchy with short bars, steep angles and tractor tyres) and I quite fancy a blast on the hill in the evening before it gets handed over.
Posted 4 years ago # -
Giant Super Sierra?
Need to get a Biopace chainset back on there, and a Shimano Shark Tooth for the u-brake!
Posted 4 years ago # -
That M900 was a grand in 1997, pricey bike, probably equivalent to double that now. There's no way I would have spent that on a bike (back then).
I'd gone cycling in NY state in the early 90's and inexplicably taken my own bike, an EBC Contour 200, with me rather than hiring one. We came across a bike shop (Wappinger Falls?) that had a 'dream' Cannondale frame on sale, very cheap, so I bought it. I got a lift back to the shop collect it the day we left and swapped all the components from my bike onto the frame in the airport car park. Nothing really fitted, but it looked like a bike so customs didn't care - I was so paranoid about customs that we spattered some mud on it for authenticity. The old contour frame is still probably in a garage in Newburgh (NY), but I had a sort of Cannondale.
A few years later it was stolen. It was in our stairwell so my insurers said I was covered. The loss adjuster actually got the idea that it had been built up from components and went off with some pictures to figure out a value. They came back and said I could have the new M900 from EBC if that was OK. I pretended to think about this for a moment before saying yes.
Posted 4 years ago # -
That's a great tale. How did you get the cranks off?
Posted 4 years ago # -
@ A
Yes GSS
No to Biopace (though the XT version looks round anyway!)
Shimano Shark’s Tooth rare as...
Posted 4 years ago # -
My 1997 Edinburgh Contour 300 was stolen from my stairwell not long after I bought it (in 1997). Hadn't even had time to put it on the insurance so being skint at the time, to get around town I bought a cheap second hand MTB from a bike shop in Slateford (shop still there last time I checked). It had a Hammerite paint job and nobody wanted to nick it, so lasted a few years until replaced with an Edinburgh Courier 8-speed in 2001 which was in turn stolen (from a different stairwell) just before Xmas 2008. That was insured so replaced with a Globe hybrid which I still own. 2009 was when I got back into cycling in a big way, the rest is history. I don't own an MTB, except for an nice old Saracen Tange frame which I've been meaning to build up but haven't got round to it...
Posted 4 years ago # -
How did you get the cranks off?
Not sure on that. My friends were living in Newburgh, on The Hudson, at the time hence the slightly odd (though utterly splendid as it turned out) destination for a cycling trip. He's brought tools to help with the transfer job, so probably had a crank puller.
My memory is the biggest issue being the stem not fitting the new steerer tube (the bike shop had fitted a headset and the forks for me). In the end we left the bars off, with cables still attached, and would claim we had taken them off to pack for tansit if asked. The front mech was zip-tied on as it was too small for the downtube.
I'm never sure how unreasonably paranoid we were about customs charging me, but we felt a bit like smugglers at the time.
Posted 4 years ago # -
Had I not Bike Stationed it after I got my singlespeed I would be fetching my shopping on an EBC Town and Trail Connection from the early nineties, before the frames had serial numbers, using the porteur rack which once carried a microwave had I not sold it to urchaidh. Still have my 2005 Revolution racer frame in the shed, though I might be missing one of the washers for the headset. Still have my new-to-me-in-1991-but-old-even-then Fred James 531 frame in the shed, but don't think many of the components off it still move.
Posted 4 years ago # -
The main bike I use I bought new in 1983 - a Falcon 172(?).
The pedals are a bit newer following a crash, and I've had to replace the 27" wheel rims, and some of the 12-speed chain/gear rings which wore out, and some other bits.Posted 4 years ago # -
XT refurbishment.
Posted 4 years ago # -
@ C
Here's one, only $8 plus $19 postage (!).
My M737 XT rear mech also rusted really badly. I used clear yacht varnish instead of black paint.
Posted 4 years ago # -
@crowriver Mr Freewheelin still in Slateford. I feel he must own his premises. And benefit from a lack of competition.
Not sure if his No2 Nick is still there?
Shop was near an office i used to work at so they serviced my commuting bike. Usually good job, sometimes had to return for missing bits. Mr F worked at extreme speed and charged by the minute.
Locals could pay him weekly for the kids Xmas bike and. He could extract seized spikes from golf shoes
Posted 4 years ago # -
“I used clear yacht varnish instead of black paint.”
I used black paint because mine is an M737 so that bit was black.
Tooth on watch.
Posted 4 years ago # -
@gembo, yeah that's the place.
IIRC it was Sandy Gilchrist who recommended the shop, as I had gone in there enquiring after any second hand bikes. So phoned Freewheelin' and sure enough an MTB my size. £50 well spent back in the day, got four years out of it.
Of course nowadays SG's shop is Eastside Bikes who usually have second hand bikes for sale. Still my LBS after all these years...
Posted 4 years ago #
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