Cougar Road Build

Hi

As some of you know, I smashed the shit out of my beloved first bike in an incident with a bus.
http://www.lfgss.com/conversations/243771/
Scroll down for the gore.

Shortly before this, I bought a Terry Dolan built Cougar frame from the late 80s (I believe) from @keepitmencap. Pulled the trigger based on the paint pretty much, it's just gorgeous. Was planning on Dura Ace 7400 but the Cannondale write-off means I've had no bike since the crash, but need to be riding something now I'm fit enough again.

I'll warn you now, the first incarnation of this bike is likely to be ugly as hell. Am a lowly student, and so can't afford a new group set at the moment. Thus, I'm just going to move over the 9sp Ultegra stuff (and almost everything else, for that matter) from the old frame to the new one. The idea is to then gradually turn it into a more attractive bike, piece by piece.

Some pics from the seller to show off the paint

Frame sat in my room like this for a while

Movements...

Needed a couple of bits to make the changeover. Got a braze-on Sora 3500 front mech & some 3T bar tape on their way from Wiggle. The bike is going into the mechanic to be built next Thursday.

Thanks.

First time I see aluminium painted to look like carbon...
It'll look ace with the proper groupset/wheelset! I'd say silver group and carbonz wheelz ;)

Mine too - one of the reasons I bought it. Definitely will go for deep carbon when I can afford to (with the 3k weave for extra rad levels)

Final bits turned up this morning so I'm more or less ready to go

Does anyone know if this frame is likely to require a 27mm seat post? Using a tape measure (because science) I got closer to 27.2 but the post I have in this size does seem a little bit too wide. It also weighs as much as the moon, so replacing it is high on the list of priorities anyway

Cheers

Agree on the paint job, very nice! But mainly popping in to say I'm glad you're back riding again. I remember seeing those photos and they certainly put my minor spills in perspective...

Safe riding and enjoy the new build!

Thanks mate. I'll be a lot more cautious for the first few weeks for certain.. I still get a bit shook up if a bus passes me at speed when I'm walking on the pavement.

Beautiful frame, I reckon something dark grey and low profile for the rims could look sweet

Been gathering parts. Build is now booked in for Monday, including new:
Deda RHM 02 bars
Deda RSx 01 inline seat post
Shimano CN-HG73 chain

Also have a bottle & cage on their way from Wiggle

The Ksyriums from the Cannondale aren't in the best nick (few dings and dents in the rear rim, and the rear hub is now quite sticky), so looking at wheel options as the next big change. Probably going to go for 50mm carbon clinchers from China, which I'm thinking I may have laced to some Hope Mono hubs. Won't be happening until I can afford it, mind you

In the long run, I will build this with much nicer stuff. Found a (bloody expensive) Time carbon 1" stem which I will keep my eye on. But for now, I'll just be happy to have a bike for the first time in 2 & 1/2 months

Mid '90s I reckon.

Steel (rather than aluminium) I reckon.

What does the sticker on the seattube say @OllieTheWizard ? The paint is awesome.

What makes you think it's a 90's bike @miro_o? (Genuine interest, my knowledge of anything pre-21st century is shocking)

You're correct on the frame material. It's 25 Cr Mo4 micro alloyed steel, not the lightest but I'll be keeping an eye out for a sunday-best racer as time goes on... This will be a workhorse

It's a guess. The shaped DT tubing (and paint) is all I'm going on.

I owned this briefly, although I never built it up. I found it sort of by accident whilst trying to buy a winter frame. The tube shapes are really cool and I should imagine they're really stiff.

I'm not sure what ST size 25CrMo4 is. Someone on here might. You could ask your mechanic to measure it (using a caliper).

And don't worry about weight, just get the engine tuned ;-)

ST size? As in, seat-tube diameter? Forgive my ignorance!

Yeah, different tubings have differing internal diameters.

The seat post I've bought is 27.2mm, seems a little tight but think it will go in with a bit of lubricant & effort (woof)

Alas, needed a 27.0 post - which I've now ordered

Otherwise, everything is on and the bike currently looks like this:

I rode it down the seafront for a couple km's without a saddle, just because after 2.5 months I couldn't help myself. Even without being able to sit down and take it all in, it felt absolutely magical - I felt at home. Grin opened up on my face and stayed there for hours!

It turns out that, following the Cannondale write-off, a lot of the components were more damage than initially realised. Primarily... the chainset is wavy, causing a lot of slipping in the gears, and so I need to look out for a replacement asap. The BB is octalink so will probably change it out for something square taper simultaneously, to open up my choices. Following that, I will begin looking at wheel options. I may go with something like this (http://www.yoeleobike.com/carbon-wheels-700c-clincher-50mm.html ) but I'm fairly fickle so will make more firm decisions nearer the time I can actually afford it!

It turns out that, following the Cannondale write-off, a lot of the components were more damage than initially realised. Primarily... the chainset is wavy, causing a lot of slipping in the gears, and so I need to look out for a replacement asap

I think that you should go back to something a little more sympathetic to the (est.) age of the frame... 6400 Tricolour!
Pretty cheap to be had, and plenty about. Beautiful components too. Keep the 9sp shifters & cassette mind - just go for chainset, brakes, and derailleurs.
My 2c

Get tiagra cranks, they look a lot like dura ace 7800 and you'll have the benefit of external bb, think they're fairly cheap too and the tiagra logo should come off easily

http://www.wiggle.co.uk/shimano-tiagra-4650-hollowtech-ii-10-spd-compact-chainset/?lang=en&curr=GBP&dest=1&utm_source=pla&utm_medium=base&utm_campaign=uk&kpid=5360448603

Linked compact by mistake but double easily available too

Good call.

Looking good bud, cant tell you how much i enjoyed mine when i had it, wish i knew what model it was!

if you can stretch to 7400 in the future, go for it, had mine running on 7403 8speed sti with 7700 cranks, just a dream to ride.

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@TM - I like the look of those, and have heard they're good for the money - will give them a go, thanks

@Matisse - Do you know any info about the frame at all? All I know is that it was built by Terry Dolan, but that's about as far as my knowledge goes. My original plan for this was 7400 DA, and I still think that will probably be it's final incarnation.. But for the time being it needs to be cheap, durable, easy to maintain, and easy to find spares. For that reason I'll be sticking with the mismatched modern-ish Shimano drivetrain for the next few months at least

Nice looking bike you've got there. Regarding its age, it's likely to be 1998 at the earliest, perhaps 99 or even 2000, the reason being is that the colour scheme is based upon the Colnago c40's that the Casino team rode between 1997 and 1999. Cougar also did two other similar carbon paint finishes with either orange or blue accents, replicating the Rabobank and Mapei C40's.

I was lucky enough to have a Colnago Dream back in 1999 which I ordered in the Mapei carbon C40 paint design and it was amazing to look at, and barely recognisable that it was aluminium.

@OllieTheWizard no idea about the frame at all, which seems to be my thing, the last 4 bikes i've had have all be odd frames that it seems to be really hard to get info on.

This is how it looks currently. The Mavics were damaged in the crash so I went for some Shimano RS31s on account of the winter months rapidly approaching. I also upgraded the brakes to box fresh 105 jobbies. The white tape lasted all of 5 minutes so will be reverting to black in the near future. I've just ordered an Ass Saver as I'll be damned if I'm putting mudguards on this thing. No idea if they're any good but at €7.99 I thought it was worth a punt. Will also be getting rid of the tyres as they were nicely matched up on the Cannondale, although look a bit dog on this. Will probably replace them with the same tyres in black, as I love how they grip. New chain set is also still on the agenda..

Really nice build, I love the colour scheme.

Can't help but think this would look 10x more awesome with gumwalls and stickers removed from the rims.