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@BobbyBriggs
This time from the late 60s, frame number 30524. 531 butted, of course.
The frame was my grandpa's retirement present to himself, and he built it up with a Sturmey AW hub (having come of age as a cyclist in the 1930s he was never sold on derailleurs). My dad inherited it in 1981 and it had much abuse as a utility machine until about 10 years ago when it was retired and has hung rusting on the garage wall ever since. It's dad's 70th birthday this summer so me and my siblings (or rather my labour, their cash) are restoring it as a surprise for him. My step brother 'stole' it the other day and I picked it up this weekend. We left a note in its place, but he hardly ever goes in the garage so hopefully won't notice it's missing before he receives it at the end of May.
It's not going to be period correct because we want it to be as versatile and simple to use/maintain as possible for dad. It was never a proper Mistral because it was built up with grandpa's existing components anyway - mostly from the 50s. The only things I'm planning on keeping are the GB stem and bars. The headset disintegrated when I took it out, and one cotter pin was stuck solid in one of the cranks so I just removed the BB with one crank still there because I didn't want to do any damage with the hammer! The 50s Williams cranks might scrub up ok for use on another machine, once I've got that pin out, though the chainring's very worn.
The rear dropouts are 119mm and a 5 speed Sturmey will drop right in without having to worry about respacing. With a front ring of 42 and rear sprocket of 21 teeth, this will give an 'on the flat' 72 gear inches in 4th gear and 1st gear of 33.8 for the hills, which seems reasonable for dad.
I took it to Ellis Briggs yesterday to be resprayed - the rust on the chainstays will leave some pitting visible but it isn't terminal - and am currently on the hunt for decals. So far I can't find exactly the right ones. PlanetX don't have the same typeface on theirs, though some on ebay are a slightly better match.
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