Tor's bike life - Woodrup, Aurelius, Charge & Graham Weigh

Edit: adding @Tor's other bikes to this thread so it doesn't interfere with my bikes.

Original thread starter:

This popped up on Facebook the other day & a few friends sent it to my girlfriend & I. It's just her size (51cm TT), in brilliant condition, was available for a fantastic price (with plenty of competition, glad I got first refusal), & it was my girlfriend's birthday so I couldn't say no really! Even came with a Campag Record carbon seatpost & a SLR.

It's Columbus Nemo & pretty light. It was a custom job for the last owner, & apparently one of the last ones built at Woodrups by Kevin Sayles before he moved to Thorn. Quite nicely, we live just up the road from Woodrups & riding home with the frame we went straight past the shop, sadly they weren't open though, so will have to pop in another time for more details.

Current plans for the build are a fairly long one. My girlfriend ( @Tor ) has a cracked carbon PX roadie with full SRAM Rival Force we're going to plunder for bits to start off with. Depending on what she wants, I think we'll probably end up with some neo-retro build, not entirely decided yet. She's quite keen on having a quill stem, so will have to have a play with fork options.

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woodrup mercatone uno.. this should end up nice!

I think that Kevin is back there now.......

Yeah, he moved away & then came back. Will go & get more information about the frame when I'm back from Scotland (going touring at the end of this week, lots to do in preparation!).

The PX GS is Force not Rival.

Got a set of SRAM Rival GXP cranks for a steal on Facebook yesterday, should help get this off the ground! I've also come to realise that @Tor 's Planet X isn't full Force, but rather a mishmash of Force, Rival Apex & Tektro. Still, it's something to start with.

The next thing on the list is the fork. I've got a pretty ratty threaded carbon on my Graham Weigh which I'll try to clean up & use, since it's the only suitable threaded fork I have lying around. Should kick me into gear with getting the threaded steel fork I have for that bike tapped further so I can actually use it.

Picture from playing around with some bits yesterday evening. The geometry is quite nice, just subtly slanting top tube.

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Nice. And a quality cider to help proceedings along.

Those dropouts are unusual.

Evans in town was the only place I could find that would tap forks in Leeds. Tried a bunch of other places first!

Vintage has a 1" thread tap, been meaning to pop around with them for a while to sort them out. He bought it because he had problems finding somewhere in Leeds which would do it previously. In fairness, it's something he'd use more than most, considering his taste in bikes!

Shit, wish I'd known that before I paid Evans £30 ha ha.

Aye! Chromed & painted.

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Cranks came today. Chainrings are a bit knackered, & there's a bolt missing but I seem to be drowning in compact 10 speed SRAM chainrings at the moment, so can easily swap out. Not bad for £35.

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@TM gave me the heads up for a nice set of threaded Reynolds 531 chromed forks going on eBay. Put in an offer which was rejected, & then ended up winning them for less than the offer I made, haha! Seems a good deal for £27 (including postage). Should suit nicely with a quill stem.

Bits extracted from the Planet X. Didn't realise the shifters were Force as well, nice surprise. Also the brakes are those Planet X CNC ones - really light! Struggling to get the one out of the fork though, the allen key just spins, hmm.

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allen key

They're torx nuts, iirc

Right you are! Weirdly, the rear wasn't, but the front was. I shone a light down it but it was just full of mud so couldn't tell. Great help, cheers!

Cassette (Shimano 11-28), chain (KMC), BB (SRAM GXP team) & cables/housing (Lifeline) ordered! All that's left is the cockpit (including headset) & the saddle/pedals. The latter two are easily swapped from other bikes though.

Ordered some of the last bits at the weekend. Nitto stem & bars, Stronglight headset & some nice bottle cages from Planet X. Saddle & pedals will have to be swap jobs for now. With any luck, should have all the parts today so should be able to start building this evening. Exciting!

Getting there with the build, just need some stepped ferrules & to drill the fork to allow me to get a brake nut in. Tyres are just a placeholder at the moment, starting to think it'd look better with black tyres now to not distract from the paint.

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Managed to drill the fork to fit the brake nut with a bit we had lying around, was expecting that to be much harder than it was! Also popped into Woodrups on the way to work & they very kindly gave me some ferrules for free. Should be able to get this more or less complete this evening then!

Done! Took it down to Woodrup this morning to get a few things sorted, but most things seem fine. Nice to go in & the guy who made it come along & says that he remembers making it (twenty years ago!). @Tor is looking forward to its first proper ride.

Edit: also now on PedalRoom.

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Tidy! Gumwalls do look good, keep m!

Colourway looks fantastic with the neo-retro build.

@Rodolfo @Pakejotter Thanks! We're really pleased with it. I love the colourway, I find ones from that era so cool.