Mid life crisis MTB’s - Raleigh 531 / Dale M400 / Giant Escaper

Strong return, good find. Will be watchibg this come on

An evening spent with the wonderful smell of autosol has left things looking pretty good actually. Not aiming for nos/show bike shine, just to remove most of the tarnish that’s built up over the years.

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Insurance has confirmed the payment for he stolen dale, so it’s time to start buying parts.

Big choices are:

Drop or mtb bars? Enjoyed the drops on the dale but can’t help think that old school mtb bars will look great, plus I've found some NOS Tioga bars that match the stem.

If flat, is wider always better? I have literally no experience with mtb bars

Rack, Pizza style or radonneur?

Guards, Black or silver?

Envy as hell mate, never seen a DX grouppo so pristine before and that's my very favourite groupset of all time!

^ I think it all depends on what/where you'll ride it, right? I have comfy, swept-back townie bars on my retro MTB conversions as nowadays I'm not really bombing them just riding around casually.

So true, mostly town and a little trail, so flat/swept bars seem sensible

Avenger Disassembled.

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Headset was in great nick, races, tracks and seals all perfect. Greased it up with Tester approved goo, then fitted the stem. V happy.

ordered a tonne of parts today. Went for swept bars, found some Tioga tange prestige bars and a seat post nos on a German website.
Time Link flat pedals, as I may want to ride clipless every now and then.
XT M735 shifters and levers, but paired with a 12-32 7 speed cassette.
The triple stays, 48/38/28 giving me allll the gears!!!
The Hope wheels had to go, I'm not cool with buying a frame only to have to file it down Tbh, but picked up some Deore DX hubs on grey Matrix rims, classy.
Tyres, I think I've got a pair of Conti Speed Kings for £50, but that could be too good to be true.
So really just need to find a saddle. Thinking Flite or Flite Max.

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Looking good buddy!

Awesome!

Parts beginning to trickle in, did score a pair of speed kings for £50, which is a bit of a barg.

Found a saddle, Flite Trans Am Titanium, which is on its way from Italy.

And these turned up, which should go with the DX group nicely.

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Wheels arrived, DX M650 on Matrix Single Track rims.

Needed a good service but I love working on these old Shimano hubs, so well built. The DX is basically the Ultegra/600 of the mountain groupsets and it shows. Everything is well sealed and machined, a good clean and a generous amount of Tester approved grease and feel like new.

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This is gonna be good!

Speedkings look surprisingly small as 2.2s.

Bars and seat post arrive from Germany tomorrow, plenty of progress over the weekend with any luck

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Damn, always wanted those tyres but was sure my frame wouldn't fit them.

Speedkings look surprisingly small as 2.2s.

Could you measure them for me maybe, please? And do you know how wide your rims are?

I'll get the calipers out in the morning for ya

I'll get the calipers out in the morning for ya

Much obliged.

Saw this yesterday. Seems like a good thread for it.

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Nice!

51mm Width across the tyre, 50mm from rim edge to top.

Rims measure 22mm on the outside, so probs 19-20mm internal.

Good to know. Thank you kindly.

Lots of lovely little design ideas on this frame, this FD cable pulley to enable the top routing is chief among them. There's obvs a reason why this didn't catch on but, I like it all the same.

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Paint looks in great condition, too!

Classic DHL tom foolery, sat delivery attempted at 8am. No card left. Cheers bud, totally in as per.

Anyway, cracked on with what I could. Looking forward to getting it finished.

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Yesss.

Those tyres are looking badass on this. And I’m not really a person to use the term ‘badass’ ever.