Dr Dave's bike prescription

After a couple of years random posting I am starting a thread to bring together my bike build projects.

I am an NHS hospital doctor but have been off work for over a year dealing with a serious illness. I have found, like many others, that bikes and bike building have been a great help / distraction.

I have been into cycling and tinkering with bikes since my teens but in the last few years have become much more interested in building and looking after them myself, rather than paying someone else to do it for me!

Having grown up in the 80s and 90s I have always thought this the golden age for bikes and cycling style. I am sure others will disagree! Despite the rampant doping at the time, it saw the pinnacle of steel frame building (and eye-wateringly colourful styling), and I don't think bikes or cyclists have ever looked better before or since. This, and the pleasure of riding a really good steel bike, have led to my interest in rebuilding frames from that era. I have developed a particular taste for the neo-retro / resto-mod / MGOOF style - I love old frames but I also prefer the function, and often the form too, of modern groupsets in terms of performance, safety and ease of maintenance.

So, I started building bikes first for myself and then for friends and family. I know most forum users are easily capable of this sort of thing, but if anyone on here does need any help with a build of this kind, please give me a shout!

I will post pictures of my previous builds (in chronological order) first and will then keep updating with my current projects as I finish them.

The first bike I built for myself a couple of years ago was this Peugeot - it is a 1988 Aneto, one of the mid range frames from that year. Reynolds 501 lugless welded tubing, I love the paintjob! I built it up with a NOS Campagnolo Veloce groupset from a few years ago, and an old pair of pretty basic Fulcrum wheels that had belonged to another of my bikes. As a first build this one seemed to take ages, with a lot of figuring out, but it was a great bike to commute on!

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After a while I decided that an Italian groupset on a French frame was unacceptable so the Aneto was taken apart and replaced with this Edi Strobl ES special, a beautiful 80s (maybe early 90s?) Columbus SL frame bought on this forum from Budapest. I used the Veloce groupset and finishing kit from the Peugeot, and some deeper section Campy wheels. This is still my commuting bike and is an absolute dream to ride.

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Incidentally the Peugeot went to my brother, who rebuilt it with 105, which I think is a great improvement on Veloce for this frame! yes, the QR is on the wrong side of the front wheel in this picture, it has been corrected!

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Having properly caught the bug I found this really lovely Gianni Motta Personal, a fantastic 80s frame which is particularly pretty. You can just about see in the second picture that the seatstays are beautifully curved around the wheel and brake bridge. This is built up with Potenza and Zonda wheels, it now has Look pedals too. It is lovely to ride and now lives in the very hilly Welsh countryside where I ride it when I can get out of London.

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Next was this Scanini, built for a friend for commuting. The frame must be early 90s, it has a cool airbrush paint job that doesn't really come out in the picture. We used Tiagra and the old Fulcrum wheels that had been on the Peugeot. He loves it and told me that he hadn't ever really enjoyed cycling before we built this bike, because his bikes had always been horrible hybrid type things...

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This Bogardi was for another friend, it is built with Campy Centaur and Miche wheels. I think the black groupset on the yellow frame looks great. This picture was taken before final adjustment of the bar position!

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This one is a 1992 Peugeot Prestige, made with the rare Reynolds 708 tubeset. It has an amazing black / purple metallic fade paintjob. I built it with SRAM Rival and Mavic wheels. I rode it for a bit and then gave it to my dad.

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Lots of effort put in to these, well done! Really like the Bogardi.

They all deserve much better tyres! Please check out the tyre thread for some suggestions :)

One more for now: another Peugeot, a 1987 aluminium Comete. The Comete was apparently recalled by Peugeot a couple of years later due to fears about litigation given the novel construction, but according to my google research many are still being ridden today. This one was in incredibly good condition and the frame seems very solid. I built it for my cousin with 105 and fulcrum wheels. We used the original seat post, stem and bars, didn't get the lever position quite right on this one! My cousin loves it and hasn't had any problems, it won't be ridden hard so I'm not too worried. If it breaks, we will have an excuse to build another one!

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Thanks! I agree about tyres, effort was made to keep the cost down on a lot of them. A few have been upgraded since the pictures were taken, on my own bikes I am a bit of a tyre obsessive!

OK, just one more and then I should go and do something more useful for a bit. This one was built for my sister, it's a 90s Denti Liberty. Columbus SL tubing and absolutely amazing paintjob / decals, I've put in a couple of progress pics to show some of the details like the panto ladybirds on the fork crown and the ladybird head badge. Tiagra groupset and Shimano wheels. (Awful BLB seat post was only temporary!)

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very nice! I really like the modern groupset/old frame thing. Nice combination of function and classic-ness :)

Thanks!

Another build for a friend, this is a 1990 Peugeot Racing Team 700, built with Tiagra. Another brilliant paintjob. The rack was added at the new owner's request!

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This one is a bit special: a Concorde Squadra from 1988 / 89. Columbus SLX, this was a PDM team race bike (Lemond, Kelly, Theunisse, Alcala etc). I am pretty sure I once saw this frame or a very similar one on here somewhere. This was built for my sister's boyfriend. 105 and Fulcrum wheels.

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Another really nice frame built for my other sister's BF. Peugeot from around 1986, Reynolds 531. Model decal says Aneto, its a PY-10 or similar, bought on here. He's quite new to cycling so we built it with flat bars for town riding. New wheels, 2nd hand Tiagra groupset but an 80s crankset to keep the retro look. Changed the tyres to 25mm Vittorias after this picture was taken!

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Having built all these bikes for other people I thought I deserved one for myself. This is a Peugeot 753 Pro from the late 80s I think, another one bought on this forum. Really light and great to ride. Built with SRAM Red and Mavic wheels. I rode this a lot last autumn but I am currently in the process of rebuilding it with Dura Ace 9000 which suits the bike much better. I will post a new pic when its finished.

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Most recently, I built this one for a friend. Olmo Scatto, not sure of the year but must be 80s. It is immaculate, either NOS or fully restored. Columbus SLX, this is a beauty. 2nd hand Campagnolo Centaur and ex-demo Campy wheels, very pleased with this one.

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Next projects are:

1. Rebuild Peugeot 753 Pro with DA9000
   
2. 1986 Gios Compact, Record CT groupset
   
3. Potential modern carbon summer bike TBC
   

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That Gios looks lovely. Any close ups of the drop outs and the BB shell cutaways?

Will take some later!

I love all of these, but this Pug is my favourite due to the colour scheme. It's just so good.
Hope your health got better/will get better soon!

Yes the Z era Peugeots are so good. I have seen a few higher end steel frames around with similar paint jobs (including one on here a few months ago I think) but never in my size.

And thanks, I am getting better and hopefully will be back at work within the next few months. Cycling is definitely helping my recovery, although my fitness has gone and I’m a bit feeble right now...

The black Reynolds pug is lush.