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xrayspex
@velocipede65
I have been off the bike for the whole of lockdown, having broken my back in 4 places.....
Part of my recovery plan was to sell all my bikes and consolidate them into one special one - of course, what eventually happened was that once I was awash with cash from the sales, I simply splashed it on a load more bikes and projects (so I now have more bikes than I started with!)- but at least those projects have kept me occupied (inc the unusual Dave Hinde here: https://www.lfgss.com/conversations/348722/#comment15329276).
This one is a Terry Dolan built Cougar; 56cm in 653. It's got a full first gen Chorus groupset, except for the wheels which are actually later Record 9 speed Exa drive and it has the 9 speed part-titanium cassette. As it runs on downtube friction shifters, the shifting is perfect. Rims are pretty much unmarked and the hubs are so smooth you'd think they were new!
The bike has clearly been stood in a shed for a long time and hadn't been used. It needed a bit of a pep-up (new tyres, bar tape, saddle treated with proofide as the leather was completely dried out), and I've fitted a set of Deda Speciale bars just to give it a more modern riding position but keeping the original looks.
Everything is in pretty mint condition apart from some chips on the top tube and the top tube paint is a bit faded too - my guess is that it's been stood somewhere for a very long time with the saddle and top tube in direct sun and the rest not - the rest of the paint and all of the chrome is pretty immaculate.