Making Plans For Nigel: Nigel Dean Tour Ace 531ST Mixte (now various Nigel Deans)

Picked this up yesterday for a modest sum. Not quite sure what to do with it; it'll clear a 35c tyre and the brakes are surprisingly decent. Could make a fun lil #gravel whip without getting carried away too much.

It's pretty rough, but sound. Unsure whether to get it blasted + painted, or just clean it up and leave it in it's 'honest' state. I guess I'll see when I strip it down...

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Full mudguards and racks a la Dawes Galaxy?
No new paint just a clean up?

PS sorry for the biased suggestion, I've been commuting on a Galaxy recently and find it perfect

[Sorry, was meant to say: nice find]

That’s really neat.

Yeah maybe... I'm tempted just to chuck some cables on it, pump the tyres up and use it as a (way too small, but cute) pub (remember them?) bike.

Think it could be fun with some knoblies and 1x7 with a bar-end shifter, though.

Ta, think it could be quite sweet.

Someone in my fam would love this :)

Let me chuck a chain, cassette and some cables on it, and we can see where we're at. It'd be cool for someone to get some good use out of it.

That's a great bike. Always fancied a Nigel Dean. I've heard some great stories about him here on the Island over the years.

My third. They've all ridden pretty well.

...been a little while. Finally had the chance to strip it down, clean it, and go over it with some car polish.

Always nice when everything comes off with limited swearing. Actually tidier than I thought, kinda digging the subtle accidental 'crackle' effect on the lacquer.

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Waiting for parts still (obviously), but slowly getting there.

Not sure about the cloth tape - have some patterned woven stuff on the way which might look coo. idk. + some fatter tyres.

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that oatmeal colour tape is hot imo,

good teaser shots, looks ace! v excited to see it done!

Loving this build when your finished I’ll sell you another ND frame and your collection wil be up and running

Haaa yeah nice. This is my third somehow already.

Decided it needed a bit of colour. And some fatter rubber.

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Love that tape and always a sucker for a mixte build.
Will this be going full functional with racks and nice mudguards?

I don't think so, at the moment. Putting it together for a mate, she just wants something to pootle about on.

I kind of wanted to make it a 1x7 #grav build (plenty of clearance), but 'I want more gears' won

Really liking this.

Photo dump incoming:

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more

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great bike, v well done

cheers, quite happy with it in the end.

Okay so I managed to re-use everything except the tyres, tape, brake pads, cables, and saddle in the end.

All the original Suntour groupset turned out to work fine, hubs are good after a service, stops really well.

Wanted to do a bit 'more' with it, but it's also kind of nice it being mostly original. A friend is supposed to be collecting it today.