Electric blue to Jeff Bruce

I did a bit of research on 731os as I never heard of it before. Turns out it's a rare tube set that was only made for a few years in the early 90's and was eventually superseded by the modern tubesets which could be welded like 853 and 631. So basically what I can gather 731os is basically a 531 that has been heat treated and has ribs on the inside of the tubes at the ends. Also as the name implies it's oversize sizing.

Had a look down the seat tube and you can see the ribbing here at the bottom... so definitely 731 OS. Also it's very light at 1.6kg and 620g for the fork. Also it's very stiff, so feels like it's heat treated and won't be easily cold settable.

Here's a bit of a mockup with the bits from the old bike

I swapped out the brakes for late 90's Chorus ones, I love these ones as they have a hidden bolt detail with the shape of the arms very sinuous and flowy.

Tyre clearance is tiiigght. No more than 25mm so pretty correct for race frame from this period.

Took it for a spin and rides beautifully, bit less twitchy than the Rourke, and also is a bit more aggressive.

I've decided to get the frame properly repainted, as cool as this paint job is, it's flaking off already which is why it was so cheap.

Some inspo/mood pics. I have a light blue metallic in mind, perhaps with a flip/pearl finish?

Very very impressed!

So, I'm a bit of a typography nerd. So I didn't like the original typeface that was used you can see above, it looks a it unconsidered. I did a few options for the typeface for the downtube logo

I decided on the 2nd one in "Blank's Script" which I edited in Illustrator and printed out for testing for size/position


Same with the Reynolds 731OS logo which is not so easy to find! My aim is to go for a pretty minimal downtube decal and a tubing one on the seat tube with nothing else.
I got the decals printed out in mirror finish, originally thought maybe white, but I like the shinyness and will suit all the shiny components.

Good stuff!

Frame is back from the painters. I decided to go with a Citroen base colour called Amerindian Blue but with a clear coat with a slight red flip.

The original fillet braze job was a bit "blobby" so while they did do a bit of smoothing and filling to it, to make it fully smooth would have been quite a big task. It's not perfectly smooth but I kind of feel it adds to the character a bit. The colour flip is quite hard to photograph but it's more obvious in sunlight and at certain angles. I also got a front derailleur braze on brazed on as well as a second set of bottle cage mounts.

Looks amazing

Superb

Original paint was nice but new one is far far better (to my taste). Really suits the bike. Plus the decals are spot on, typo and finish wise.
Groupset looks mint, will be perfect.

You lucky to have 25c clearance, got myself some classic italian frame but that bastard won't take more than 23c at the front. Pretty harsh ride when I switch for the communuter with notsobigfortoday'sstandards 32c.

That's really nice! Classy.

10/10, what a transformation!

Lovely job, really digging the shiny text

Very excellent. Looks fantastic. Goes with the carpet, too.

Hi , where did you get it sprayed / finished … ? very nice job

Wuff! What a stunning paint job!

love this

Ok I built this up now with the old parts. Love these older bikes, it literally took me like 2-3 hours to do a full build from a bare frame. No chance these days with integrated everything, electronics blah blah. I swapped the saddle out for a white one to give it those 90's vibes. Seems to work better than black! Nice to have a bike with barely any black on it, only white and polished!

Tyres have been changed to Vittoria Corsa Pro TLR in 24mm, as it will struggle to clear any larger. Ride quality is surprisingly good, in fact I think these are much more supple casing than the GP5000 AS TR given they are narrower. Also just love the ribbed tread pattern look and gumwalls, looks vintage even though they are thoroughly modern and setup tubeless!

Oh and I also took some photos in the nice sunset.

Porn

Great transformation!

Wow, that’s so nice!

Looks almost sci-fi with the wishbone & bottle cages.

Glorious. Winning the CP game at the moment.

Paint job was done by Blue Whippet up in Stoke on Trent. They’re connected with Rourke cycles. Funnily enough got onto them because I asked about the old Dave Hinde frame and saw they did refinishing. Happy with their work and they were very attentive.