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@Rik_Van_Looy
Starting to make some progress now....
I'm a bit niggly about ancient aluminium bars - chromed steel's worth the weight penalty IMHO, and I picked these up for less than a tenner incl. postage.
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Bar tape perished when touched but everything else was salvageable and the brake levers polished up rather nicely. I'll try and find a stainless domed nut for the stem clamp as the zinc coated steel nut looks a bit crap
I've also solved one of the key spec challenges: Saddle
Unfortunately the obvious choice is a Brooks but this is at odds with the philosophy of this build for the following reasons....
1) I don't really like them (admittedly I've not ridden on one for 18yrs)
2) They're part of the "Rivendell-faux-vintage-retroscene"
3) No time to break it in
I know there are other options (Wrights, ideale, lepper etc, but most of the above rules apply to these too)
The only other "period correct" option I could think of was a Unicantor - a mate offered one on loan, but added that it was the saddle on which Doyle won the 1980 worlds so I had to turn him down as it would be to great a burden of responsibility!!!
I was therefore delighted to win this little number - a San Marco version of the Unicantor on the ebay for 99p -
](http://rover.ebay.com/rover/1/710-53481-19255-0/1?icep_ff3=2&pub=5574889051&toolid=10001&campid=5336525415&icep_item=320908718982&ipn=psmain&icep_vectorid=229508&kwid=902099&mtid=824&kw=lg)
[URL="http://rover.ebay.com/rover/1/710-53481-19255-0/1?icep_ff3=2&pub=5574889051&toolid=10001&campid=5336525415&icep_item=221097360539&ipn=psmain&icep_vectorid=229508&kwid=902099&mtid=824&kw=lg"]
The tan colour scheme goes nicely with the beautiful red paint...
I think this ticks all the boxes, in particular that it's of comparable quality to a unicantor but is sufficiently obscure that it remains hipster tax exempt making it ideal for this build.
On the subject of funding, I cleaned up the Shimano STX chainset fitted to the original frame and shifted it on the ebay for £28 so after the hubs, rims, tyres, frame, bars, stem, headset and saddle I'm currently about £12 down...
I then stripped the bits and bobs from the frame and washed/degreased it. I ended up having to use a razor blade to remove the more crusty bits of scum, The BB is of the modern symmetrical design and won't work with a traditional fluted chainset, but it came out easily. Chainstays are devoid of paint and have been coated in red oxide primer. I had some white paint in the shed which I've used to brighten things up a bit (applied with a 2" paintbrush mid DIY task - I thought it would accentuate the pikey credentials!!)
The headset fitted to the frame is a primax needle roller which is in pretty good condition - here's the frame with bars, stem and headset....
Next job is to dig out the parts bins and see what I do and don't need to finish the build, and build the wheels, but so far, it seems to be going to plan!