About a year and a half ago, after a long time lurking LFGSS, trawling through the ratbikes thread and reading countless interesting posts (and memes) I decided I would finally put a bike together.
So I purchased a Reynolds 531 Dawes Galaxy frame from ebay. The paint had been stripped and I thought it looked pretty nice:
Not long after it arrived, I took a dremel to the mudguard eyelets and cable stops. Don't be angry at me, I was new to this, and made an eager school boy error. I just wanted a clean looking frame. I have learnt my lesson and (probably) wont repeat:
I like pictures of old path racers and porteur bikes and had seen a few pictures of raw frame fixed gears, so decided I'd keep the frame bare, polish it up, and then if I liked how it rode and when inevitably it would be covered in rust, I'd get it sprayed. So I spent too much time sanding and relentlessly polishing the frame. Autosol and micromesh pads everyday, then I gave it a few coats of car wax to attempt to hold the rust back:
I purchased parts from various places, Nitto, Velo Orange, Mafac, learning as I went, buying a handful of incorrect things, re-selling and re-buying. I couldn't decide on bars, I spent too much time thinking about things that didn't matter, I sold the bars and got some others. Some parts are new, some used. All used parts I cleaned and polished, until they were really shiny and I could see my face in them, because I'm a magpie:
I had the rear wheel built up from a new Mavic Open Pro rim, a Zenith sealed bearing track hub (flip flop) and double butted spokes. The front wheel was someone's spare, a new rim built up around a lightly used Campagnolo hub:
I had long known that the frame was probably too small for me, but I built it up anyway. The plan was to get a nice little front rack and put a small wooden crate on it, to give it the porteur look and I could cycle around with a baguette or something...
Then I got busy with life and this has been sitting in my lounge ever since. I figured I should finally put it on here so I don't forget that I had a great time obsessively putting this bike together for a good few months.
About a year and a half ago, after a long time lurking LFGSS, trawling through the ratbikes thread and reading countless interesting posts (and memes) I decided I would finally put a bike together.
So I purchased a Reynolds 531 Dawes Galaxy frame from ebay. The paint had been stripped and I thought it looked pretty nice:
Not long after it arrived, I took a dremel to the mudguard eyelets and cable stops. Don't be angry at me, I was new to this, and made an eager school boy error. I just wanted a clean looking frame. I have learnt my lesson and (probably) wont repeat:
I like pictures of old path racers and porteur bikes and had seen a few pictures of raw frame fixed gears, so decided I'd keep the frame bare, polish it up, and then if I liked how it rode and when inevitably it would be covered in rust, I'd get it sprayed. So I spent too much time sanding and relentlessly polishing the frame. Autosol and micromesh pads everyday, then I gave it a few coats of car wax to attempt to hold the rust back:
I purchased parts from various places, Nitto, Velo Orange, Mafac, learning as I went, buying a handful of incorrect things, re-selling and re-buying. I couldn't decide on bars, I spent too much time thinking about things that didn't matter, I sold the bars and got some others. Some parts are new, some used. All used parts I cleaned and polished, until they were really shiny and I could see my face in them, because I'm a magpie:
I had the rear wheel built up from a new Mavic Open Pro rim, a Zenith sealed bearing track hub (flip flop) and double butted spokes. The front wheel was someone's spare, a new rim built up around a lightly used Campagnolo hub:
I had long known that the frame was probably too small for me, but I built it up anyway. The plan was to get a nice little front rack and put a small wooden crate on it, to give it the porteur look and I could cycle around with a baguette or something...
Then I got busy with life and this has been sitting in my lounge ever since. I figured I should finally put it on here so I don't forget that I had a great time obsessively putting this bike together for a good few months.