• So last year I bought this:

    A deceptively smashing and very nice condition 1988 Mercian King of Mercia in pearlescent white and branded as Denton, of Newcastle bike shop fame. Denton had a lot of top frame builders like Donohue, Dave Yates, M.Steel, Joe Waugh supply frames for them, though the name itself isn't very well known, thankfully as this was a bit of a bargain as a result (it might have been the set up that helped though ; / )

    Mostly shimano deore 7 speed group, campag c-record wheels, wrong sized seatpost and flat bars. Hmm. I switched the bars and seatpost/saddle immediately and tonked about on it for a while quite happily, but then I got my A-race bike written off by a car-smash and hurriedly shoved a 10 speed Campag Veloce group on it as it was going begging, which I was very happy with but after a hard winter in Sweden and another move I'm giving it some much needed TLC by stripping it and re-building so I'm thinking over what I want to do with it and whether I should take it back to old-school settings or keep with the modern...

    I really want it to be as practical as possible in terms of using it for fast audax/club runs and lightish touring with front/rear racks and mudguards, but also not so precious I can't lock it up in town, which is of course always a problem when you want to invest some love in a build.

    As it looks now:

    After a day in the shed fettling and touching in paint chips and stripping/cleaning the cantis:

    I tried a set of white Froggleg cantis on, but not only did the white ano look naff, I realised how shit they are compared to the robust shimano ones that are already on, with their nice plastic seals to keep the springs clean and easy toe-in adjustments. I did swap the pads to nice new Swiss-Stop Thin Stops though to try and boost their effectiveness a touch as the generic ones were a bit shifty and made my rims really grubby.

    I've investigated putting the Deore back on but with a 10 speed wheelset and bar-ends, but this seems too much faff to make it work and it's all pretty lumpy kit anyway.

    So, when the re-build begins in earnest I'm toying with either moving to bar-ends and a modern Shimano 10 speed pure-touring XT set-up for the retro-touring functionality with nice modern running gear, or just staying with the 10s Campag compact, or moving to C-Record 8 speed and a wider ratio rear cassette to help get up the hills with an extra 20kg attached (i'm still young enough!)

  • Deltas? for realz? Wouldn't fancy them loaded up going downhill

  • no, would keep the canti's on of course! I was just cleaning loads of parts today and sorting out my spares bin... of which I have many as you can see so i'm going to sell any duplicates and oddities I don't need to fund my other builds-an impulse buy means there's another thread in the offing : /

  • This is crying for some hammered mudguard.

  • Ha! First thing I spotted were the Deltas.

    Nice story. Keeping it "Denton" fits with the low-key theme and I do like to see a "lived-in" bike: Botox versus real life.

    Subbed!

  • Goddamn it, I kept hearing that damn man shouting in Richmond Park every time I read Denton.

  • I did call the bike 'Fenton the Denton' for a while after that but it never really caught. Pretty much just been answering to 'Beastie' for the last wee while...

  • the headbadge is beautiful.

  • had a few sessions in the shed and this is what has come out so far....

    still sans garde-boux and on skinny tyres, not sure whether to stick on some knoblies (got some vittoria HG CX tyres) or the winter Conti ultra-grips as the roads around here are better suited for moon-landing vehicles.

    Sticking with the cheapy mudguards till i've got some more smash then want to get something a bit sexier-the rear rack is back on have some njs pedals with christophe cages and straps that will get poked on.

    The Pro-Lite wheels are maybe a bit 'sporty' looking but are actually really strong and light so I'm loathe to take them off at. The only other 10 speed wheels I have are shimano fitting White Industries Tracker hubs on silver ambrosio excellights that although more classic looking, are 28h front and rear so not ideal for whacking on a tourer at any rate, and besides that I'd rather not piss about with a j-tek anyway.

    Still, quite happy so far but plenty to keep tinkering with...

  • put some 32c knobblies on today-went for a ride on my Grubaix special and fucked the front wheel on the lunar road surface so I figure toughness > rolling resistance. Might invest in some 28c slick Gators when I have the coin, Vittoria XG's will do for now and makes it look more aggressive.

    Deliberating a wee 3/4 day tour up the west coast in the next few weeks taking in the Applecross peninsula to break the beastie in proper and get some good miles in the leggies...

  • oh, also put bell, rack, shitty saddlebag and rear mudguard on of course. will put front on when i can find long enough m5's : /

    also going to put some atac's on for using with my retro sidi's/ csb

  • Delicious frame there

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Gruber's Uber-Audax/Turer Projekt: 'Denton/Mercian King of Mercia' Revamp

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