Dawes step-through mishmash project. Completed

I got this Dawes step-through the other day and am going to build it for my partner. I gotta say I/she was a bit smitten with the colour and the tubing and forgot to ask sensible Qs like, what size are the wheels? so that was silly and is TBC. It does have forks, but see below.

I'm more of a retro MTB guy and so your help with this is needed. I have lots of parts I'm hoping to use to keep the cost down, such as cranks, cassette, chain, shifters, BB.

Rough plan, with your permission, is:

• black wheels, silver finishing kit
  
• 1x or 2x 8 retro mtb drivetrain, incl xt thumbies.
  
• swept back bars, flat bar levers
  
• 700c wheels, which I'm hoping will fit with standard drop road callipers - will check this tonight.
  
  

Some obscurities:

• JIS headset (glad I checked!)
  
• 80mm front wheel spacing?!?! Not even Sheldon Brown lists this spacing. I'd be worried the forks were squished, if it weren't for the fact the frame was hand delivered and the guy said they'd just stripped it, plus it reads 80.00mm on the digital callipers.
  
  

So on the forks thing, I guess these are my options:

• coldset forks - a whole 20mm, don't massively trust myself to do this. I've asked Argos for a quote as I live near them.
  
• build a new wheel with £17 80mm hub from bankrupt, yes they do exist.
  
• new forks?
  
  

What would you do?

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I'd go and buy some threaded bar, couple of washers and nuts and spread the fork. You'll have to go wider than 100mm as they will spring back some. Go in small increments unwinding and measuring it will be fine.

Nice! I was watching this one too. It looks rad, subbed!

Ah, interesting and sensible sounding method, thanks. I was picturing myself like standing on one of the legs and doing the ol' pull the other leg. Which feels like impeding disaster.

I vote build wheel with cheap 80mm wide hub and be sure to grease the bearings properly.

Ok so it’s 1 all so far.

I offered up the forks against a 700c wheel just now and am quite aghast at the distance… measured it and looks like I’d need 70mm drop brakes?!

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Do you have the frame yet?
If yes, stick a wheel in the rear, measure the brake drop from there.
Tektro do a decent lonnnng drop caliper, R559, 57-73mm, stick some decent pads in (koolstop salmon or swisssstop bxp blue compound), and you're good to go.

Yep got the frame. Will measure the rear too

Cheers for the tips 🙂

What frame is it? Can't quite make out the faded model name on the top(drop)tube.

Ah! A Dawes step-through! Lovely!
Here's the one I refurb-ed last year for my mum.
Like yours, there's a ton of clearance. I was actually lucky to find fabric that worked with 700c rims...

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It’s a galaxy

Very nice! Lucky you with canti mounts

Of course it's a galaxy.
Originally came with 27" wheels I'm assuming, so 700c should be grand.
Dia compe also do some centre pull long drop brakes if you wanted a more retro look.

A few parts beginning to gather. Largely silver so far. Got a 38t hope narrow wide chainring and a seatpost on the way. Still need to get a few bits. Not sure on brake levers yet. Saddle/grips tbc too but I’m guessing just black like the tyres? Or is that too boring???

I also bit the bullet and took the forks to get tracked to 100mm by Argos since they’re round the corner, and the amount of things I’d have needed to source to either build a wheel or track them myself was too much to bother with.

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I run Tektro R559 callipers on a Dawes Galaxy with 700c wheels (originally 27 1 1/4 too). They work great!

Going for left hand drive

my partner rides everywhere fakie

good to hear! any pics?

https://www.lfgss.com/conversations/378816/#comment16656600

Couple in here!

Hopefully able to make some progress on this now. Picking up the forks from Argos this week, then I can fit the headset. Most other bits on order but still need a few wee things like tubes, grips and brake callipers.

Thoughts on gold chainring bolts? They’re fancy Stridsland ones - the only 1x ones I’ve got and I’m trying to avoid amassing new stuff where possible!

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The gold/brass bolts work for me, maybe a nice polished brass bell would work with them rather nicely.
Looking forward to seeing this progress.

That, is a great idea. Cheers.

A bit of progress this eve.

I find fitting a headset well satisfying, although I do need at least 5mm of spacers before I can tighten it. So that’s a bit annoying. Bb is in, cranks on, cassette fitted. Chain line looks a bit off but maybe it’ll be ok? Then I put the wheels on to get a sense of what it will look like.

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I find fitting a headset well satisfying,

100% agree, so happy I treated myself to a proper press few years back, after hammering cups with blocks of hard wood for way too long (which kind of works too, but...)

although I do need at least 5mm of spacers before I can tighten it.

Don't you have a center pull cable hanger to fill some of the 5mm?