Happy 30th Birthday !

I bought this bike for £ 4.99 several years ago ! It was advertised on eBay and I was the only bidder. I was attracted to the bike because of the
Shimano MN-72 large flange hubs also the brakes and brake levers, all part of the Deershead groupset which was as good as it gets from
Shimano at that time. My worst case scenario was that I would at least have some components that might be salvageable

When I collected the bike things did not look good ! it looked as if it had been left in a field for several years, the tyres were rotted and falling apart, it was the motoring equivalent of a 'barn find'

The bike spent some time in my garden while I summoned up the courage to closely examine my bargain. Eventually I decided to strip
it down to the bare frame to see what could be salvaged. In the event things were not quite as bad as expected and after researching
the bikes original spec, I decided that a complete rebuild might be possible as most of the original components were still there

The first problem was that due to the poor condition of the headset, the steerer tube had become damaged and unusable. A trip to Argos,
and a new steerer tube was fitted to the biplane forks. This cost me ten times more than the purchase price !

I think that to grab your continued interest a photo is required

Lovely

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That does look good. Any 'before' shots?

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brilliant!

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With the exception of the colour, that is identical to mine!

Lovely! I have a similar one to do soon that has been neglected... it doesn't have those "bi-plane" forks (which may mean it is a slightly later incarnation) and has a Shimano 200GS triple on it in place of the original, but in other respects, it's very similar. It has the full Red S front and rear brake sets and the dear head stem/bars. Pictures below (warning taken on a potato):

Fantastic, that is very, very nice.

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I just realised that I forgot to put the 501 numerals next to the name ! it should read RIDGEBACK 501

The bike came with its original wheels, Ascenti Hardalloy rims laced to MN-72 hubs with stainless steel spokes. These were box section
rims with eyelets, however they were so badly corroded that replacements were required

In 1986 rim widths were getting larger to support the ever wider section MTB tyres. The Ascenti rims measured 32mm wide across the braking
surfaces. At the time of restoration rims this wide were no longer available, this was a problem solved by buying some Rigida rims through German eBay. The new rims were 30mm wide but not box section or eyeletted - sometimes you have to compromise

I stripped down the old wheels and rebuilt the MN-72 hubs. You will see that both the hubs are nutted, MN-72's were available with Q/R
but were not an option on this bike. I decided not to use the old spokes and built the new wheels with DT double butted spokes

I have two original photos somewhere of the bike as found, which I have 'lost' at the moment. For the present this photo gives a better
view of a biplane fork

This is mine, plus the catalog picture of the black one above.


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Rampage":2rl67uu0 said:

This is mine, plus the catalog picture of the black one above.

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Lovely Ridgeback! And thanks for the scan of the black one. You don't happen to have any info about the original spec of these do you? I admit that I haven't looked very hard as I have only just rescued this black Ridgeback from the leaves and bushes.

I'm unsure why there doesn't seem to be more love for these oldies - I quite like them and they ride well.