Tufftrax

Recently bought this on a bit of a whim...



Having never ridden one I'm wondering what level of effort deserves... cheap shed bits pub bike to sell to a mate, hub-geared utility ride (have wheels) full on (ish) resto, upgrade, or build up as a tourer are all possible options. OTOH, I don't really need any more bikes so I could just stick it in the loft and forget about it for a while.

How do they ride? I like the vibe of early Saracens, but never had the chance to ride any of them BITD... would I be better off to hold off for something higher up the range?

Re:

Solid and relaxed is the best way to describe the ride. The good thing about 89 Saracens is how hard wearing the paint is so they always polish up really well and look great.

Effort wise, they had a Mountain LX and Exage Trail build with Deore thumbies so a period rebuild won’t be expensive. Other than that anything works really. Pub bike build is a decent idea, or single speed? Well worth building anyway, just don’t spend too much.

Nice, that's exactly the sort of info I was after. A cheap build it is. Don't hold your breath.

Was thinking single speed with the horizontal drops, but as I say I've got a set of wheels with a 5 speed SA hub (and hub brakes) which I've been meaning to use... Anyway I'll see what I can dig out of the shed.

As for paint this one must have had a hard life then... it's pretty rough, lots of paint missing, but thankfully not too rusty as far as I can see.

Re:

Good stuff. White cables go well with this colour Tufftrax.

Thanks to makster I've now got a 1988 Trekker (double-U) in the shed next to the Tufftrax. Neither is all that close to getting built yet, but I do seem to be accumulating some quite nice bits of the right sort of era, a mix of MT60, DX, and etc...

Now I suppose the question is which to do first, which to put the nice bits on and which to build up as a hack/pub bike. The Trekker is rough in terms of paint but then I could get it powdercoated, or just enjoy the "patina"... Seems a bit lighter than the Tufftrax. Actually the paint isn't brilliant on the Tufftrax, either, but it looks OK from a distance.

Only downside is I only have one U brake in my parts box and Deore ones seem overpriced... I suppose I could put some cheap BMX ones on it?

How do the frames compare riding wise?

I built one up as a tourer. Not the lightest, but it's all day comfy and the geometry is a nice compromise.

Chopper1192":19gc07sp said:

I built one up as a tourer. Not the lightest, but it's all day comfy and the geometry is a nice compromise.

Click to expand...

Tufftrax? Yeah, that might be a good role for it...

A Tuff. Ive also got a freshly powdercoated Ruff frame that I'm yet to build up.