The Road bike Introduce Yourself Here Thread

Hi all I'm Barney, from Kent. Wanted to start cycling more due to lockdown, so I decided to get myself a road bike. Was thinking cheap and new, but I quickly saw a rusty old thing for £30 which I could collect that day. Couldn't resist!

It's a Falcon something - seems like it might be 70s according to the searches I've done. I think it's a city bike but it also looks like a road bike to me - I've relatively little experience with bikes, although I did used to ride a lot as a kid and I've been doing minor car repairs etc lately.

Seems in good condition for its age - some surface rust on the frame but I've not found anything bad yet. Obviously needs cleaning, tweaking, bearings etc replacing. Needs a chain too.

I have a few vague ideas for what I want to do with the bike, but not quite there yet. In short, I might just get it running as is, replace as few bits as possible with inexpensive new ones for a halfway house, or get a low-end groupset and change a few things around. Will be sure to take lots of pics! Would love to chat about it.

Hi, I’m Mark, living in London. Just finished tweaking up (butchering!) a Bernard Carré frame and got a bit of a tinkering bug. Just got a Claud Butler frame through from the early 90s that I want to build from the ground up and my many googlings of rudimentary questions have brought me here on a number of occasions so thought it would be rude not to contribute as well!

Hopefully will be able to post pictures as I go about building various bike bits and ask plenty of questions as to why things don’t work as they should!

Hello. Richard, from Camberley. Always tinkered and maintained my "modern" road bikes but very keen to pick up an 80s or 90s frame & restore it back to former it's glory. Have put my toe in the water with bids on a few frames on eBay but they have all gone higher than I was prepared to pay. For some reason Condor frames always seem to catch my eye. Nice to meet you all. Hope to contribute as best I can.

Hi, I have just bought one of these to do up as a project. I can't find any info on Abbey Gold or this bike. Do you have any knowledge of them?

Thanks,

Kevin

Hi all I’m new to the forum and have found this by google. I have an old Raleigh equipe which I got off a guy in the village for 40 quid in working condition. Kids are wanting expensive bikes so to afford theirs I have to get an old one I’m not so bothered I can’t afford 1000’s for a bike. I would like to know where I can learn to make my bike the beat it can be spending a bit on it. Reading some of the posts it’s very specific doesn’t sound like a novice can do much but I’d like to learn. Any tips would be greatly appreciated. Cheers all simon

Hi, I came across this site a few weeks ago whilst doing a build of my own and just lurked about a bit reading other people's posts and experiences. Ever since I was a child in the late 70s early 80s, I always wanted a racing bike, but that never materialised. About 10 years ago, I got into cycling seriously and like most cyclists amassed a few bikes. The itch for an old steel frame was still there and I wanted to do a retro cafe racer type build, and I came across a 70s Geoffrey Butler 531 frame at the beginning of the year local to me, but the frame was too good and original to rub down and powder coat, that I decided to build it back to period spec. I finished it a few weeks ago, and apart from wheels and the saddle, it is all 1970/80s Campag equipment on it. I have dome about 200 miles on it since building and now have my eye on restoring the 15 year old Trek mountain bike that is in the garage and start using that as well. My winter hack is a mish mash of parts on an old steel Apollo MTB frame with 26" road tyres, 53/34 chain ring on the front and a 28/13 on the back all painted like a harlequin. There is something about old retro bikes that I find appealing. In fact my carbon road bike has not been out this year yet.
Loving the forum. Fraser