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

Hi! Long time lurker, first time poster. Been a frequent visiter to Retrobike since I first built up a bike about 5 years ago, since then I've broken that bike down for parts and now roll around London on a 1996 Dawes Galaxy, about to build up an old Orbit 531 frame as a bit of a quicker bike for short trips where panniers are not required. Will be using campag components I got mostly out of a ebay cycle part joblot which was the best £40 I've ever spent. Will post on here if it turns out ok! I'm a big fan of steel frames, but wouldn't say I feel sacred about keeping them original.
Cam

Hi, I'm Phil from Oxford. I've got a new project starting so thought I would get introduced and share it as I'm sure I'll need some help along the way.

I cycle a lot and tinker even more and retro road bikes are just great fun. Last weekend I picked up a Claud Butler Criterium for very modest money, expecting to do a lot of work on it.



I guess its around 1994 so pretty young in this company, and at 12 and a bit kilos its no lightweight. It has a frame number sticker on the downtube that reads H91543? - its a bit scuffed so the last digit is gone.

On getting it home, the tyres held pressure, the seat tube released (oh joy, have suffered there on past bikes) and it rode surprisingly well. Brakes were shocking, but it just barrelled along and even gave me a Strava PR on one segment which was a bit of a bonus.

The big restoration might just become a fettling job whilst I make up my mind where to take it. First jobs will involve lots of cleaning and polishing of what's there, swapping the chainset for something a bit more compact to get me up some of the bigger local hills and doing something about the brakes, the tyres and that awful bar tape.

As a bit of history, I had a Dawes Galaxy that eventually went single speed when I lived in London (until it was nicked!), then a Raleigh Veloce that survives today as my son's ride with a 1x9 Shimano 105 setup. I also have a couple of modern bikes, but tinkering with them gets expensive so I stick to the older stuff for fun and learning new skills. I'll try to share what happens next and look forward to getting to know some of you better.

Welcome aboard Phil!

Hi all,

I'm Nick from Shropshire a young 46 years old, well my body is 46 but I am really still 17. I ended up here after buying an old knackered (really knackered) no idea what make it is racer off an old mate for £25. Been many years since I had a racer so I am trying to bring this back to life as original as possible (if I can find out what it is), I have a post in the road bike section pleading for help to get this ID'd so I can fix it up.