Rock Lobster 853, FINISHED !

Received this week, couldn't resist, as it was

a) Man size,

b) 853, and

c) A bargain !

As received, once I built it up, if you see what I mean! :?

IMG_0450 by Mike Murray, on Flickr

After a quick wash,

IMG_0455 by Mike Murray, on Flickr

Note; The wet fence is from the hose, NOT my hose!

I love the frame colour! Needs some touch up paint though. Sadly, I couldn't find any nail varnish to match in Tesco last night. The hunt is on !

Long travel forks need a bit of a tidy up, with lots of this,

IMG_0456 by Mike Murray, on Flickr

But I'm confident that I can tart them up nicely again!

No idea of the year, but with disc mounts and extra hose guides on the top tube, along with the three normal ones , nice touch, maybe early 2000s?

Mike

Re:

Looking good, always liked these frames, nearly bought one in the mid-90's, wouldn't say no to one now either.

How feckin tall are you? If that's an 18" with that much Seatpost and fork steerer spacers :shock:

Re: Getting a Lobster to Rock again !

He's tall. And supple. For now.

Re: Re:

jimo746":2n586ce5 said:

Looking good, always liked these frames, nearly bought one in the mid-90's, wouldn't say no to one now either.

How feckin tall are you? If that's an 18" with that much Seatpost and fork steerer spacers :shock:

Click to expand...

Actually Jim, it's a 21" frame! :shock:

Mike , Longman of the South Downs

Re: Getting a Lobster to Rock again !

Cool frame Mike! Always liked these a lot. Went to school in Athens, GA...home to the infamous B52s. Spent many a night watching those characters through bloodshot eyes. Oh boy....

Re: Getting a Lobster to Rock again !

The colour great and it rode well when I had it man looking forward to the updates
Mike

Re: Getting a Lobster to Rock again !

DICKO10":2y792qtl said:

The colour great and it rode well when I had it man looking forward to the updates
Mike

Click to expand...

You didn't get it from this shady geezer did you?

What's the plans for the forks?

Re: Getting a Lobster to Rock again !

jimo746":2i68ds91 said:

DICKO10":2i68ds91 said:

The colour great and it rode well when I had it man looking forward to the updates
Mike

Click to expand...

You didn't get it from this shady geezer did you?

What's the plans for the forks?

Click to expand...

Re:

It was Carl's a while ago, but came to me via some other shady character in Preston!
Plan for the forks is to get the flaky bit of paint off, madk upthe numerous stickers, and stanchions-, and plastikote the forks in black. I think thats the safest bet. Black forks look good on here imo.
If I were to go crazy on the build, I could get the frame resprayed with matching forks, but that's not going to happen.
Toyiny with either flat bars, or the risers Iit came with, but a bit lower. Hmmmm

Mike

Re:

It's been too long since I updated this thread.

The fact is, I've been busy prepping and racing old bikes for a race two weeks ago. Followed by a retroride last week.

Made some progress this weekend. The biggest job was tidying up the paintwork. I have to say, it must be the worst original paint I've ever seen on a frame. Maybe with the exception of an 853 tubed Lemond road frame I once bought. It is so thin, and has more chips than McCain! So, I started tidying it up. Varying between a knife, sandpaper, wet or dry paper, I got rid of a lot of the rusty patches, down to the metal.
After which, I got the closest matching nail varnish I could find, courtesy of George, Asda, and touched in the bare metal. Feel a bit better about the frame now.
Also cleaned up most of the components it came with, replacing the worn 32 and 42 rings with some I had, for the sparkly chainset ! Which will be staying, sorry lads!
Cockpit with flat bars also pictured. Avid V-brakes and rear mech stripped and greased now too. Just the wheel hubs to check now.
Oh, and the SID forks. They are in the lbs, where my friendly mechanic will be replacing the seals, and in the meantime, giving me back the lowers to get painted.

But what colour? Unsure right now.
Maybe black, possibly yellow. They may even go on another project I have lined up. Yellow would work with either.

Decisions, decisions!

IMG_0505 by Michael Murray, on Flickr

Mike