Carrera Epic - Tony Doyle

A while back, last year, I took up the offer of a karma frameset on this lovely site.....a Carrera Epic Tony Doyle.

Attracted by the '90s splatter paint job I contacted Hillman to see if it was available and where he was. Turned out that he lived a few streets away from my folks. Very kindly the frame was dropped off to them and I collected a few weeks later. It's sat unloved in my garden ever since - until recently when I decided to unleash the paint renovator and wax and gave it a makeover. All the rust cleaned off and some of the worst chips and scratches touched in with white paint. Wheels/tyres/saddle were sourced out of my parts bin and a new set of 300lx cranks and rear derailleur sourced on eBay along with Celeste Deda bar tape and cheap Jagwire cables - I set about building this week.

Bit of late night tinkering last night and test-rode it in to work this morning. Rides like an absolute dream. Smooth, quiet and rolls really well. Quite surprising considering it's all fairly low end kit (mainly 300lx). Frame is Reynolds 501 though.

Still a few tweaks to do, would like to get hold of a Celeste saddle to match the bars and I want to service/clean the hubs but well pleased with how this one has turned out.

Yes looking good bikes always feel great to ride when youve really turned them around

Re:

Wow what a great result. I know it’s a Halfords brand but I’ve always been curious where these frames were made. Was it Falcon?
Incidentally is that rear mech ok? Looks a bit ‘wrapped’.

Paul R":yox22807 said:

Yes looking good bikes always feel great to ride when youve really turned them around

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Yeah.....proper satisfying.

peetee":yox22807 said:

Wow what a great result. I know it’s a Halfords brand but I’ve always been curious where these frames were made. Was it Falcon?
Incidentally is that rear mech ok? Looks a bit ‘wrapped’.

Click to expand...

Yeah - chain was a bit shorter than it should be........was out of the spares box.....was desperate to ride it

New chain fitted now.....at a better length, although I now have a skippy smallest cog on the rear. Need to source a new/good freewheel. Driveside crank started to work its way loose on the way to work this morning so stopped to tighten that. Not sure if that was down to me not torquing it up enough or the taper is damaged......will investigate tonight. Other than that - riding nicely!

Would like to find more info about the steel Carreras - apparently there were adverts for them in certain car magazines in the late 80's/early 90's......knew they were linked to Halfords (still are) and I'd also heard of the link to Falcon too.

Isn't there a quite nice/desirable Carrera MTB? Katmandu?