BSA Tour de France Mk2 Resurrection

Casually scanning ebay the other day I found one of the decal sellers has started doing the correct decal set for my Mk2 TDF so its finally time for this mail order catalogue Christmas pressie special to shine once again.

I'd already stripped down the wheels a while ago and re laced the hubs into some polished alloy rims so next is to work out what bits to build it up with? I want to keep it as catalogue correct as possible but I do want to upgrade things a bit whilst keeping within the Raleigh parts bin world so below are a couple of pics of where I'm at so far with a few bits already upgraded from original.

There's a fair bit of cleaning and polishing to do along with a frame to paint.
I'm not sure whether to keep the suicide brake levers or the hooded ones and derailleur wise I might go a bit farther up the ladder as I've a spare set of Campag 980 somewhere which I just need a set of levers or even just a downtube clamp for as I've got plenty of levers to fit brazeons.

Crack on ...

Pulling up a chair, H LLoyd sell the stickers for those cranks

I shall, just need the sun to come back out.


Ooh didn't know that, I've got a few in the queue that need them (including the RRA) so I shall be ordering some tout suite

Glad to be of help, I might be ordering some too dependent on which chainset I use

Well this one got no further for most of the summer and I thought oops I better get on with it before the sun goes and hides for the winter.

So as we have a bit of sun for a couple of days the prep kit and the rattle cans came out and the frame has gone from scruffy blue (where it had been for far too long), to grey, to silver and back to blue again and I just need a little more sun so I can get the decals on and clearcoat over it then it can dry for a good while while I get the polish out and give the bits going on it a good buffing.

Next onto how to build it up

I've got quite a choice in what components to use to build it up, some things are fixed like the wheels which I've rebuilt, the alloy seat stem (which is an upgrade from the steel original), the Raleigh badged Wienmann centre pulls, the Raleigh badged bars and stem and of course the pointless stubby silver mudguards.

But the rest I'm pretty open on. I've got an idea on how I want to build it but I'll put all the options up in the next post and see what people think.

And now the saddle, brake and drivetrain choices. Ideally I want to keep it all Raleigh parts bin if possible.

I can go original with the quilted saddle (although I'm not sure I can repair this) and suicide levers, or an admittedly worn Italia saddle and hooded levers. The bar tape will be yellow and the cable outers white as original by the way

And on the drive chain I've got a much wider choice. I can go original so Huret mechs and shifters, Raleigh badged SR crank with chain guard. Or a little farther up the Raleigh tree with Raleigh badged Suntour mechs and a Raleigh badged SR crank without a chain guard. Or Campag 980 mechs with an SR Custom crank. And finally Campag Nuovo Gran Sport mechs and an SR Super Custom crank, both Campag options need some sort of cable guide for the front mech which I'm not keen on.

I know which way I'm leaning so far and yes if I go down the Campag route is it a bit like trying to polish a turd? But I'm keen to hear peoples opinions on this.

All stickered up and clear coat on so this can hang here drying for as long as it takes me to polish all the bits I decide to put on it.

Next installment hopefully some pictures of more shiny things and me complaining about all the manual labour.

Really enjoyed this - I look forward to seeing the finished bike! Really nice work done so far - truth is I prefer these Enthusiastic builds To more exotic expensive ones
I wish you had a brooks saddle to put on it