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I never thought this day would arrive, but thanks to my new-best-friend-forever cooie (cheers, Ian!) I can now get stuck into one of my all time favourite bikes, the very one one I used to drool over in the Freewheel catalogue....
It's 1990 Ridgeback 704XT in all its 19" Rubine Red, Tange Prestige, Deore XT loveliness - my first bike was a '90 601LX so have always hankered after another (see thread --> viewtopic.php?t=212095&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=0 )
After seeing Ian post up his frame in the 'what's its worth' thread, several PM's later led to me buying the original frame, forks, wheels, seat post, front mech, cantis and QRs so I haven't got too much to do really. The forks were in a bit of a bad way and they are currently at C&G Finishes in Liverpool to get bead blasted, resprayed etc so they should look like new when I get them back in a couple of weeks or so (...I hope!)
The frame had spent the last several years in a shed so I got my polishing rags out and have spent the last few days T-cut'ting and waxing till my arms ache Here's some pics (well, a few actually....)
Decals are in quite good condition so I've decided to keep them (also as Gil doesn't have them on file) and the paintwork has a lot of patina but I bought a jar of rubine red paint to touch up the scratches. I did need Gil for a Tange Prestige decal and Mavic M231 CD rim stickers as well:
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I never thought this day would arrive, but thanks to my new-best-friend-forever cooie (cheers, Ian!) I can now get stuck into one of my all time favourite bikes, the very one one I used to drool over in the Freewheel catalogue....
It's 1990 Ridgeback 704XT in all its 19" Rubine Red, Tange Prestige, Deore XT loveliness - my first bike was a '90 601LX so have always hankered after another (see thread --> viewtopic.php?t=212095&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=0 )
After seeing Ian post up his frame in the 'what's its worth' thread, several PM's later led to me buying the original frame, forks, wheels, seat post, front mech, cantis and QRs so I haven't got too much to do really. The forks were in a bit of a bad way and they are currently at C&G Finishes in Liverpool to get bead blasted, resprayed etc so they should look like new when I get them back in a couple of weeks or so (...I hope!)
The frame had spent the last several years in a shed so I got my polishing rags out and have spent the last few days T-cut'ting and waxing till my arms ache Here's some pics (well, a few actually....)
Decals are in quite good condition so I've decided to keep them (also as Gil doesn't have them on file) and the paintwork has a lot of patina but I bought a jar of rubine red paint to touch up the scratches. I did need Gil for a Tange Prestige decal and Mavic M231 CD rim stickers as well: