Dawes New Wave

I spotted this on the bay a while back as a complete bike, but it was a little pricey so I decided to leave it. Then it reappeared in the form you see here and I won it over the weekend for £4.99 plus £20 postage.

As the seller was the Gloucester Bike Project, I made an arrangement to go and pick it up, so total cost £4.99.

Why did I want this frame? Easy; the New Wave was the first new bike I ever bought myself. I bought mine from Evans, mail order, when they only had a couple of shops (was it Croydon or Crawley? I can't remember). Mine was on special offer as it was a 'last years model', it was well enough equipped and I rode miles and miles on it, passing it on to a work colleague of my wife who used to bash around the Quantocks, Breacon Beacons, Exmoor etc on it.

Not sure what the plans are for this one yet, new headset and BB for sure and most likely a DX build, but past that I have not yet thought it out.

I have just spent the last hour and a half giving it a good polish. It is showing its age, with a few chips and small dents, plus some spots of rust and a few worms under the paint, but to me, that just adds to the patina.

I'm not sure the year of this one, 91 / 2 I think, unless you know different.

Nice project. They have some gems, gutted I missed out on a saracen traverse frame last week from them.

Will ride different to the rest of your stable!

I have found an online copy of the 1993 Dawes brochure that I had in paper form back then and used that to confirm in my own mind at least, that mine is a 91/2 model. I also recall mine being made of Reynolds 501 and this one is stickered 531 Magnum, which is what I think The Edge frames were made of, but as I recall, back then all of the manufacturers used to turn out some pretty odd ball models at the end of the season, just before changeover, so I think I have one of those.

Coomber; yes, it should be interesting to ride and compare to something like the Caygill or White Spider (talk about chalk and cheese), but I just sort of had to have it.

The project seem to have quite a throughput of donation bikes, and Matt who runs it seems to know his stuff and knows that the retro lot are the ones buying frames like mine, so I'm sure they'll be something along that will suit.

I really like that and what a bargain!

I have a Dawes Raw Nerve frame and forks from the same era that I bought from Spanky22b on here a few months back, it's badged up as 531 Magnum. It's well on the way to a becoming a finished bike although, like a few I own, it's not quite there yet. I've also gone for DX on this one as it's the original kit.

I don't know if yours is the same but the decals on mine have a sort of crackled effect from ageing, I think it looks great .

Any idea on the background of these frames, are they truly British?

I'm not entirely convinced they are British, but there are a few references to at least some models being made over here and thinking about it, it would explain some of the oddball models like mine that may well have been painted and badged to suit the running gear available.

Mine is lugged, so must be brazed, and The Edge models were fillet brazed, so were pretty well made frames, albeit they were production rather than custom made.

The decals on mine are pretty battered and a bit cracked, but like you, I rather like it.

Older Reynolds tube sets (500, 501, 531, 653 and 753) were not suitable for tig welding so were all brazed. Dawes always used to be hand built in the UK, like raleigh , Holdsworth and butler, I would think that this is too and probably one of the last years that they were.

Carl

I have a TIG welded 501 frame.

Sorry, lumped 501 and 500 in with the older tubes, can only find info on 531 upwards not being suitable for tiging. Probably due to the heat treatment.

Carl

Anyone know for sure what the seatpost size is?

I have measured it at 30mm and have tried a 29.6mm post, which was slightly loose, so I think my measurement is right, but it would be nice to confirm it before I start searching for a suitable seatpost.

NeilM":2qhoknfg said:

Anyone know for sure what the seatpost size is?

I have measured it at 30mm and have tried a 29.6mm post, which was slightly loose, so I think my measurement is right, but it would be nice to confirm it before I start searching for a suitable seatpost.

Click to expand...

Just been up in a very hot loft to check and mine is a 30.0mm Neil.