Saracen 1991 Trekker Competition Hydrotech

Hey guys, this is a recent purchase from eBay. Took a while to arrive but is finally here.

Here's some pics after arrival (Finished pics on pages 4 and 5)









The catalogue has been posted on RB before

http://www.retrobike.co.uk/gallery2/v/Manufacturer+Archive/Saracen/Catalogues/Saracen+1991/1991-Saracen-catalogue.jpg.html

It would appear to be catalogue spec accept for:

The tyres which I'll replace with some tan wall Smokes I have kicking about

The saddle which is being replaced with a nice black with red detail WTB as I can't source an original.

The headset is a Joe Murray impact job, I can only guess the ordinal died. Unfortunately the locking top ring is knackered but a replacement is on the way.
I did find an NOS Tioga Avenger threaded headset in black on eBay which is catalogue spec but it's over £20 posted! (This is not a big budget build


Strange features include 5 metal additions to the big ring which the previous owners dad added to stop the chain coming off, and the lovely painted flames down the left side.
Anyone have any idea how best to remove this but retain the original red underneath?


The cranks are the original ones and black behind but polished to the front, I can only guess to tidy up heal rub.

The chain and cassette are toast due to rust so these along with all 3 rings will get replaced with a set I had in use on another bike with no issues.

The seatpost is the original Kalloy one and shows traces of the original black anodising. Unfortunately is has suffered from rust above frame height so a replacement Kalloy post in 31.6 and silver is on the way.

I was expecting the brakes to be shit or at the very least need a full bleed, on testing at first I thought this was the case, then I found they were setup in a continental fashion Happy days.

Apart from the brakes and e-stay frame I guess the forks are the highlight. Similar to Tange forks and they have a little heart shaped pip to prevent travel into the crown. They are a dark chrome which is worn but no horrible corrosion to speak of.

Right that's enough waffling for now, time to strip it down

Ready for the next stage, clean and polish



All signs for the frame are good, threads are great, no cracks and no dents. The paintwork excluding the lovely flames does show it's age but I think that shows the bikes honesty. From what I have given a quick polish it's going to come up nice and shiny red.

The frame itself is agricultural in build but is a lot lighter than I expected.

Re:

That paint work is a bit special isn't it...?

The frame is powder coated so the the paint on top of it will probably come of with either acetone or paint stripper.
Paint stripper will remove the polyester powder coat too though if it's left for long enough so you'd need to be careful.

Must get round to building mine up at some point.

Thanks Paul for the advice re the paint. Fingers crossed I get the flames off alone

This is going to be very interesting especially if your using a limited amount of funds but that frame looks pretty special along with those forks ...

Hoping it's going to come out as a nice honest Retrobike. It's chipped and the parts show their age but it doesn't actually appear to have had a great deal of use, the wheels which are original are showing hardly any rim wear.

Going to salvage what I can and source a couple of bits/ use stuff I have already. Drystonepaul has a very nice frame the same with decals so may ask his assistance and Gil_m's to get the decals sorted.

It's not as glitzy as my other bikes and I may not keep it long but when I saw it I thought I should save it

I love that Its clearly someones play bike and get about.

It sounds like your tackling this light resto in a perfectly relaxed manner with no plans of going over the top which is no bad thing but if your sorting the decals with the help of Gil_m's of course you just might find yourself getting atatched to it which is no bad thing .

I'll give Drystonepauls frame a look over if he's got pics of his on a thread as i'm already hooked on the design and i'm eager to see it with the decals ..

I had a friend with an Alpinesrar Cromega DX e-stay as a kid, always thought the frame shapes were amazing. No idea what difference it actually makes accept eliminating chain suck but yes it looks great.
This frame has square and round tubes making it even more interesting

Well tried acetone based nail varnish remover on the flames, nothing happened to will try paint stripper very carefully when the weather improves.

Thinking if I have to I'll strip the lot and spray the bike but hoping to avoid this.