Saved from scrap.. Purple Hazed Carrera Optima (probably)

This had been knocking about eBay for a little while from November until last week and eventually got down to a tenner or was going to the scrapyard..
Well, I really don't need another bike(!), but a commuty/knockabout/pub-type is never a bad thing, and I couldn't let the paintwork go to be scrapped. :facepalm:

The real hero of the piece is Retro Spud who went out of his way to collect and box up for onward post - huge thanks owed! :xmas-cool:

The frame was being sold as a Carrera; which looks about right, but I'm not familiar with the Carrera range from the early/mid 90's so if anyone knows which model it is then any pointers are good!
Pics are from the eBay listing at the moment.





Paintwork is better in person than in the pics. it's a blue-purple chromaflair/flip-flop type paintwork; blue in the light and purple in shadow, with a bit of aquamarine in very bright light and bronze in the purple in deep shadow.

The frame does have some distinctive identifiers, if you happen to know Carreras, which I don't!
The canti-bridge is a bit of a giveaway as a Carrera identifier, as is the double-scalloped driveside chainstay.
The cable routing is rear mech/rear brake in twin cable-stops along the top tube, and the front mech is routed down the left-side of the downtube and up under the BB. Forks are the usual Saracen CroMo (non segmented) "Maxdrive" P2 copies, and the frame sounds to have butted top and downtubes at least. Seattube is the standard 'Saracen' 26.4 with curved top.


Dropouts are different to the other Carreras I've seen though, as they are slotted into the stays, like a Specialized; rather than having the flat-ended stays like a Saracen or fixing into the stays through plugs, like other Carreras. If I knew anything more about the Carrera range, that's probably help, but there's very little out there, no catalogues, etc..

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The headset is knackered; rescuable but for the effort & time required, I'm going to replace it.
BB won't come out easily, but waiting for my good BB tool to be returned to me before I start on that job! Seatpost was the original steel Kalloy lump, so was kindly junked by Retro Spud, and the inside of the seat tube is orange and flaky; so will need tidying up...

The paintwork is in the main ok, the worst area is just above the BB and under the chainstays. There's a lot of mech-band gouges in the seat tube right down to the metal; and the chainstays are damaged on top where a kickstand was fixed at some point and underneath them there's no paint in two inch-long patches, thanks to the kickstand.
Aside from these two patches though, all the gaps and chips in the paintwork are still grey underneath where the metal is exposed; so it's still in good condition underneath I'd hope, as the lack of deep rust is encouraging.

The rough plan is to scrub out the inside of the seat-tube, change out the headset and clean out the BB threads & shell.
Then get the Loctite anti-rust on the underneath areas & cover/patch the other areas of damaged paintwork with yacht varnish; which in my experience seems to work pretty well at protecting frames.
It's destined for an easy life I suspect; and won't be seeing any forest action, so I'm not needing to do a full resto on it!

Parts'n'stuff will be from the parts bin, which should by fairly sympathetic to the bike & age. I've got some slightly tatty grey/blue Mavic X222 wheels running on silver spokes & XT hubs, & plain silver stem, post, cranks etc.
Should be quite a nice short-distance commuter/cruiser and hopefully nice fun bike! If it rides anything like my hefty old Saracen Hardtrax it'll be a grin-inducer with the right bits on it.

Re: Saved from the scrapyard.. And, umm, what is it?

That was definitely worth saving from the bin. Bet it'll make a pretty sweet riding bike once built up.

Re: Saved from the scrapyard.. And, umm, what is it?

Looks nice! Give us some nice, non-grainy pics. Have you thought what will you use on it? I think nice black LX grupo with black seatpost, stem and handlebar would suit it really nicely!

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Hi James

Glad it arrived safe and sound, it might not be (okay certainly wasn't) built by a boutique frame builder, but I have to say even the wife was impressed by the frame !

The paint is something else, with a good clean a polish and some new parts it'll look a million dollars, interested to see where you take this one

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Well, it's got to be on a budget; so despite the awesome paint & finish it will have to be a 'sensible' built bike to an extent :?

As I say; I have some half-decent wheels (not good cosmetically but functioning fine) with an 9-sp cassette on; and the only parts I have available are bare/polished Alu. Black componentry was a thought; but to be honest I think that would dull down the whole bike and make it look 'heavy'.
The frame & forks themselves are fairly hefty, I'd guess about 3.5kg so I'm going to keep the weight down where possible within the budget. It's easy to stop thinking about weight & end up overall with a 30lb lump if not careful. I can always upgrade it later...proper 'BITD' style..

I'm thinking bare stem, seatpost, crankset and good ole friction shifters. I know some people query using friction on 'higher' clusters, but I've found it's really no problem on anything 8 or 9 speed (not tried it on anything higher!). All I need is a clear weekend with no rain or damp to clean up the frame, then a rear mech & some shifters, and I hope I have enough gear cable outers to get round a full bike!

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Ok, had a half-decent day so managed to clean up & clean out the frame a bit..

Cleaned out as much of the orange rust from various places; and pleasantly turned out much of the brown gunk was dirt rather than rust. There's a dent under the driveside chainstay where it looks like the kick-stand was overtightened, should be okay structurally though with a bit of luck.





Gave it a good going over the dropouts; underside & stays with Loctite 'Rust Remedy' (awesome stuff) and once that dried back, broke out the yacht varnish to protect the rusted & damaged patches.




:idea: I think I also have the answer to what it is; it looks to be that, despite what the seller said, that it was originally painted red; then was re-primed before the chameleon/flip-flop paint was sprayed.
Further evidence came from the fork chips, and downtube; which are a silver/grey underneath. This could be primer, but it ties in with what I though the frame could have been.
The only Carrera I can find with the same dropouts and cable routing is the 1995 Optima; which also had a Silver & Red colour scheme..

Parts aren't fitted yet, just mocking-up..
Still not had my new BB tool arrive, so that's still in place waiting to be checked out. It spins freely, but a little gritty so needs a look over. And the new headset is in the same delivery as the BB tool; so not up & running yet; but soon..
Managed to get hold of a couple of cheap eBay rear mechs; have a choice between a New Success a (road)Ultegra, so they should work out nicely with the friction shifting; it's a much as case of which looks best as anything else.. at the moment I'm leaning towards the Sachs, which will go nicely with the Plasma front mech.

Re: Saved from the scrapyard.. And, umm, what is it?

Dare":tkh0slei said:

Looks nice! Give us some nice, non-grainy pics. Have you thought what will you use on it? I think nice black LX grupo with black seatpost, stem and handlebar would suit it really nicely!

Click to expand...

Ive got some of the groupset on ebay at the moment. Finishes in a couple of days

If the OP is interested of course.

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While black indeed would suit; it wouldn't go as well with the wheels and I'm trying (and so far succeeding, so far....) to keep the cost down by wombling as many cohesive parts as I can from what's in the parts bin..

Even at that I've still managed to spend £70 quid on chainrings, chain, headset, rear mech & grips.. :facepalm: But coming together nicely..

A lot of the parts I had on my old Saracen fit it, so seatpost, seat, MT60 cranks, pedals. Wheels & tyres were spare parts, as were the brakes.. Just now need (still) the headset & chain to arrive; finish off the rust-proofing, some outer gear cabling (the one thing I actually have NO spares of that are long enough) fit the gears & cables & perhaps get a test ride out on it this weekend.

Excellent What are you going to do with the rusted sections ? Id recommend something even maybe a clear finish to arrest the rust from coming back.
Paint touch up will be a laugh a kind of metallic two tone. :shock: oo-er