His & Hers 89 Saracens

I'm a bit of a fan of the early Saracens and always on the look out for them in local ads, especially the 90 traverse. I saw a poorly listed ad for a purple Saracen Traverse for sale near my folks place on the Dorset Devon border. Thought I'd check it out as it was pretty cheap.

The Traverse was better than I thought it was under the dust and grime. It got better though as it turned out the elderly owner was selling two Saracens, both 89, His was the Traverse, his late wifes a Tufftrax. He had the original sales receipts, lights and cosmic bar pads. He pretty much gave me the Tufftrax when I said I'd like to restore them and could keep them together. I think the idea of them going to a good home and getting some use meant more to him than the asking price.

I'm going to give them some TLC, new tyres and keep them pretty much stock. I'm after a right hand Mountain LX shifter/brake combo to replace the 200gs shifter on there at them moment. Just wish the Traverse has the Saracen bottle too! Anyone got one for sale?

It's the 30th anniversary of their purchase next summer. The bike shop in Bristol is still trading, I wonder if they'd like to see them again? Anyway here's some pics

Receipts

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Both look super tidy - a great find and a nice history to them.

'How did you discover BIKE?' "Yellow pages" Couldn't he have just searched google? :mrgreen:

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Great stuff, they look very tidy. Got to love a 89.

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Nice work and nice back story

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I spent hours in that shop as a teenager. My friend had a tufftrax just like that and I was jealous as hell because I only had a specialized hardrock.

Luckily my Dad's mates brother worked for Carratti so i got upgraded to a stumpjumper quite quickly.