Boardman Cougar team GAN replica-ish

are you sure about the sachs ergolevers? the reason i ask is that on all the pics i have found even though the quality is not very good there is the blur of white writing on the front of the ergolever which suggest campag as opposed to sachs, the sachs levers didn't have anything written here did they? having said that, from a distance a new suscces rear mech could look very similar to a record of the time. because i don't recall them using a mavic mech other than the Zap version.

it would make finding a compatible system easier though if i did use sachs levers, having said that though i am gonna use a campag rear wheel so it might be best if i stick with campag for ease of build because other wise i'd have to source a rear wheel.

although i did find these!

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll? ... K:MEWAX:IT

but i can't justify buying a set of wheels at the mo! note that the listing does say campagnolo spline to fit sachs and campag like the wheels used in the tears for gears lemond bike posted by John

need to have a bit more of a think, it might be best to go full campag gearing except for the chainset/bottom bracket and then use the mavic brakeset by modolo with frame levers mounted on the tri bars.

here's an ergolever by sach so you can see what i mean about them not having any writing, compare it to the pics on the previous page where you can see a white blur on the front of the ergo's, it usually said "carbon" or "bbsystem"

been digging for info!!

i emailed the guy from John's link on tears for gears, and he got back to me almost straight away! he has been investigating the particular bikes from Gan for several years as they are his favourite, here's what he sent me:-

Hey Jon-
I'd have to do some digging for it, but I found a '93 article that suggested they were using campagnolo spaced cassettes as early as '93, even though by all rights the DT shifters would be Shimano spacing. So clearly GAN had experience spacing their cassettes out for the '94 season when they started using Ergo. The link you gave reinforces that - that an ex-GAN wheelset has Campagnolo spacing. Whether its EXA or a custom spaced Mavic cassette, I can't tell.

If you look at pictures of the team running Ergo, you'll see that at least early in '94 they were running bits of tape right over where the Campagnolo shield would be. Really hard to tell since they're identical, aside from the logos and the internal ratchet. I think I have some '94 magazines where they say its Campagnolo, but I'm not positive. I'll dig a little and let you know.
-j

2nd reply:-

Oh here's another tidbit - the GAN ergo's clearly said CARBON above a solid lever - same as a '94 record. Not sure the Sachs ever said carbon. An item to look in to perhaps?

FWIW, my money is on Campy (or Campag, if you prefer).
-j

the link he's referring to is the ebay link to the mavic exadrive compatible wheel set that are genuine team gan parts.


aswel as this my friend Robin Wilmot who is following the TDF for cycling+ magazine came up trumps!! what a legend!!

he spoke to Graham Watson on my behalf, then while on a nighshift last night i got a text message saying send me your email, 5 minutes later i had an email from Grahm himself with the pic i needed!!

how effin cool is that!!

jonnyboy666":37mguho7 said:

right then, been searching for pictures of chris boardman and gan etc for ages for reference for this build but i'm not getting the pics i want/need so if anyone knows anywhere i can get them that would be great.

this is what i have so far.

the first is my cougar from when i first got it, painted in the team gan colours with full campag record, this was 1995 and i went for this colour because of boardman. the frame i have received is the micro tt version of this road bike. i am sure i remember seeing boardman win a stage in a race around 1994/5 and was pictured on the bike on the front of cycling weekly or cycle sport magazines, so if anyone has a copy to scan or send me that would be great, i think the race was the "criterium du dauphine" but i am not 100% sure

what i have found out is this:-

in 1992 he was still riding on Cougar bikes with Campagnolo for the north wirral kodak team in red and yellow kit.

then in 1993 he went to team Gan which at the time were riding Lemond bikes in yellow and blue with a campag/mavic mix although for the first 6 months or so he was still riding a cougar but in the colours pictured below.

in 1994 the bikes were still Lemond in blue/yellow again campag/mavic mix with cinelli parts

in 1995 they changed to Eddy Merckx bikes in blue again with campag/mavic/cinelli mix

these bikes continued for 1996 and 1997

then in 1998 the bikes were still Eddy Merckx but white with a Mavic/Dura Ace mix

then the team became Credit Agricole with Look frames with shimano Dura Ace through out.

Click to expand...

At some point they also used Sachs New Success parts on the road bikes (I've seen at least one pic of Boardman's bike sporting a New Success rear mech) although I can't pin down a date - may have been during the GAN/CA transition era.

David

little update,

i started the clean up, i think that once i have built this bike if i decide to keep it which knowing me is very likely i will consider a repaint. from a distance it looks ok but get close up and there are alot of chips, the stickers have started to peel up from underneath the lacquer and some of the chips are in very obvious places.

but in the mean time the job of building to see if i like the ride is foremost in my mind.

i have removed the shimano B/B as it's not gonna fit the chainset i have in mind, i have rebuilt the headset and replace the "giant" spacer with a cleaner unbadged one.

also i have acquired some 8 speed record frame levers for it, i think with the gears it will be easier to build the rear end as full campag, this will save alot of issues of compatibility but if i come across a mavic rear mech i might try it anyway.

also i have just won some mavic bars on ebay and a front wheel is on the way aswel!!

so my projected gearset will be:-

mavic chainset (got)
record frame levers (got)
vento rear wheel (got but maybe replaced)

mavic front mech (need)
campag rear mech (need)
campag cassette (need)

i would like a full mavic brakeset if possible, although in the above pic the rear brake looks a little campag-ish but i would like the modolo made ones if posible as they look really techy to me.

here's a little up date pic

so, a little more of an update on this project.

i nipped into my old shop, looked at the pile of crap at the back of the shop outside, found a mavic mech!! covered in crap though!! Gary then gave me some catalogues to identify stuff with aswel, which i will try to scan later.

i also found a front mech on ebay which i got for a much more sensible price by auction as opposed to buy it now although it was french ebay so maybe they go cheaper over there.

also got some handlebars.

so the accumulation of parts is going reasonably well

also have decided on the brakes i want, i like the modolo made versions.

Those brake look lovely, jut don't expect em to stop you

From memory i have a set of those brakes tucked away somewhere, calipers

vgc with genuine NOS levers and branded mavic cables from memory...

Andy

want to sell them? my mate had the same brakes years ago on his Moser, badged as new success and they seemed to stop fine, maybe it depends on the rim you run them on? when i built one of my mtb's i used a set of wheels with FIR rims and the brakes were terrible but when i switched them out for mavic the brakes were fine.

That Mavic mech won't index with anything atall and is at least 10 years older than the frame. It'll just about work with 8 speed with some fettling (I managed to make one work on my old hack bike but it was a nightmare)

I have some Cycling Weeklys from this period and it seems like Gan were using as much Mavic as possible but filling out the gaps as best as they could after all the problems with ZAP. I've seen bikes with Dura-Ace STIs and Sachs Ergos.

fatfixie":1rwmb6yi said:

genuine NOS levers and branded mavic cables from memory...

Andy

Click to expand...

My Alan cross bike is crying out for these.....