Help restoring old Dawes

is it the mauve in this catalogue?

http://www.retrobike.co.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?t=110238

Probably not poly lilac, that was a difficult colour to sell to blokes LOL

Shaun

fantastic to see the old brochures
The colour was similar to the Raleigh Nimrod but was lighter.
Vauxhall had a colour almost the same in the late 90's

This link shows a catalogue from 1982 and suggests the Echelon
came with 700c rims.

http://bulgier.net/pics/bike/Catalogs/D ... _specs.jpg

I did change the wheels before it went into storage so I probably
put the wrong ones on.

30 T is quite small. I think you might be looking for something like a Stronglight or TA as they have the smaller BCD needed for 30T. You could of course use a MTB chainset.
Have a look at Spa cycles website. They have a load of chainsets at silly low prices. They are easy to deal with and worth a call.

I worked in a bike shop until 1978 and 700C wheels were rare then....Michelin Elan was around but not a great take up from manufacturers or riders alike.

I'd hazard a guess that the 1979 Echelon came with 27 x 1 1/4 wheels, especially if it had been hanging around the shop for a year...

Shaun

Hey Shaun, don't knock the poly lilac. My first "racing" bike was a metallic lilac Coventry Eagle. I recently had a very bright pink Ken Bird tandem as well (why did I sell that???)
Nick

Can't complain............I've got a Pink Falcon San-remo LOL

Shaun

right it seems after talking to my retro girlfriend that I got the date wrong
for the purchase of the Echelon it was in fact a 1981-82 bike.
It definately had Michelin Elans fitted so could it have been on 700c's ?

Oh, and would this fit ?
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Retro-Suntour ... 2c64f7fd25

Cleared up the wheel issue. I measured the radius from the hub
centre to the centre of the slot that holds the brake pad and it
came to 310mm so 700c it is.
This is good as it will allow a little more gap to fit mudguards,
Esge were the ones to have back in the day and I have been told
they are still available under a different name.

How did this project go? I'd be interested to know.

I'm planning a similar project to update a 1980s Dawes road bike to some more modern gear with wider ratios. I'm thinking of an 8 speed MTB cassette (11-32) + new rear MTB mech on 700c rear wheel, and a new double chainset (cyclo cross 46/36) to make the resultant gears more sensible.

I'm not going to try getting indexed shifting to work. That may be a step too far.

I'm not looking forward to removing the fixed cup from the BB in order to replace it with a sealed unit. If the square taper on the existing spindle is OK I may just try to shove the new chainset on that (having first greased the bearings) but I may live to regret that.

Hopefully the (band-on) Suntour Cyclone Front Mech will just need moving and tweaking.

PS I've already done some work on this bike which may be a bit sacreligious to the purists. I replaced the (stupid) "suicide" brake levers and replaced the (weinmann sidepull) brakes which were wonky with some dual pivot ones, and stuck M520 clipless pedals on it. But on the plus side from a retro point of view I've put my lovely Brookes saddle on it, which paired up with a carradice bag gives it a suitably "grumpy old man" appearance - rather fitting given the rider.