1989/90 Saracen Tufftrax - Finished!

Saddle turned up this morning, one of those rare moments when I'm actually home to greet a courier.

I will probably put semi-slicks on this and use it on the roads if I can get along with it, for the time being I'll whack the tyres off the Timberline on it. Not sure I want to risk those old tyres above... The innertube they were hiding had 5 patches on it.

Rudders

Very first bike I had.. Identical bar I had 24" wheels and 14 inch frame 20 years ago now, my old man still has the bike in his shed, albeit respeayed, my brother had a marin muirwoods at the same time, the bright green one......good times

Leisure Lakes I remember going there as a kid, weird pond like things.

I had the Manitous on my Timberline fitted at the one in Tarleton

Was a member of the cycle club linked with them for a while

This bike has been reduced to a neat pile of parts... All ready for a good clean and tidy.

The swearing when I trapped my finger in the rear mech was impressive!

Give me all your Mountain LX bits for my Tufftrax now! :twisted:

Hope mine looks as good as yours when finished.

I was impressed with the original Shimano pedals... You just don't get that detail these days. Pedals are an afterthought.

I've found a few spots of rust on the frame, nothing I'm too worried about.
Might clean them up if I can find a suitable colour match for the paint... Failing that I'll Kurust them for now.

Been chucking loads of elbow grease at this old girl...

The cassette came up a treat considering it's 20 years old...

Now that I've spent a bit of time with this bike I can properly address a couple of points earlier in the build...

The bizarre effect on the paintwork is the dreaded rust, I'm afraid... It's slowly worked under the paint and caused it to bubble... Doesn't look too serious though, perhaps will need addressing in future though.

The front mech has had a pivot replaced with a nut and bolt in the past but doesn't actually look like it's bent in anyway aside from... Well... Looking bent. I'm wondering if that is because of the Biopace chain rings... The shape of the cage is a bit... eccentric. It works perfectly, anyway.

I can't get indexing to work satisfactoraly. I notice that the rear mech has no spring through the centre as per many modern mechs. I recall reading that the springs on this type of mech slackened off over time. Could be that or it could be that I'm rubbish at setting up shifting. Cables seem to move nice and smoothly.
In the meantime I good with using friction, the thumbies are a doddle to set up!

I'm hoping new tyres are at the post office, if that is the case I'll whack them on tomorrow and get some pics before I get it muddy. I'm really happy with how it's turned out. It looks the dogs danglies in my humble opinion!

I never intended to actually get this bike, I was told about it but turned it down because the shed was full. But the original owner was toying with binning it and I thought it would be a mortal RetroBike sin to allow that to happen... I decided I'd take it because I needed new wheels for the Timberline.... Doubt that'll get it's wheels after all....

Total damage was a new saddle, new rear axle (from the parts bin), new cable inners (I want to get new outers at some point, I have loads of blackbut no white), new innertubes, new skewers all round and new tyres... I also treated it to some shiny canti bolts with allen heads.

I love it, really pleased with how it's tidied up.

I've left all the reflectors on because they just look right on this bike. Plus I like the security of having the reflector brackets there to stop the straddle being dragged in to the front wheel should the cable ever snap. I've seen it happen... :shock: I do need a new front one though.