I picked this up several months ago as someone's unloved commuter bike. Not many of the original components actually remained apart from the stem, an indexed headset and a very rough bottom bracket.

So it was stripped back to the frame and put to one side.

These frames were apparently made from True Temper and I always loved the smokey paint job of DBs from this era so I thought that it'd be worth building up at some point.
I eventually did about a week ago, just in time for the Retrobike National Series ride at Thetford.




So here it is built up as a 36:18 singlespeed with 400LX cranks, Exage hubs, Ritchey Vantage Comp rims, Tioga FJC tyres, DX brakes, onZa barends and a Rolls saddle.
All more or less period correct and benefiting from diagonal dropouts and a favourable magic ratio. The headset and BB were replaced, and a new generic bar and seatpost fitted too.

While not exactly a lightweight, I was generally quite pleased with the way it handled during two days of riding serpentine Thetford singletrack. The stem is a bit too long and it kept twisting slightly no matter how much a tightened the quill bolt. The quill probably just needs a clean...

More pictures and some more riding to come I reckon.