'93 Marin Bear Valley SE.......the nostalgia trip

[sherlylock]

Bought a Marin seat clamp off the Bay to replace the one that came with the frame (wasn't sure on its originality...) I think it came off a Muirwoods (based on the colour) and the original on the BV would've been silver.

So I stripped it down into it's component parts, cleaned them all using various grades of sandpaper/electric drill for the round bits/autosol/wirewool and paint stripper. Reassembled with some new grease on the moving bits and fitted to the bike.

 

[sherlylock]

Started renovating the bars ends too - the originals were scuffed up so I set about one of them last night with the Oven Pride to remove the clear anodising and then attacked it with progressively finer grades of wet and dry from 320grit down to 2000 grit. I've part-polished the "clamp" section of the bar-end and then used fine wire wool on the handle part to leave it with a brushed look.

Presumably it's worth getting these bits clear-anodised to protect them?? Does anodising change the surface appearance at all?

 

[PopsTrippin]

Mate that looks a lot better with the stem and bars.. Finishes it off a treat.

 

[sherlylock]

Mate that looks a lot better with the stem and bars.. Finishes it off a treat.

Yep - it was bugging me for a while so I'm pleased to get the original stem back on.

Took the BV for a ride around the Essex countryside on Sunday - completed part of the Roach Valley Way. A bit of an eventful ride; a confrontation with a pissy landowner (who obviously dislikes the public right of way across his land), my mate Rob slipped off the seawall into the River Roach (tide was out luckily) a couple of punctures and a hand pump which dis-integrated whilst trying to fix the first of said punctures.......

......anyways, I now realise exactly how claggy and sticky Essex mud (clay) is!

 

[sherlylock]

Picked up some original Araya TM18s and Marin Lite tyres from Tuff92 last weekend (cheers Simon!). Perfect finishing touch for the project......almost all original now (not that I'd usually get hung up about originality - I just have on this bike).