The mustard machine - Saracen Trekker 87

[xxnick1975]

Re:

Parts clean up begins

 

[xxnick1975]

Interestingly enough the chainset is not mt60. Its stamped fc b 214. Which comes up on the Internet as a cheaper touring triple. I can only guess it's been on there from the start. Its nice enough and polished up well so will go back on, although ive misplaced one of the dust caps for now :facepalm:

Rings are early bio pace and very oval and actually quite worn

 

[xxnick1975]

Rear mech is in quite nice condition probably because a guard was fitted, however jockeys were used to the point of being converted to ninja stars!

I swapped some from a 6 speed mech I had in the parts bin and now it all seems good.

 

[xxnick1975]

Cleaned up the bottom bracket and reinstalled but it still feels a bit rough. Will build it up and see what it's like in use but an upgrade to a un55 would be the obvious answer.

Alternatively I could dig though all the cup and cone bb I have and try and perm together something half decent, buy some new balls etc but not sure I can be bothered with all that when £15 on a new cartridge bb sorts it

That said will need to check axel length as I'm not sure it's the classic 122.5, it looks even longer

 

[xxnick1975]

Re:

Grips cleaned up okayish in the dishwasher but were still a bit hard, so have just soaked them in a sink of boiling water and they have gone all nice and squishy again. So can be reused no problem.

 

[Rodrigues]

Re:

Looking good Nick. What sort of state are the wheels in?

 

[xxnick1975]

Re:

I'm hoping the wheels are in the same kind of condition as the rest of it - i.e. currently filthy but will clean up nicely.

The hubs are rotating okaish just a bit rough. But given the wear on the jockeys and chainrings, the bearings and cups may well be worn out. Having said that this is going to be a commuter/pub bike so i'm going to try and keep using what's there just a long as i can.

I started on them last night and made a bit of progress, the rear wheel is almost clean enough to pick up now! The front was always a lot cleaner to be fair.

Spokes are intact, straight and stainless, so should be okay. Will try and get a pair of amberwalls on there to from my tyre pile. wont be mint but hopefully look okay.

the rest of the kit i cleaned last night and as expected all the MT60 has come up lovely. Even the plating on the front mech cage is in nice condition. I had a spare set of MT60 thumbies so i have just swapped those into the build box, so good to go.

the brake blocks are worn out, so need to source some replacements - not sure what to go with with U brakes, but i will have a look if i have anything suitable before forking out - although usually you can pick up something for a few quid

i also checked my stash of saddles..and no black turbos in stock! I have the white one if you fancy swapping for that, but i'm not sure it looks right on these old saracens - they are a bit too no nonsense for white saddles. Found a good tutorial on youtube for recovering a saddle, so may well give that a try.

 

[xxnick1975]

Re:

Clean it up a bit more tonight, managed to get the uniglide cassette off and apart! Go me.

 

[Rodrigues]

Looking really good.

Thanks for the offer on the white turbo but I tend to agree with you

Can you share that saddle restoration link? I've been looking for tips on how to repair saddles for ages.

 

[xxnick1975]

Saddle guru

http://www.instructables.com/id/How-to- ... ycle-seat/