The Silver Shadow - A £26 Graham Weigh (1992)

sjcprojects

Orange 🍊 Fan
While looking for a winter/beater bike, I decided to take a punt on one of those eBay listings full of useful information such as 'Road Bike' - starting at 99p. There was practically nothing in the listing description, but under the make, they had put Graham Weigh. The photo was both very small and quite blurry (see attachment), so I couldn't even tell if it had DT shifters or not, let alone mudguard eyelets, but I thought, why not?

To my slight surprise I got it for £26. It turned out to be pretty decent for £26. The frame has had what I would call a rather 'agricultural' paint job - it was originally burgundy, but has been painted silver (without removing the old paint, obviously...). It looks good from a distance, not so good up close. Still, not too bad - and it does mean I don't really care if it gets a bit bashed, which after-all was part of the point of buying it.

The frame number is 266992, which I take to mean a 1992 build. That would make sense with the 105 groupset, which I was immediately pleased to see. The wheels were some Rigida ones which I don't like because from experience they are an absolute swine to get any tyres on (let alone winter tyres), so I replaced them with a front I had already, and bought a back wheel from someone on here. I already had the Gatorskins to replace the horrible cheap tyres. I also replaced the headset, saddle and seatpost - which had been bodged to fit using some tin foil and a washer put on the seatbolt - not very clever. All in all this makes it more like a £75 Graham Weigh - but that's still not too bad, I reckon.

Anyway, I've taken it for a few shakedown rides and it's a nice enough ride. Now I just need to workout how to put mudguards on it. There's not much clearance.

I'm also not quite sure about the cranks being so far on the spindle that there's literally not 1mm of spindle showing - because they are on a campy BB (odd given the rest is all Shimano, but there you go...). It doesn't seem to effect riding it, but it does give me some pause for thought. Is this going to be okay? Any thoughts appreciated...

Oh, and it's named The Silver Shadow for obvious reasons - and as a homage to the classic cheap Hi Tec trainers of the same name. :LOL:
 

Attachments

  • IMG_6162.JPG
    IMG_6162.JPG
    271.5 KB · Views: 949
  • IMG_6161.JPG
    IMG_6161.JPG
    372.9 KB · Views: 951
  • IMG_6160.JPG
    IMG_6160.JPG
    493.1 KB · Views: 951
  • Screenshot 2020-12-07 at 11.32.45.png
    Screenshot 2020-12-07 at 11.32.45.png
    18.6 KB · Views: 952
Well done. Looks like hammerite smooth!

Every one of the components on that is probably worth more than £26.....

Worth getting it properly refinished!
 
Yes, definitely a Hammerite job!

If not for the other steel bikes I own or am in the process of building up, I would think about giving it a proper paint job, but it will definitely be a winter/beater bike, so it wouldn't really be worth it. I would also put some decals on it, but the 90s Graham Weigh ones look horrible in my opinion, so I'll just leave it as it is.

It comes in at 10.4kg all told, which I was pretty pleased with. That compares very favourably with the Terry Dolan alu winter bike I used to use a few years ago.
 
This may well be Dolan too. Graham sourced his frames from several sources depending on the quality and related price, his better ones were often from Terry. If you can find a number the shop MAY be able to provide some more details. Phone them and ask for Keith. They may also be able to provide alternative transfers?
 
Old Ned":mhhsmse9 said:
This may well be Dolan too. Graham sourced his frames from several sources depending on the quality and related price, his better ones were often from Terry. If you can find a number the shop MAY be able to provide some more details. Phone them and ask for Keith. They may also be able to provide alternative transfers?

Interesting. That would be an unexpected twist (and somewhat ironic seeing as my Terry Dolan bike was definitely not made by Terry himself, even if his name was all over it). I have seen at least one older (80s, I would guess) Graham Weigh with more traditional decals which would look okay, but it will for now at least remain a silver enigma to all but the most knowledgable... :)
 
A few more rides and I have an answer to my question as to whether the crank and spindle combination is a problem. About 10 miles from home, the non-drive side crank had become pretty wobbly due to the bolt coming loose. Clearly it's not possible to properly tighten the bolt down with so little spindle to bolt into. Luckily, to my surprise, it was perfectly ridable home once the bolt was finger tightened. I have an ISO fit crank I will replace the current one with. Luckily the drive-side seems okay.

Anyway, here are a few photos of The Silver Shadow getting suitably dirty (just the one partial rear mudguard at the moment).
 

Attachments

  • IMG_0043.JPG
    IMG_0043.JPG
    177.4 KB · Views: 501
  • IMG_0034 copy.JPG
    IMG_0034 copy.JPG
    235.9 KB · Views: 501
Back
Top