Recent content by sjcprojects

I would think it’s pretty much all original stock parts, aside from the saddle. The lower-end groupset ties in with some features of the frame which suggests that’s also lower-end (relatively speaking - not to say it’s not a reasonable enough bike). It’s from around 1990 based on the groupset.

The view Northwards from Devil’s Dyke.

Well, that guy clearly knows very little about Raleigh considering his surprise at seeing the Raleigh name on mountain bikes as if that’s something new 🤔.

A river-side pillbox in Shoreham-by-Sea. There are a number of these close together, plus some anti-aircraft gun platforms for defending the nearby airport, which saw a reasonable amount of action during WW2.

Ah, now that is a good use for Photoshop! I have used it myself in the past for bike mock-ups, it does help when it's not always easy to imagine what something will look like.

That is a lovely colour, indeed. Well, lovely all round, in fact. I'd probably take the labels off - I think they look fine as they, and they are far from the most garish, but it'll still look cleaner without them.

Thanks - Actually, I noticed when looking at the info about this model on Velobase that there were quite a few comments that it is a very hard leather on this model. The leather is maybe twice as thick as on the other leather saddle I have, and there is no give at all in the middle of it. But...

Thanks. Getting a new rear wheel for this has rather fallen off my radar, but yes, I should look out for one, really. Getting a 28 on the rim was quite hard on the thumbs, but not the worst.

Thank for this, that looks like a great job. I'm not sure having Brooks repair mine would be economically viable, as it were, so I will have a look at other options. Apparently only about 600 of these 'Professional Select' were made (identifiable by the black painted rails).

Does that include repairing a rivet? That seems tricky unless you have the right tools. The leather is also very hard so I need to get it at least a bit pliable again. Any tips with softening rock-hard leather would be gratefully received.

Yes, me too. I did point that out, but they only replied that (just to add to the confusion), the Severn Valley used both the oval badge, and the cut-out one. The catalogue shows the oval one, but they reused that illustration for multiple years, so that doesn't really help. But I am tempted to...

This is now confirmed by the good people on the Viking FB group as a 1961 Severn Valley. Not bad for £25. Obviously it does need a full renovation (I'm pretty sure it's not the original paint anyway, so I wouldn't be losing anything by having it removed). Anyway, one for the future. This is...

Thanks – quite a bit of work went into this one. I got a bit obsessive about the details, really. I posted it up on the Dave Yates-built bikes thread on LFGSS and thankfully the man himself approves. :)

1993 Condor Professional (built by Dave Yates). This was full strip-down and renovation – the build thread is here.

First of all, that is a lovely bike. Ritchey 'Classic' bar tape might be closer? Although maybe it's a bit dark? It's a tricky one.