Guinessisgoodforyou
rBotM Winner
Looks very nice, I'd keep the graphics as a nod to whoever built it. 11kg is not a bad weight, probably only two of mine there 
1980s chromed 'Bob Read Cycles' restomod
- Thread starter sjcprojects
- Start date
sjcprojects
Orange š Fan
Cheers. Yes, I will keep the decals even if Iām not the biggest fan, as it doesnāt feel right to get rid of some of the history of the bike. Iāll take it for a short ride tomorrow and see how it feels.Looks very nice, I'd keep the graphics as a nod to whoever built it. 11kg is not a bad weight, probably only two of mine there
Guinessisgoodforyou
rBotM Winner
I think sometimes, we as cyclists get obsessed with weight on a bike and forget to relax and enjoy the ride. If you are training or competitive it's a different story of course. I know you've just done a brutal peaks ride and truthfully all of those climbs in one hit would kill me.
sjcprojects
Orange š Fan
100% agree with you there. Even though it would generally be a bit silly to be riding anything retro if I was that worried about weight, I am still sometimes guilty of getting a bit hung up on it, probably, due to the amount of climbing I do. But there are plenty of other aspects of a bike that can make it enjoyable to ride, which is always good to remember. In fact, really, one key reason I do ride retro bikes is that I can forget the idea of trying to get anywhere particularly fast and just enjoy it
sjcprojects
Orange š Fan
I couldn't have asked for a much better day for a shakedown ride ā not a cloud in the sky, perfect conditions in which to dazzle other road users with the gleam of sunshine on chrome
. Here's a few photos from my usual photo beauty spot.
Also, here it has the Shimano RS80 wheelset on, not because I was keen to save weight (although that is a nice bonus), but because really the hubs on the alloy wheels need re-greasing before putting any proper miles on them. The red on these rims does work rather nicely with the frame, almost as if I planned it that way (which I definitely didn't, in fact, it's a happy accident). These shave nearly a full 800g off the weight, which brings the bike down to something similar to my other steel bikes, as it happens.
It's an enjoyable ride, it handles perfectly well going up or down or indeed on the rare bits of flat. With the lighter wheels, I really don't think I'd be able to say this wasn't 531 or similar if I didn't know otherwise. I'm glad I went down the restomod route, as it's a good combination of modern functionality and retro looks. It almost looks to me like some of the neo-retro sort of road bikes you can buy these days, actually - only quite a bit shinier...
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