Dibbers
Dirt Disciple
Thought I'd introduce my retro bike as a new member. This bike comes with a bit of a back story and means an awful lot to me.
It belonged to the lad that I grew up next door to from 1990-ish until I moved away for uni in '99, we did a whole load of riding in the 90s together. 9 years ago he was shot and killed in Afghanistan and his dad has just given me the bike to restore and ride. I was out in the garage on the 9th anniversary (although I still deny the day actually happened because I was on honeymoon at the time and found out when he made front page BBC news and got to miss the repatriation funeral) getting a bit choked up over cleaning cantilever brakes.
The restoration plan is to take off his brother's replacement parts when he was going to use it as a commuter bike - nasty cheap modern rear mech, gripshift, plastic pedals, riser bars etc. I don't want a gleaming as-new bike like some of the amazing show examples on the site here, I want it keep the bumps and scrapes of years of riding, keep as many original parts as possible and source original spec used parts to replace the modern stuff. Going to strip it down, take every bolt out, get everything working as it should, clean it up, and ride it like it was 25 years ago. The first ride will be tough but it deserves to live on as a memory of a great mate.
Amazed at the size of it against the regular bike, it looks tiny. It's so much easier to go fast on a mountain bike nowadays.
It belonged to the lad that I grew up next door to from 1990-ish until I moved away for uni in '99, we did a whole load of riding in the 90s together. 9 years ago he was shot and killed in Afghanistan and his dad has just given me the bike to restore and ride. I was out in the garage on the 9th anniversary (although I still deny the day actually happened because I was on honeymoon at the time and found out when he made front page BBC news and got to miss the repatriation funeral) getting a bit choked up over cleaning cantilever brakes.
The restoration plan is to take off his brother's replacement parts when he was going to use it as a commuter bike - nasty cheap modern rear mech, gripshift, plastic pedals, riser bars etc. I don't want a gleaming as-new bike like some of the amazing show examples on the site here, I want it keep the bumps and scrapes of years of riding, keep as many original parts as possible and source original spec used parts to replace the modern stuff. Going to strip it down, take every bolt out, get everything working as it should, clean it up, and ride it like it was 25 years ago. The first ride will be tough but it deserves to live on as a memory of a great mate.
Amazed at the size of it against the regular bike, it looks tiny. It's so much easier to go fast on a mountain bike nowadays.
