So on the 18th of March I purchased my first retro bike... a 1998 I think Kona hahanna.
A mate of mine back in our school days had one and I was forever jealous!
So I bought one and have gotten it back to a reasonable standard.
Then a cheap frame came up on ebay in the exact color and size my mate had back in the day and I bought that too to surprise him for his 40th, still trying to organise that purchase to be transported but that's a different story. He's not 40 yet so I started accumulating parts for that build but in doing so I opened a can of worms.
I pulled an old Raliegh female bike out of a skip, serviced it and sold it on for 50e. Those profits were spent the next day on a GT aggressor frame for which I have also accumulated parts for.
In accumulating parts I decided to look out for cheap parts in the form of a complete bike and ended up buying a dogs dinner of a GT timberline for a song but felt so sorry for the life it has had that I have ended up restoring this and not using it for parts.
So I am no new mechanic and have spanners and tools accumulating for 20 plus years by way of motorcycles which cross over to bycycles in alot of circumstances. Well apart from BB tools, headset tools, specific crank tools, cassette tools, bleeding tools, wheel alignment tools and ah feck sake I've just bought enough tools to cover most service needs into the future and if the oil does finally run out I'll make a packet servicing bicycles instead of my current day job.
Sorry where was I, oh yeah one parts bike shy of a project I came across a GT I Drive 1.0 in need of saving and now I am like Jesus to the apostles of all things GT and Kona as long as they have 26 inch wheels cos I've been buying up way to much 26 inch related shite since March I now finally can confirm I have a problem or maybe Jebus is talking to me in my dreams to try and build a strange arc of 26inch retro-ish bikes.
Any way no thread is complete without basket case pictures....
Kona 1
Kona 2, if i don't manage to get this picked up soon it may end up in a skip, anyone in Guildford Surrey I'd really appreciate this getting collected to get my mates 40th surprise finished.
Cheers in advance.... you have to admit that color is epic!
Skip Raliegh
Gt Aggressor...projection
Crossing the line with a Timberline/ donor bike
Going modern with a 22 year old full squish GT that needed saving from previous owner.
Well that's all my confession for tonight, I love working on bikes as much as I Love riding....watch out for perverts!
A mate of mine back in our school days had one and I was forever jealous!
So I bought one and have gotten it back to a reasonable standard.
Then a cheap frame came up on ebay in the exact color and size my mate had back in the day and I bought that too to surprise him for his 40th, still trying to organise that purchase to be transported but that's a different story. He's not 40 yet so I started accumulating parts for that build but in doing so I opened a can of worms.
I pulled an old Raliegh female bike out of a skip, serviced it and sold it on for 50e. Those profits were spent the next day on a GT aggressor frame for which I have also accumulated parts for.
In accumulating parts I decided to look out for cheap parts in the form of a complete bike and ended up buying a dogs dinner of a GT timberline for a song but felt so sorry for the life it has had that I have ended up restoring this and not using it for parts.
So I am no new mechanic and have spanners and tools accumulating for 20 plus years by way of motorcycles which cross over to bycycles in alot of circumstances. Well apart from BB tools, headset tools, specific crank tools, cassette tools, bleeding tools, wheel alignment tools and ah feck sake I've just bought enough tools to cover most service needs into the future and if the oil does finally run out I'll make a packet servicing bicycles instead of my current day job.
Sorry where was I, oh yeah one parts bike shy of a project I came across a GT I Drive 1.0 in need of saving and now I am like Jesus to the apostles of all things GT and Kona as long as they have 26 inch wheels cos I've been buying up way to much 26 inch related shite since March I now finally can confirm I have a problem or maybe Jebus is talking to me in my dreams to try and build a strange arc of 26inch retro-ish bikes.
Any way no thread is complete without basket case pictures....
Kona 1
Kona 2, if i don't manage to get this picked up soon it may end up in a skip, anyone in Guildford Surrey I'd really appreciate this getting collected to get my mates 40th surprise finished.
Cheers in advance.... you have to admit that color is epic!
Skip Raliegh
Gt Aggressor...projection
Crossing the line with a Timberline/ donor bike
Going modern with a 22 year old full squish GT that needed saving from previous owner.
Well that's all my confession for tonight, I love working on bikes as much as I Love riding....watch out for perverts!
now I just take my time (understatement) with a project and have one or two bikes complete and ready to roll. I haven’t even looked at bikes for sale since summer last year.
