My Youngs — Advice

[ssor]

New to the forum and road bikes.

Bought this a couple of months ago and is my daily ride to/from work. Pretty much as I bought it apart from tyres, saddle and some new brake blocks. I read up a bit on Youngs from Classic Lightweights.

It has 531 tubes, forks (not sure these are original?) and stays and seems to be a mix of components and parts; Suntour, Shimano, Campag and Weinmann. The crankset/pedals are Shimano 105 and I don't have a big budget, so was thinking of following this through to the brakes + aero levers as a first step. Unsure of the age of the bike (80s?). Would like get a good period match on new bits.

My questions are; has anyone more info on, or could roughly date the bike? (Frame has N60386 and 26 stamped on it). And would replacing the current components with used/NOS 105 be a good choice?

Quick camera phone pics below I shot on the way to work.

Thanks!

 

[Johnsqual]

Hello,

I am not an expert, but many many builders used date codes where the last two digits refer to the year, so your frame might well be 1986.

You can sometimes look at the date codes of the parts too. Here's a link to a page that decodes various component codes - shimano is at the bottom of the page.

http://vintage-trek.com/component_dates.htm

Lovely looking frame. Shimano 105 seems ok, maybe Shimano 600 Arabesque would be nice (and just about period correct) if it fits your budget.

Johnny

 

[biggs682]

i take it you be a tall person looking at those pics !

either way nice bike

 

[ssor]

@Johnsqual thanks for the link. Most useful. '86 could well be about right I guess. The 600 stuff does look nice, bit more tricky to get hold of than 105?

@biggs682 indeed. 6'4" unfortunately.

Do really like the frame, rides really nicely. Looking forward to getting into my road bikes more.

 

[Jonny69]

Wow, Youngs. I used to press my nose against their window when I was at school up the road from there. I bet they aren't there any more.

 

[Some Guy]

The (last?) Coney Hall Youngs branded bike shop is closing down now.

 

[Tel]

Shimano 600 Ultegra (tri-colour) would be my choice of components. The grey would match perfectly....