Ribble columbus slx Restoration

[little jim]

This is the classic case of right place, right time. A guy came to the shop I work at asking if we'd take a knackered old bike off him for parts as he didn't want it anymore. Now, we don't normally do that but I had a look at the bike and immediately said I'd take it.
It's a columbus slx frame badged as 'RIBBLE' with a full 1988 campagnolo athena groupset (apart from the seatpost) right down to the toe straps
It was in a pretty bad state with loads of old grease and grime on it and a fair amount of surface rust but after being in the garage for a week it's cleaned up really nice.
The restoration is complete apart from some bar tape and a different seatpost but I've decided to be annoying and split all the pictures into different posts and string it out over a few days
Anyway, this is what it looked like
Please excuse the crap photos but I was using my phone most of the time

Rims

Hubs

Tyres

Unfortunately this stem has bitten the dust. It was completely seized into the steerer tube so I had to cut it out.

I like this photo purely because of what the sticker on the seat tube says.

And finally, a teaser of what it looks like now.

 

[little jim]

An 'in progress' update

Bare frame with the top and bottom headset cups still in and the shifters fitted

The freewheel apart

The freewheel back together without the innards

Inner chainring

Outer chainring

Front mech

Rear mech

Brake calliper

And finally another teaser

Last update tomorrow.

 

[Rich34]

Nice rebuild - look froward to seeing it finished. Always a shame to see cobwebs on this website! :shock:

Athena from back then was a beautiful groupset...

 

[little jim]

And finally....

Drivetrain

Front end built up with an ITM Eclypse stem that doesn't match everything else but looks good enough for now until I can get hold of a replacement cinelli 1A stem

Campagnolo right down to the toe straps

This is going up for sale as soon as I can find a campag seatpost and a cinelli stem to complete the groupset and some suitable bar tape but I have no idea about how much to sell it for. It's a columbus SLX frame with internal brake cable routing that runs through a copper tube in the top tube. As far as I understand it this was a difficult thing to achieve which means the frame must be reasonable quality.
The groupset is full campagnolo athena from 1988 ish and is in very good condition apart from one missing part of the rear brake and some corrosion on the stainless steel bolts.
I'm going to post a topic about this in the 'how much is my bike worth' thread but I though I'd ask here anyway

Cheers

 

[ROADRASH]

VERY NICE

 

[mdvineng]

you wouldn't have the frame number would you? I may know who built it!

regards
dave s

 

[little jim]

you wouldn't have the frame number would you? I may know who built it!

regards
dave s

I'll find out and give you a shout tomorrow mate. It would be nice to know a bit of the history behind this bike.

 

[grilla]

This kind of stuff never happens to me...

Lucky you!

 

[Delerlencer]

Re: Ribble

Hi,

what size is the seatpost please? I am trying to identify if a frame I have is a Ribble, it has a 26mm seatpost though?

Thanks, Russ