Roberts Dogs Bolx (kids version) interesting history

Yetichaser

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I thought i’d start a build thread after recently acquiring this bike.
I wasn’t really looking just yet for the next bike for my youngest son but this one seemed a perfect size for him as he slowly outgrows his Fat Chance.

It was advertised as a Dogs Bolx although confusingly had a White Spider sticker on it which added to the intrigue and I couldn’t get it out of my mind.

I picked it up from @MatBH5 (lovely to meet you and show me your wonderful collection of Roberts bikes) on Friday evening And retuned home in the early hours of Saturday morning.

Today I have given it a clean following the road trip and cleaned off the grime it accumulated whilst on the roof rack.

My son was keen to see it and fortunately it looks like a great fit.
The components look to be in good condition with little wear, a few scratches on the frame and a small ding but given its 30years old seems good to me.

I emailed Geoff Roberts and he confirmed that it was indeed a Dogs Bolx built by himself for one of his sons in 1994. His son thought it wasn’t appropriate to have the Dogs Bolx name when taking it to school so a White Spider sticker was used instead.

The rear of the frame has the DB horseshoe seat stays with the sleeved stays and ovalised chainststays (this is consistent with my own DB), altough the front end feels more like my White Spider as it doesnt appear to have the ovalised downtube that changes shape at each end.

So now my thoughts are on how to build this.
The bike will be used by my son for recreational use and entering cyclocross and mountain bike races.

In order to be semi competitive it needs suspension forks and stronger brakes whilst remaining light (currently weighs 22lb) and, unfortunately from a period correct view, modern kids cranks so as to not risk knee injury.
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My thinking is Pace RC35s and Maguras and then run a 1x7 speed like I did for my eldest son.

Wheels are yet to be decided; the current Ritchey Vantage looking to be very lightly used…although my son has an obsession with black Porcupines and has his eye on my Purple Ringle hubs from my Yeti.

The rest of the components will need to be decided over the coming weeks and months and so this will be a drawn out process given other work and life commitments, but will try and update periodically.

Below are some initial pictures, plus some of a Saracen I picked up which came with some early Magura Hydrostop (?)brakes. The rest of the Saracen will be up for sale soon.
 
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