Saracen eh.............

[genner8]

Can anybody help shed some light on this bike, I know its a Saracen, picked it up off Ebay for £50, been dry stored since purchase so its in absolute pristine condition. I just dont know the model, year and any other information would be gratefully received

thanks in advance

 

[k-rod]

wow - time warp! :shock:

 

[legrandefromage]

Dont get too excited - its the absolute bottom of the range timewarp. Probably a Backtrax with one or two cro-mo tubes.

Sometimes, they are leftover higher end frames with low end parts - which would be nice.

*looks to be a Rufftrax from around 1998-ish

http://www.retrobike.co.uk/gallery2/d/1 ... n_1998.pdf

 

[genner8]

Re:

wasn't expecting to much to be honest, needed something to commute to work and this came up, just thought it see what it actually was. its mint, not a mark on it

 

[drystonepaul]

Re:

It looks very much like one of the surplus frames which were available on ebay about five years ago.
These came from a warehouse clearance auction back in 2006 when the original 'Saracen Cycles' was liquidated by it's creditors and all the stock sold off.
(The company re-emerged under the same ownership as 'Saracen Bikes' and was then sold to Madison a couple of years later.

Many of the surplus frames from the Saracen warehouse were presumably those held in stock for warranty replacements. Over the years it seems that quite a surplus piled up with a real variety of frames from the late 80's and throughout the 90's too.
Some were fully painted and had decals, some were unpainted and many, like the one above and a couple I picked up, were powder-coated in matte black.

As LGF says, that one does look like a low end frame from the late 90's. The decal won't be original.
The parts are also low end but with a few modest upgrades perhaps, you'd have a very reliable commuter.

 

[xerxes]

Re:

I wouldn't worry too much about upgrades if you're just commuting. I had a similarly equipped Claud Butler a while back with the exact same Shimano 7 speed SIS rear mech and shifters. It's all a bit heavy, about 500g for the rear derailleur, but it all worked perfectly for the two years I had it and once I had a rack, mudguards, 2 kilograms of puncture proof tyres and 3 kilogram U lock bungeed to the rack, weight saving elsewhere wasn't really going to make much difference.

 

[genner8]

Re:

Thanks for the info, Im massively happy with it even though its real low end, it looks pretty heavy duty and will do exactly what I need it to do. the decals arnt even lacquered over you can actually peel them off by had and looks like a cheap vinyl.

the previous owner said he bought it around 98/99 so im guessing it was one of the original shitters. its seriously clean bust sadly hasn't got eyelets for panniers and im not to sure about them ones that hang off the seatpost!

 

[xerxes]

Re:

its seriously clean bust sadly hasn't got eyelets for panniers and im not to sure about them ones that hang off the seatpost!

You've got eyelets on the dropouts so you could use P-clips for the upper rack mount on the seat stays: http://www.evanscycles.com/products/tor ... s-ec006759. All the weight is carried by the eyelets on the dropouts, so using P-clips shouldn't be a problem.

 

[legrandefromage]

fit the rack to the brake bridge instead?