Friday 1 April 2011

Old Road Bike

I've got an old road bike. Its a Ribble winter frame, 531, mudguard eyelets front and rear, about 19 years old. It has 105 throughout, but an old version, 7sp, downtube shifters, even Bio Pace chainrings! I've got other bikes, my Hewitt audax and my Pompino fixie, so I don't really need to hang onto the Ribble. But I've had it ages, ridden it thousands of miles and can't bring myself to get rid of it.

So, what do I do with it?

I suppose options are either a full retro-fetish rebuild to its original spec, or just tidy it up and use it as a pub run bike (but to be honest that is what the Pompino does) or spend a bit of money getting it to a modern spec? One possibility would be to fit different cranks and smaller rings and use it for the hillier stuff round here. I've probably got some old Sugino or Stronglight cranks from the tandems lying round in the bits bin. Or maybe another singlespeed. I used to run this as a fixie, maybe I could fit a bmx freewheel to the spare wheel I’ve got?

Any suggestions?

Tim

No comments:

Post a Comment