Sell, scrap or save?

droidus

My old commuter. Inherited it from my brother in the mid-90s. Must've done well over 20,000 miles over the years.



The weather in my back garden has taken its toll and now pretty much everything needs replacing. Is the frame worth anything? Should I just drop it down to Rothar?

It is/was a good solid commuter. A revelation to me at the time as Id only ever owned mountain bikes. Strangely enough, I couldn't find any info on it at all online...

blorg

Horizontal drop-out has to say "fixie conversion" especially if everything needs replacing. Any more info on make/tubing/size? You'd certainly get €50 for it I reckon.

SomeFool

It can be handy to have a runabout for going to shops/pub/town that you won't miss if it's swiped, if you don't need it passing it on to rothar seems like a fine idea.

droidus

blorg wrote: »

Horizontal drop-out has to say "fixie conversion" especially if everything needs replacing. Any more info on make/tubing/size? You'd certainly get €50 for it I reckon.

Thats what I was thinking. Its a Townsend trail (that's all that's on the frame). Its quite a large frame but Ive never measured it.

Ill next be home tomorrow night so ill check out the details then.

RobFowl

Looks like a 23 1/2 inch. Townsend were a budget to mid range manafacturer which was active mostly around the early 90's. They actually sponsored a pro team in the UK..

Most of the frames were steel cro-moly, 500, 501 or 531 reynolds tubing. Not the best make but not the worst by any means (as testified by the 20,000 miles ).

If you wanted to really nerdy build it up with dropped bars and a shimano 105 6-7 speed groupo (the golden arrow 6 speed was used on some of them).

droidus

If you wanted to really nerdy build it up with dropped bars and a shimano 105 6-7 speed groupo (the golden arrow 6 speed was used on some of them).

Im not really sure exactly what that means, but for some reason it gives me a tingly feeling...

RobFowl

droidus wrote: »

Im not really sure exactly what that means, but for some reason it gives me a tingly feeling...

The shimano 105 groupset from the late 80's early 90's had a golden arrown design engraved on the derailleurs and crankarms, it was 6 speed with down tube shifts (which were engraved as well as I recall). Would make a nice retro project (I'm deffo getting middle aged :rolleyes:)

niceonetom

I'd definitely turn that into a fixed/single-speed - put some voluminous marathons on it, mudguards too and have a nice low-maintenance grocery bike that I could lock up without trepidation.

droidus

Much as I love the idea, I couldnt possibly justify the time or money it would take to convert it seeing as Im struggling on the new bike. My fitness levels are Ok, but the old knees arent too happy.

So... who wants it? free to anyone who will collect and bring it back to life.

IM0

Is anyone interested in it yet?

or PM'd you?

redmaxi

If the knees aren't up to a fixie then i'd put a Strumey Archer 3 speed hub on the rear and strip off all the rubbish.
It's the perfect frame for it and you'd have a practical machine for little money, something different as well.

cdaly_

droidus wrote:

the old knees arent too happy

Hope you're keeping them warm in this weather. Apparently you should have your knees covered in anything below about 15 degrees Celsius.

I have one knee that's a little weak. I wear a knee brace pretty much all the time on that knee. http://www.wiggle.co.uk/c/cycle/7/Injury/

abcdggs

droidus wrote: »

Much as I love the idea, I couldnt possibly justify the time or money it would take to convert it seeing as Im struggling on the new bike. My fitness levels are Ok, but the old knees arent too happy.

So... who wants it? free to anyone who will collect and bring it back to life.

Will take it off your hands if you're around dublin. but would seriously advise you look into doing it up as a run around. pm me if you want to get rid of it

Doctor Bob

I think you should give it to Rothar, but if not, I'd take it (I like that Sturmey Archer idea [especially the red!]) and give Rothar a few quid. Seems only fair.

abcdggs obviously has dibs.

ciarsciars

Next in line if still available - can collect anywhere in dublin or surrounding areas.

thanks.

tomasrojo

Doctor Bob wrote: »

(I like that Sturmey Archer idea [especially the red!])

Hub gears are very under-rated. Have my first one for years, on my Brompton -- a very neat system if you don't need a huge range.

That red is very attractive.

Piercemeear

redmaxi wrote: »

If the knees aren't up to a fixie then i'd put a Strumey Archer 3 speed hub on the rear and strip off all the rubbish.

That is a beautiful hub. Any idea where I can find more info about their new products online? Searches are throwing up a lot of details on restoring older stuff.

I found their website, can't seem to find anyone selling hub gears.

RobFowl

Piercemeear wrote: »

That is a beautiful hub. Any idea where I can find more info about their new products online? Searches are throwing up a lot of details on restoring older stuff.

I found their website, can't seem to find anyone selling hub gears.

http://www.freemanscycles.co.uk/cycle_sturmey_archer/cycle_sturmey_archer.asp?cat=sturmey_archer_3

There you go

droidus

OK - gamgsam got to me first via PM, so Ive offered it to him. Ive taken Doctor bob's excellent suggestion on board and asked him to consider a Rothar donation. If it falls through for any reason ill PM the next person on the list.

Sorry for not getting back to the thread sooner. Xmas part last night... ugrgh..

droidus

cdaly_ wrote: »

Hope you're keeping them warm in this weather. Apparently you should have your knees covered in anything below about 15 degrees Celsius.

I have one knee that's a little weak. I wear a knee brace pretty much all the time on that knee. http://www.wiggle.co.uk/c/cycle/7/Injury/

Thanks for the advice. TBH, I think its just some very underused muscles giving out. Ive checked my foot, handlebar, saddle etc... positions, and I think they're all reasonably OK.

Ive never had any knee problems before. I'm hoping it'll just go away once I get some proper miles under my belt.

droidus

redmaxi wrote: »

If the knees aren't up to a fixie then i'd put a Strumey Archer 3 speed hub on the rear and strip off all the rubbish.
It's the perfect frame for it and you'd have a practical machine for little money, something different as well.

That is a really good idea..

Ive got one of these and I absolutely love it. 8 speeds, decent range, silent, changes almost instantly, doesn't need cleaning, and the ability to change when stopped at lights is a godsend:

Doctor Bob

tomasrojo wrote: »

Hub gears are very under-rated. Have my first one for years, on my Brompton -- a very neat system if you don't need a huge range.

That red is very attractive.

Under-rated? Not by me! I've had a Nexus Inter 8 for going on 4 years now.* And I even did some of the Sean Kelly route on the coast of Waterford this summer using it, so it's not just for the flat of Dublin. Welcome back!

droidus- is that the Alfine? Looks like it, but also looks smaller.


*It's currently in England for a specialist consultation, but that's a story for another day...

tomasrojo

Is this the birth of a new trend? The fixie thing is SO noughties. Now everyone will be looking for old steel frames to covert to Sturmies.

redmaxi

Sheldon Brown surely was the king of the internal hub.


A nice seventies racer here on a shimano nexus hub 8 speed hub.

He lost the run of himself here though, 63 speed .

droidus

Doctor Bob wrote: »

Under-rated? Not by me! I've had a Nexus Inter 8 for going on 4 years now.* And I even did some of the Sean Kelly route on the coast of Waterford this summer using it, so it's not just for the flat of Dublin. Welcome back!

droidus- is that the Alfine? Looks like it, but also looks smaller.


*It's currently in England for a specialist consultation, but that's a story for another day...

Yeah, that's the Alfine. I think they reduced the size a bit in 2007. Its still quite heavy though.

I cant recommend it highly enough. Every commuter bike should have one.

droidus

Speaking of Sheldon Brown and hubs in general. I was seriously considering an 'infinite geared' NuVinci hub for a while, but the full setup weight of 11lb is a bit OTT.

http://www.sheldonbrown.com/harris/nuvinci.html

ciarsciars

Hey, did anyone take that bike in the end? I'm looking to fix up a bike for a friend on the cheap.

droidus

Yeah, Gamsgam is coming to pick it up tomorrow.

gamgsam

Thanks a million again for the bike, your a gent.
Pics will be up in a few weeks after some messing about