duncanmartin
Club Retro Rides Member
Out of retro ownership
Posts: 1,320
Club RR Member Number: 70
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My Klunkerz. duncanmartin
@duncanmartin
Club Retro Rides Member 70
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Cool story.  When my daughter (7) crashes, if I run over and try to give her a hug she'll give me a slap! She gets so stroppy at falling off it's not safe to be around her! I really like the 20, but I currently have 4 bikes, a mostly completed trike, and a sacrificial bike for building the next recumbent, so hopefully someone else rescues it and makes it as cool as LittlePixels. GLWS... Cheers Duncan |
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Oh if you ever come across one of these on your travels, or similar let me know.  A bit like this or this then...? |
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jpr1977
Club Retro Rides Member
Posts: 658
Club RR Member Number: 18
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My Klunkerz. jpr1977
@jpr1977
Club Retro Rides Member 18
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Oh if you ever come across one of these on your travels, or similar let me know. A bit like this or this then...? Nearly but a lil too new.. |
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Nearly but a lil too new.. What about these 2 Banana ones? OneTwoGreat thread by the way pistonpopper - thoroughly enjoyed 'wasting' my afternoon reading this. |
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melle
South West
It'll come out in the wash.
Posts: 2,010
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pistonpopper where are you based? Your Raleigh Shopper is a tempting little project I could work on in the bathroom* and fit in the hallway when done without upsetting my landlord too much. *In our Bath flat I have the luxury of two workshops: one is the kitchen, with an ideal worktop to work on carburettors, distributors, small air compressors and vintage (power) tools. The other is the bathroom, aka "the bike shop": perfect as my mountainbike fits the tub nicely for its periodic scrub.
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www.saabv4.com'70 Saab 96 V4 "The Devil's Own V4" '77 Saab 95 V4 van conversion project '88 Saab 900i 8V
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melle, if the Telegraph is to be believed i am in the 11th best city in the country... Winchester. But better than that, i'm only about 300 meters from the M3 (as the crow flys!) I reckon you really need a Raleigh Shopper in your life for a bit of retro cycling cool! Let me know if you fancy coming and having a look at it... I'll put the kettle on!
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melle
South West
It'll come out in the wash.
Posts: 2,010
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I reckon you really need a Raleigh Shopper in your life for a bit of retro cycling cool! You're absolutely right, but I'll have to pass on this one I'm afraid.  All the best from #4! |
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www.saabv4.com'70 Saab 96 V4 "The Devil's Own V4" '77 Saab 95 V4 van conversion project '88 Saab 900i 8V
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Oct 18, 2016 17:28:52 GMT
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Arriving at my place of work this morning i was greeted by this...  It would appear that the cycling gods decended on my workplace last night and bestowed me with treasure! Well, thats what i had hoped! I'm guessing that they saw the rest of my cycle collection, and figured another half a dozen or so wont hurt! I gave them a quick looking over as they sat there, then i thought i'd better shift them before someone sees then and thinks its a free for all to dump their rubbish over my wall! So what are these treasures, and what am i going to do with them? First up...  Some sort of BMX frame. It's pretty much stripped, however there's a fairly good chance that single piece crank is going to find it's way onto Pistonpoppet the elders beach cruiser after a lick of paint!  The most complete bike of the lot, an Apollo Vortice. To be fair to this thing it is pretty light. But the chain is really twisted up, and the rear derailiur is completely mangled! I thought about finding a few parts and re-building this one, but a friend showed up looking for a few parts, and i let them take it from this bike, so, i'm guessing this will be stripped for parts.  This Apollo Reckless i know exactly what i'm going to do with. Yes, strip it for parts! Because the other day i was given an old Raleigh Mustang frame and forks and it's quite a large frame, sooooo... take the parts off the Reckless and put them straight on the Mustang... Then RIDE!!  A very badly painted ladies bike with 24" wheels. As the wheels are aluminium, and the rear one has a coaster brake, theres a very good chance that this too will be used as parts for Pistonpoppet the elders beach cruiser project as well!  Lastly this, which i think is some sort of Muddy Fox full suspension mountain bike. I'm not a fan of full suspension bikes, however because all this really lacks are wheels, and a rear derailiur as it's mangled beyond belief i have decided to use parts fromt he previously mentioned Apollo Vortice to make this into a complete, and rideable bike. The paint is very flat, and faded, and the Coca-Cola decals are a bit odd (why would you put Coca-Cola decals on your bike?) So i might strip them off, and try to polish this turd, but then of course, i'll probably just end up selling it once it's rideable again! Who knows, but one thing i do know is that you shouldn't look a gift horse in the mouth. So five free bike bits will be turned into one rideable bike, and lots of spares... If anyone needs a frame, i've got four going spare, or even just some parts, feel free to let me know! |
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Oct 18, 2016 23:41:22 GMT
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I don't suspect it will be a very good bike with V-pulley brakes, but if you lightly scrape the faded paint off that full sus, it might be a decent bike that was nicked, painted (to avoid detection) then later sold on.
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Oct 19, 2016 11:01:50 GMT
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Looks like a prize bike to me, my mate had an Olde English Cider one when we were kids, his dad was very keen on the particular cider lol.
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Oct 20, 2016 19:20:27 GMT
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Well it's done...  Atleast, it's done as far as i'm concerened lol. I would say sciclone that it was always this way, just prettier when it was new. It would appear that astranaut is probably closer to it, it was probably a promotional thing. So what actually is it? I have a friend who is a bit of a walking enCYCLEpedia when it comes to bikes and his feeling is that, as i suspected, it is a MuddyFox, but he went further than that, he says its an early MuddyFox Recoil MTB like this one...  Well, actually probably more like this one...  Sadly my one does not look as good as either one of these bikes    But nevermind, it is now complete and just about rideable thanks to a good rummage through my spares box! As for what it's like to ride? RUBBISH!! I want to tell you that its good, i want to tell you that i enjoyed it, but the fact of the matter is that i just didn't enjoy riding it at all. I had planned a two or three mile ride, but time was against me slightly, and frankly i rode it for about a mile before thinking, no, thats far enough for me! The thing is, back in the day MuddyFox was sort of a premium brand bicycle manufacturer from Basildon, Essex, who specialised in mountain bikes and other flatbar bicycles. The company originally produced BMX bikes in the 1980s before the slump in their popularity forced them to switch to mountain bike production, at which they excelled, producing such bikes as the Courier Comp like Mrs Pistonpopper has. Muddy Fox then dropped off the production radar in the mid-1990s and got swallowed up by Universal Cycles around 2001 and started to sell bikes like the Recoil to bigbox retailers such as Argos, Littlewoods, ASDA etc. Ofcourse this means that like the Challenge Sceptre mountain bike that brickie501 found it was made cheaply, but by who frankly is anyones guess for Universal Cycles to brand as various different makes for the bigbox retailers to sell on cheaply. This bike new was probably less than £100. It's another one of that class of bike that is so bad that its value is actually negative - if you were given it for free, (like i was) it was still a very poor deal! A quick browse on 'tinternet produced this...  A Universal Cycles White Knuckle... Further searches found it stickered up as various other brands of bike including Schwinn, and even Raleigh! But none of that should matter as long as it's quality right? The trouble is that it's not the highest of quality. I mean it's built to last, make no mistake, i reckon that frame is made from scaffold tubing, you could probably give these bikes a beating that a far higher quality bike would probably not survive, and if you are particularly heavy handed, or just really hard on things, then frankly this is the bike for you. It will last you FOREVER! Although, you'll probably have to replace the wheels at some point, and maybe the gears, brakes etc, and then prossibly the forks, but the frame, the frame should go on till the end of time! So why didn't i like it, i mean, if you've read the rest of my drivel you'll know that i like curse word bikes... I'm loving that Magna Fugitive! Infact i'm loving riding that thing so much that i keep finding other bikes to put up for sale instead! Is it possible that this Muddyfox Coca Cola bike is worse than the Fugitive? Well, no, it probably isn't if i'm honest. So what's the problem? Firstly, it's a full suspension bike, which is no good for me really as i do the majority of my riding on paved surfaces. I've never found a full suspension bike that i've thought was good to ride, not even the expensive ones. No, for me the majority of people who buy full suspension mountain bikes are posers! I know if one of my friends is reading this he'll be saying to himself, so i'm a poser am i? Well, no, he isn't. He does a lot of that down hill type stuff, and his bike is pretty fancy, but it takes a lot of abuse. But the majority of full suspension mountin bikes i see getting ridden around just get ridden around on the street, and never even go near the dirt, let alone get ridden fast down some muddy rocky hill by a madman! Also...  No stunting or jumping!? What the hecks the point of having a full suspension mountain bike if you can't do jumps on it? I was going to to a jump, but i didn't because my bike said i wasn't allowed! Having said all that, it's probably too heavy to do a jump anyway!  Revo-shifters... I HATE THEM!! This must be the worst method of shifting gear on your bike known to man! They probably work perfectly well for most people, but for me i find that i'm standing on the pedals, peddling up a hill, gripping the handlebars like i'm hanging on for dear life, then suddenly i change gear! This will occasionally end in crossbar/testicular interaction where my feet slip off the pedals as a result! Oddly however i've never had that problem with the 'Grifter Shifters' which were made by Sturmey Archer, and fitted to various bikes (including the Grifter obviously) in the seventies, eighties, and probably beyond!  Lastly, the build quality. I know that these were built to a budget, but that just looks cheap, and badly engineered to me! I'm not saying that you couldn't get some enjoyment out of this bike, ofcourse you could. If you really wanted to get a work out when you're riding then a bike like this is the way to go, i'll bet that riding this for a mile was far more of a workout than riding my FELT for five miles! Anyhoo, as i've got plenty of other bikes to ride, and now that this one is just about rideable it's on fleabay, with a £1 starting price. I realise that my little rant about it probably wont do the final sales price figure any good at all, but it must be worth the £1 starting price in parts alone! Click the next picture for the link...  Let's RIDE!!... something else! |
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duncanmartin
Club Retro Rides Member
Out of retro ownership
Posts: 1,320
Club RR Member Number: 70
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My Klunkerz. duncanmartin
@duncanmartin
Club Retro Rides Member 70
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Oct 20, 2016 19:52:23 GMT
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Looks familiar. The only good thing to do with it is this:  IMG_20160925_165959 by duncancmartin, on Flickr I paid a whole pound for that, but it will provide a good rear triangle for my next zombie build! It's amazing how much heavier the front half is compared to the back half. I wonder if it's not a tube at all, but really just a round bar! GLWS though! Cheers Duncan |
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melle
South West
It'll come out in the wash.
Posts: 2,010
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where my feet slip off the pedals Get yourself a set of spd pedals (or Look or whatever type of clipless works for you). I started using them on recumbents 15 years ago and have since fitted most of my upright bikes with them as well. I wouldn't touch that Coca-Cola bike with a bargepole. In fact, it would probably make a great bargepole by the look of it! |
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Last Edit: Oct 21, 2016 8:43:36 GMT by melle
www.saabv4.com'70 Saab 96 V4 "The Devil's Own V4" '77 Saab 95 V4 van conversion project '88 Saab 900i 8V
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Oct 31, 2016 23:03:50 GMT
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I wouldn't touch that Coca-Cola bike with a bargepole. In fact, it would probably make a great bargepole by the look of it! Personally i think it would be too heavy to be a bargepole, probably better off using it as an anchor! However it did manage to find itself a new owner for just £5.50. But ofcourse the new owner has decided to not make contact, so i'll just put that down to another ebay time waster then! In other news, my Eldest Pistonpoppet was looking at my collection of junk, er, i mean bikes and asked me if i could turn them into something cool. I said that they are already something cool, but she disagreed. What she had in mind was described to me be her as something like a penny farthing, which didn't sound too hard to build, even for someone with as poor welding skills as me. However i could see two problems, first, where do i find a big wheel? And secondly, and probably more importantly i cannot ride a penny farthing style bike! I have tried on several attempts, but never even managed to move off before being unceremoniously thrown over the handle bars! So i discussed this with her, and she looked blankly at me and said, why would i need a bike front wheel? I said that thats what penny farthings had, and i did a rough sketch of one on a notebook. No she said, thats not it, look... She then produced her phone and quickly scrolled through the images on it until she could show me this...  Well thats very cool i siad, but no, i couldn't build that, and i'm almost certain that i couldn't ride it either. IN my opinion the front forks/body of the skeleton would flex too much, and in all honesty i just wouldn't know where to begin with creating the front fork arrangement! But it would be cool she said, i could ride it to school! I must admit it would be cool, but i don't have the ability to create this machine, i'm sure that for some of you guys this would be a walk in the park. But for me, this would be as easy as understanding rocket science or something. I said to her that she'll just have to be cool riding something a little more mainstream! |
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Let's start here... So the Coca Cola bike sold for the small amount of just £5.50 about a week ago? Has the winning bidder helenogglemoggle of Llandudno been in touch? No, has she curse word! It is nice to know however that the idiots of ebay are not confined to messing people around who are selling cars now lol So tonight i've re-listed it, and should it not sell the next time, well, it can be broken down to become spares for greater bikes! And speaking of greater bikes, may i introduce todays find...  Yes, more treasure that i probably should've left behind! Especially for what they charged me for this thing! So what can i tell you about this thing? Well, in my opinion it is from the mid to late sixties, and is really quite light, and well made.  It's called a Frederick, and i would say that it was probably quite expensive in its day, and probably hand made! I should've left it there, but as i said before, stuff like this calls out to me. It's the details like this...    and this  The ornate lugs where the frames tubing joins together, and the intricate pinstriping, just gorgeous! This thing would've been built with love, care and attention to every little detail. I couldn't risk it going in the skip, and the guys at the tip knew it, so i handed over my hard earned, and headed off back to Pistonpopper towers to show my Pistonoppper my newest treasure, she took one look at it and said...  That she thought this was made for me! My plans for it? Well, nothing too drastic, i think a thorough cleaning, track down a couple of wheels for it (probably 700c as they're easiest to find) Then sell it to someone who will appreciate it for the thing of beauty that it is! Oh, and then wave the money in Mrs Pistonpoppers face and ask her who the Pratt is now lol! I would however like to know a little more about it if anyone out there has any information on this bike, please let me know. |
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That is gorgeous. Well done.
Sent from my LG-H815 using Tapatalk
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jpr1977
Club Retro Rides Member
Posts: 658
Club RR Member Number: 18
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My Klunkerz. jpr1977
@jpr1977
Club Retro Rides Member 18
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Last Edit: Nov 8, 2016 9:27:46 GMT by jpr1977
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melle
South West
It'll come out in the wash.
Posts: 2,010
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I should've left it there Of course not, you did the right thing. |
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www.saabv4.com'70 Saab 96 V4 "The Devil's Own V4" '77 Saab 95 V4 van conversion project '88 Saab 900i 8V
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You would get some serious money for the Pratt in the right marketplace,beautiful classic touring bike..look at those lugs !
Reynolds 531 frame,probably double butted and looks like some Campagnolo bits on it too.The rear mech looks like it could be Campagnolo Record or a Gran Sport.
It looks very original and should clean up well,great find!
Personally i would try and keep the rear wheel if you possibly can,it's a vintage alloy rim and probably a very good hub which can be worth a bit in their own right.
Shouldn't be too hard to find a vintage 27 inch rim for the front.
Be careful getting that seatpost out they can take some shifting!
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Nov 10, 2016 23:52:11 GMT
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I've not really touched the Pratt yet, thanks for the input jpr1977 it made for quite good reading. i love this picture  I remember cycle shops being like that, there was one in Southampton called Rotrax cycles, and it was full of history, had bikes in it from waaaaaay back, plus many frames that they built themselves, and there was a cycle shop near where i live called Chesil Cycle Depot, in the seventies, and again, filled with bikes, and old bike parts from the dawn of time. Nowadays those kind of shops are sadly long gone, and have been replaced by the mundanity of the likes of Halfords, and various supermarkets. This sadly is progress! As for the Pratt, like i said before i'm not going to do a full on resto, i think just a thorough cleaning more than anything. Everything seems to work, i just need a wheel. I may even have one in my stock, a couple of years back one of my friends who was big into building bikes died. He left most of his bike bits to me. One of the bits he left me was the last wheel he ever built, it's a really fine, lightweight wheel. I cant think of a better bike to put it on. I think i'll also remove the mudguards whilst i'm cleaning it, and leave them off because i always think racers look better without mudguards. However, i won't be discarding them, and they will be included with the bike when it comes time to sell it on. I'll have to track down some new tyres for it, but once it's all cleaned and put back together i'll post a few piccys of it. Look at those lugs indeed highvoltage and it's just this kind of attention to detail that makes this bike the thing of beauty that it is! This weeks finds have not been quite so wonerful as the Pratt, but i like them. I have managed to get hold of a pair of Raleigh mountain bikes from the late eighties or early nineties. Now i'm sure that none of you have forgotton about my Magna Fugitive that i found a couple of months back...  I has to be said that i quite like this bike, and after some slight tweaking, i think its great. But i'm guessing that this bike, and the two Raleighs are of about the same vintage. To ride them however they really are worlds apart in quality.  Starting with the Red one, a Raleigh Euro it would seem. This bike is in very good condition, and everything works well. Infact you cannot fault it, it rides fantastically, although i think that the tyres are probably the original ones that came on the bike. But not only is it a well built bike, it would appear to have been built with good quality parts.  Things like the grips, brake levers, and gear selectors all seem to have been selected out of the 'good' parts bin. The whole bike is the same, just well engineered. The second bike, the blue(ish) one is a Raleigh Massif, and with a 23" frame it kinda lives up to it's name.  Like the Euro it is a well built machine which would appear to have been put together using nice parts, and plenty of thought, rather than the, oh these bits will do method! The thing is, as much as i enjoy riding the Magna, no matter what i do to it, it will never be as nice as either of these two bikes to ride. The quality just isn't there to begin with, which is a bit sad as all three are probably from around the same era. But worse than that Raleigh were building these superior quality bikes which nobody was buying due to the fact that they were buying bikes like the Magna because they were cheaper. This left Raleigh no option but to build a cheaper, poorer quality bike to be able to compete with the rubbish that everyone else was selling, a tragedy of the modern times! So out of the two Raleigh bikes which one is best? Well, they're both really quite good, but the Euro is marginally better than the Massif. But, that being said i prefer to ride the Massif, and this is for two reasons, firstly, and probably most stupidly i have a deep seated fear of riding RED bikes. Don't ask me why as i'll only sound more bonkers than i usually do, it's completely irrational, but it worries me. Secondly i prefer a bike with a larger frame, at 5' 10" a 23" frame suits me fine, and like i said, there is very little in it, but the Euro is slightly the better machine. The thing is, i get through quite a lot of bikes, and these two bike ride better than any mountain bike i've had lately, i'll go as far as to say that they ride better than the FELT i've got, and thats quite modern in comparison. (remember i ride mostly on paved surfaces, off road i reckon the FELT would come into it's own!) It is a shame that build quality has now gone in favour of cheapness, but i guess thats the modern way. Am i going to keep them? No, of course not. But i have a 23" Raleigh Mustang frame from the same kind of era, so it has made me think that it was about time i built that up into a rideable bike, and that one i will keep, but these two will be up for grabs in a week or so, once i've had my fill of riding them. I must admit that i have been thinking about selling the Magna, but i'm also now wondering what it would be like to get hold of a cheap as chips mountain bike like the Magna, and then strip it to a bare frame and equip it with decent parts. I wonder if it would make any difference to it, and i wonder if it would make it as good as these two are to ride? My feeling is that although it would probably improve it, it still would be no match for these two in quality of ride, simply because of the low quality frame. I think the next low quality mountain bike i get hold of (No, not the Coca Cola one, thats too low!) I'll strip it right down and then slowly build it back up as and when i find decent quality parts for it, then i'll ride it for a bit and see how i get on! In the mean time, i must dig out that Mustang frame and start building that back up. |
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All the best from #4!
