The Horror! The Horror!
... 16 months and counting .....
Sorry for the delay chaps but as Stephen Patrick Morrissey once said 'These things take time'!
First up as a race bike I wanted a plate on it and the UK Review had a Haro Flo-Panel on it. As a kid I had one on my GS Burner so I had to get one for this build....
NOS in Sealed Bag
For bars both specs and the 84s as well all came with unknurled SE Racing Powerings.
I managed to find these quite early in the build...
..but they'd been re-chromed and had a repop decal on them .. It didn't sit well with me for this build as I wanted everything to be as original and authentic as possible on this build.
Through a collector friend of mine I sourced these which are 100% original and have their original decal still on them. Although definitely NOT NOS they were 8 or 9 out of 10 bars so I'm really pleased with them.
Lower bars are original chrome ones
I wanted this to be as correct as possible so when it came to Decals I asked Ash( Kungfunky ) to send me some pictures of an original 83 Bitchen Black Quad.
I never knew but 83s came with this specific Scot Enterprises decal ( although not shown in either bike reviews I did see one on a bike in a Shiners Advert )
So here is my F and F finally all ready at last ..
For tyres I wanted era correct and NOS ( I don't make it easy do I ! ) I also wanted 2x 1.75s because aesthetically that's what I like and what I rode bitd ...
These tyres came on Redlines and were actually date stamped to make them era correct. I remember them from the Shiners adverts bitd too.
When I found these the guy actually had a fatty as well but I chose these..
NOS ( never fitted with release powder) Panaracer Knarler Knobby Tyres dated 1983
To match I got these NOS Panaracer inner tubes..
And to make sure every part was era correct I got these OG 80s valve caps.
I also found this NOS Shimano 333 16T Freewheel which was 100% era correct and I loved the fact it was black and gold to match the colours of the build perfectly.
Arguably the most important part of a race bike build is wheels.
The UK spec bike came with Araya 7Xs and large flange Suntour Hubs.
I originally got these..
The U.S. bike spec had shiny sided Ukais and to be honest I liked the look ( that trio of metal, black and gold is needed on this build to balance it out in terms of colour ) so I found some 7Xs.
After hours of research and questioning on forums I came to the conclusion that 7xs never were or came as "shiny" sides.
In fact they were called 7x Two Tone..
These had a smooth brushed finish not a polished bling side. Surely this was better anyway in terms of braking ( friction and all that ? )
So that's what I needed not some over polished unoriginal rims.
I wanted this bike to stand out and really push my building skills to the limit. Although I really liked the Suntours I wanted to upgrade them to make this a proper 83 race bike.
I researched what would have been cutting edge on a race bike and discovered something very special about 1983 and hubs ....
In 1983 and for a very short period Campagnolo released two hubs as actual BMX hubs ( those small flange Mozzi Record Pista shown above ) and Nuovo Tipo large flange hubs.
They were the same as there road bike hubs in every-way but the only differences were that they had BMX compatible axles and that they came in three anodised colours ( Silver, Blue and ....GOLD!)
You know what's coming .... I saw these and fell in love and the rest is history ...
These are the final piece of the jigsaw and were the Holy Grail to complete this build for me.., I just love them ...,
Combined with the Araya 7X Two Tone Rims ...
( thank you so so much to Joffy for building these pieces of Art )
...and the delay has been all about getting these wheels built perfectly.
The shape of these hubs can often mean squeaky bum time when it comes to fitting and I really feared for the worse.
However I'll never forget that feeling when I returned for Joff's overjoyed when they both ( front and rear ) fitted the Quad perfectly!
So I'm at that point where I'm sure many of you fellow Radsters are right now .. Hoping to get this baby built in time for MK ..
I'm off to the USA in a few days for some well earned R an R ...
When I return it's literally days before MK..
Wish me luck brothers and I hope to see you all on the other side ..
Until MK16 this really is the Last Post!
Thank you all for taking the time to look at this thread... I hope you've enjoyed the ride as much as I have...
Ant
