Today's activity...... Shimano Tourney brake restoration.
So..... whilst most of the BMX collector world is hunting for Dia Compe there is a small corner that lust after the "mighty hard to pair-up" Shimano Tourney full set-up and that is the brake set that the 1979 mongoose catalogue has this build adorned with so here we go.....
Trouble with the Shimano Tourney front and rear set-up is that rear calipers and right hand levers are a-plenty but left levers and front calipers can be a right bitch to find
Then there's the cable ferrules where the cable meets the lever - the plastic ones are horrible and the alloy ones are friggin hard to find.
So... this set (should have taken some before pics... doh) was a pair of NOS but very faded red (AKA pink) levers and 2 odd colour (blue & gold) scratched faded rear calipers. Got some front caliper hardware from buying a Shimano Tourney road bike shorty caliper set and swapping over - also got the NOS Shimano brake blocks from that same road bike set. Finally found some alloy ferrules randomly on ebay and got some nice old stock cables (probably road bike as well but they look nice so f"ck it).
Stripped the ano off with good old Oven Pride and lightly hand polished (not really a fan of the polish the f'ing life out of it style personally so went easy on them).
Quite happy with the results to be honest. Build is near completion now. God help us all when this build is done because I guarantee the second I need a sunny day to take a picture it will p!ss down for weeks !!!!