John Atkins Purple Tourer full restoration.

This frame came to me as NOS with a load of NOS parts, owned by a Coventarian and handed down to his grandson. He asked me to rebuild it up and get it working again. The frame was made for John Atkins, I suspect by Lee Cooper circa early 80s, made with Reynolds 531 tubing.

The handlebar is Selle Royal, cranks Suntour 3x. The original Shimano UN52 was great but axles too long for the crank's chain line and the Acera derailleur. So I put in a FSA 103mm BB instead. Seems short square taper BBs are very hard to get these days.

The wheels are Endeavours, not heard of them but they seem to be light and strong, tyres Michelin. There is plenty of clearance for 38mm tyres. Truly the OG gravel bike of 80s. Rear derailleur Shimano 105, first series I think. All NOS. So I got a set of Shimano 8speed index down tube shifters. Works really well. The brakes I tried a pair of Miche calipers but the rear was too short, so I turned to Tektro R559 long arm to cover the rims. Shimano stainless steel cables all round.

After the build the test ride was a dream, the bike floated around with ease. Comfy and sharp, like only 531 could.

I prolonged this build as long as I could but alas it has to go back to the owner and they will love it. Adieu

Trouble comes on threes.
Very often when I get one type of issues,I tend to get 2 more cases of the same or similar issues. In this case a split rim, resulted in another with a rock strike dent and then another being rear ended. 3 clients, 3 different wheels, all needing wheel rebuild. In all 3 cases the hubs were decent so we decided to change the rims over instead of buying a new rear wheel.

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Classic Peugeot Ladies BoostBike conversion.

This lovely Peugeot Ladies Bike came to me for a @boostbikeuk conversion. BoostBike recently updated their battery with a new battery management system and also released a new wireless display. Info is much clearer now for users and comes with some new features too.

The conversion was not difficult, waiting for stock was taking some time. Once it arrived I built the wheel up with the hub motor and a @maviccycling A119 rim, custom cut spokes by @alexwarwickcycles using Sapim Strong silver spokes and brass nipples.

Fitting it into an old 130mm frame proved a little harder, had to manipulate the dropouts to gain 5mm. Luckily steel frames can do that without issue.

The brake outers on the bike were compression less type, like wider gear cables, anyway it was failing due to age, so I put on some Shimano SLR yellow brake cables front and rear and they work fine now.

Oh and I had to ditch the old 5 speed freewheel and put on a nice @sunrace.bikeparts 7 speed cassette. Kind of an upgrade. As the bike is now 3x7 21 gears! Could have put an 8 speed I suppose but it's plenty.

Bosch Gen 2 service kit.

Client was complaining about sudden noises in their old Gen 2 Bosch system. The service kit was suggested by @boschebikesystems for the Gen 2 motors.

This job is quite sensitive, once has to be very clean and careful when opening the motor, the freewheel needs extra care not to touch the shaft, but the cogs needs cleaning and regressing. Bosch does provide the special grease themselves anymore, so I had to rock of the Kluber grease.

Overall the procedure was done without a hitch and the motor reinstalled. Ran diagnostics and tested the bike. It did seem quieter and no sudden whine when changing gear or changing modes.

Spring time highlights, well not quite all highlights, there has been so many interesting jobs of late but being super busy I haven't have time to shoot many of the bikes I have worked on. So this is basically a fraction of the work I have done lately. Anyway enjoy. If you want some details DM me.