The story of my British Eagle Touristique (BET) rennovation (for Fab Foodie, started on another thread and linked to this)
Bought, Harry Hall cycles in 1986 (by me) £285.
Used as a commuter, short runs, a few 50 mile charity rides and, eventualy, in 2002 on a LEJoG trip.
LEJoG got me interested in Long Distance and, after a few social rides I decided that it was worn out and invested in a Thorn Raven Tour in 2006.
The BET was hung up for 2 years and never ridden.
The Thorn got me around several Audax rides including my Super Randonneur last year but I started hankering for something a bit more sprightly. After looking long and hard at the Thorn Audax and their MK3 I figured that I may have the perfect bike hanging up in the garage.
I stripped the bike, put the bits in a bucket of white spirit and sent the frame to Mercian Cycles with a design suggestion I did on Photoshop (and was vetted by members of the forum, ACF forum possibly). The scheme was influenced by Richard Wareham's bike I saw on a few Audaxes.
Mercian fitted new braze-ons for cantis (that would fit 700c wheels), did the respray, lug-lined it (beautifully), new 531 transfers, lettering and stencilling plus a new headset.
When it came back after a few weeks I took the mechs out of the white spirit and rebuilt it.
I can't be happier with the re-spray, it's nicer than I imagined and much redder than any photo can recreate I think.
It's quicker than the Raven and quite lively. It's not going to win any TTs but I think it should get me another Super Randonneur this year and I hope to use it on PBP.
Here it is in 2002 LEJoG guise. Loch Lomond (I mistakenly thought that, because I was now in Scotland, I must be nearly there)
Here is is just before I stripped it and sent it to Mercian. I think it looked tired after 22 years.
Here's my Photoshop design for the respray
Here's what I sent them (wheels removed)
Here's what they sent back
And here's the finished article (it now has black bar tape as per original design)
I had them immortalise it's 1986 birthday
I'm not even going to discuss what it cost me to rennovate but it wasn't so different to the original cost of the bike (I took a lot of Mercian options and £20 here, £15 there soon adds up to a lot). It certainly didn't cost me as much as an equivalent new bike and part of the pleasure is keeping my old bike going and using it for it's intended purpose, covering lots of miles in comfort and at a decent speed.
Probably more info than Fab Foodie wanted but he has one hanging in his shed and I think the BET frameset has a reputation good enough to warrant keeping them going.