I have a 25-year-old Harry Hall Route which is rusting gently and in need of new wheels and drive train (10-speed double clanger at present – which used to be fine when I was young and lithe… (A propos, are they still referred to as double clangers?) I really need advice: should I find someone to repaint (and rebuild?)the frame, replace the drive train and supply some new wheels, or will this cost me more than a new middle of the road road bike with latest technology etc etc? I’d much prefer a restoration but money is limited.

Thanks

It will cost you loads I am afraid

Tiagra groupset is 300 quid
Paint 50+
rebuild by shop 60?

do you see where this is going?

Cheapest Boardman roadbike 699 quid

Dawes vantage tourer from Spa cycles 420 quid

Nostalgia is wonderful but at a price!!

I don’t know myself, but I’d recommend heading over to the CTC forum. Funnily enough, there are a fair few people who know about touring bikes both new and old.

It will probably cost more to restore your old bike and you may well come up against all sorts of compatibility issues trying to rebuild it unless you can find realistic like for like components, because alot of todays parts wont fit.
If you have the time, patience and budget then go for it. You might find Mercian at Derby to be a good place to start (they do fabulous frame renovations) and they could probably help you track down certain period parts.
http://www.campyoldy.com are also a useful site and hold good stocks of older kit, most of it is still new and unused.
Also have a look on the road bike section of http://www.retrobike.co.uk for help and ideas.

Why not buy a donor bike and rob the drivetrain off it if you want to keep the frame/forks? You could then sell off the remains and probably not have to spend too much in total.

I had my 30 year old Harry Quinn refurbished a couple of years ago at Rob Jackson in Leeds. I wanted to use modern stuff on it and not do a ‘Classic’ refurb job. They replaced the rear brake bridge so I could get 10 speed campag hubs in and fitted a front mech hanger.

Other than that, I had to fit long reach brakes (Originally 27″ rims and mudguard clearance) and that was about it.

Did it cost more than a new bike? Yes!

Was it worth it? A big YES. I have my first good bike back on the road in better condition than when I bought it. If I’d gone the route of getting a new hand built frame made it would have cost 3 times as much.

I did just this last year and am chuffed with the result. I had an old Dave Yates audax frame. I got it bead blasted and painted for about £60. I found ‘new’ wheels, gear levers, chainset gears etc on the STW and CTC classifieds. It can be done cheaply if you are canny and in no rush. My refurb cost about £300

Looks good mcmoonter.

harryenthusiast

I’ve got a set of Campag Record hubs on some Mavic Sprint Rims if you want them?

If you are planning on going fully retro, these take a threaded 5 speed block.

Even if you don’t want sprints, you could use he hubs!

Well, thanks to all of you! I’ve decided to go with the restoration, replacing wheels (thank you, SJS Cyles of Bridgwater), respraying the frame, and converting to a modern cassette rear hub. Withington Cycles, who are handling the work for me, are very positive and helpful, so I’m full of hope. My aim is to get a really decent touring bike for a little under the cost of a new equivalent and it looks possible. My Weinmann centre-pulls are going – apparently modern dual pivot sidepulls are much better – but I hope to be able to keep my Stronglight double-clanger, my seatpin (Campag)and randonneur bars, my Simplex retro friction downtube levers, my Lyotard platforms and perhaps even my Suntour rear mech which believe it or not was an upgrade I fitted in the late eighties (bike was new in 1987.) The quality of modern kit seems to be pretty sound so I’m not having to spend a fortune to buy good stuff. I’ll try to keep you posted, but I’m apt to forget to log on regularly…(Work out why – the bike was my 40th birthday present!)

Nice one. Withington cycles is (untile I move in 2 weeks) my LBS. It’s improved hugely since its days as steptoe’s yard under the “ownership” of Malc Cowle.

I had some work done on an old Holdsworth recently, and they did an ace job. V pleased.

Enjoy riding it again..! Modern bikes are better in many ways, but not all, and great to keep a Harry Hall going in its home city….

I’ve got an old tourer

Is your non allen key brakes? Have you found new non allen key brakes? I looked into it and decided the easy/cheaper option was to have canti studs added. Not that I’ve got round to it….

Nutted dual pivots are easy to come by. Even if it’s really old and took 27″ wheels you can still get them. Velosolo springs to mind.

I’ve got a 58 bike to sort, but it would need spreading to take 5 speed. Might do some 100km audax’s on it fixed as the good lord intended.

mcmoonter I’ve got that exact same frame hung up in my garage. Branded M-Steel though, used to be my dads. Seat post is stuck in the frame and I’ll be decked if I can get the canks off……may resurrect it having seen yours.

I’ll be decked if I can get the canks off

Ah, I’ve had this problem.

After stripping the threads on the cranks with a crank-puller, damaging a car bearing puller, the only answer was one of these:

(ball joint splitter)

and one of these:

SJS and Spa cycles are good places to find parts for the ‘older’ bike. Ive used them quite a bit to change the gearing on my mid eighties ‘Ernie Clements’ bike. You can get new transfers from http://www.hlloydcycles.com including all the Reynolds stickers if you need them.

The only problem I found was the older freewheels only go down to 13 or 12 in some cases, but for a tourer flat out speed doesnt really matter. SJS and Spa do plenty of freewheels. Spa have a good selection of Stronglight chainrings

Retrobike is a good website for info but I found responses can take a while.

Im trying to save up for these http://www.freshtripe.co.uk/Freshtripe/Blog/88DB4907-A8E8-44E4-9022-7FEE2673EE3C.html to go with my campag hubs on an old Cinelli im doing up. Mmmmmmm nice!

The old way was to loosen the bottom bracket (you can do this with the arms fitted on old chainsets)

That then means the whole chainset and bottom bracket can move very slightly side to side.

Raise the crank and wedge a flat spanner between the crank and the bottom bracket (cone spanners work realy well)

Then after removing the crank arm bolt, put a drift in it’s place. One sharp tap and the cranks off. The whole thin takes seconds.

Well, the respray has been done – well, I think – and my milky coffee-coloured Harry Hall is nearly ready – just waiting for some Crane Creek levers with tan hoods and Brooks leather handlebar tape (er, tan). Only bottom bracket that would fit was a Campag one, so that’s fine; BBB headset,Panaracer kevlar tyres on Jalco rims/Tiagra hubs (wheels built by Rob at Withington Cycles), Shimano 8-speed block (replacing the original 5-spd, so will be an interesting step up from 10 to 16 gears!) Can’t remember what make the new saddle is, but it’s tan, of course. Bars and stem are original – SR randonneur and Sakae; seat post is aerodynamic Campag, front and rear mechs are Suntour. That’s about it, but I will try to upload a photo or two – maybe even before and after shots.