First Build (Part One)

Inspired by an article asking whether it was possible to build up a classic vintage road bike for under £1,000, I embarked on my first build, armed with an impressive arsenal of tools (unfortunately few of them bike specific) and with a mission to complete my bike for substantially less than that.

The finished build. Unfortunately, I forgot to take any pre-build photos.

My first step was to replace the word 'classic' with 'vintage' thereby knocking off at least one zero from the total. After all, my new found obsession with cycling had been fed thus far, and more than adequately by a 1982 Raleigh Royal bought for £42 on ebay and I figured that if I was one day to own that dream bike, I'd better begin a bit lower down. With this in mind, I logged onto ebay and put a watch on anything cheap that didn't look beyond repair. After a couple of near misses, I became the proud owner of a 23" Bernard Dangre. Bernard Who? I hear you ask. The paucity of information available told me that it was French which I could have guessed and almost certainly not a classic. Most importantly, it had very little rust, two straight looking wheels, two nearly new tyres and appeared to be generally in decent working order. Sticking with my mission to keep the price as low as possible, I decided to keep as many usable components as possible and stripped the frame.

The colour scheme would be pale blue with chocolate brown bar tape (more on that later) and no decals. Even if Bernard Dangre decals had been readily available, would I really want to identify my cheap bike as such. Better to keep them guessing, I say.

I also decided that it would have a single gear because, well. because my Raleigh had twelve and I wanted something different, no other reason. At this point I hadn't really engaged with the whole fixed versus freewheel thing but a quick look at youtube footage of teenagers doing skid stops on fixies convinced me I'd be safer with a freewheel.

First purchase: Dicta 18 tooth freewheel - £7.44 inc. shipping.

Did I mention that this bike is French. No sooner had I clicked Buy It Now than some alarm bells rang. Hadn't I read something somewhere about French threading being different to everyone else for no good reason. Would my freewheel fit? I polished up the rims and hubs and there it was, the words I'd been dreading. "Made in France." There'd be a way round it. Maybe some thread lock or something similar but the next task was to remove the cassette with no tools. Youtube came in handy again and armed with a large hammer, a nail punch and a bench vice I set about the rear wheel with gusto, occasionally, referring to ebay to see how much a new one would cost when I'd ruined it. Success! The cassette came off and apart at the same time and I watched the bearings roll across the floor thinking, 'they might come in handy for something.'

What's left of the cassette. Not easy to put back together, apparently!