Got my hands on this 1986 Dawes Super Galaxy and am currently figuring out my course of action.
My original idea was to find a large touring frame that I could build up from the ground, my first such project. I saw this one for sale locally for a good price. When I picked it up, I was surprised to see it was all original except (I think) for the tires. Still, I wanted to add a modern drivetrain, brifters, and new tires at the least. I was wavering a bit about this decision and so I posted these pics to the Dawes facebook group. As you'd expect, they all encouraged me to keep it original. So I think I'll do that. Besides taking it apart, cleaning it up, and greasing everything, I think the only change I'll make is to replace the foam grips (in excellent shape, by the way) with some black leather bar tape. I'll post my progress.
I do have some outstanding questions that the folks here might be able to answer. Simply,
do you need to replace components on an old bike even if the bike doesn't have many miles on it? In particular, I'm curious if I should replace the
cables,
chain, and
brake pads. All I have is a ruler, but the chain doesn't look to be too lose.
