I built a Ridgeback 603GX because I have poor impulse control
OK, so I built my dream bike from back in the day. It was fun. I liked the fact that I completed - really complete - a project in a month, or less than that if I wasn't waiting for various postal services. But I didn't plan on building any more bikes, because I had the bike I always wanted which I love. And then I accidentally ended up with a Ridgeback 603GX.
I mean, not really accidentally; it was 20 miles away and selling for £63 in basically-unused and almost-completely-original condition on eBay, and I ended up with it because my brain went from zero to "this is going to be awesome" in exactly one hour and seven minutes. I didn't even buy it with a clear plan; that came after I got it home. I've not had a drink in four years! I can't even blame alcohol for this!
Anyway, Ridgeback. They're still about! I had a 603 (it might not have been a GX) in the mid-1990s; it turned into my Epping Forest bike for half a decade. It was the first mountain bike I bought new, and also the only one I bought new. Fading memory says it cost me £120 in early 1995, or £250-ish adjusted to today's money. It was the cheapest bike you could buy that a real bike shop would stock. The components were just-above-rock-bottom basic, but it had a Tange cro-moly frame that wasn't pointless upgrading.
Upgrade I did! A few years later everything had been replaced at least twice, except the frame itself which was replaced once. But I was on a budget (I paid for all this myself, from paper rounds). The plan that emerged shortly after buying this bike was to upgrade a few bits, but with all the retro parts I wish I could have afforded in the mid-to-late 90s.
A few bits such as red-ish anodised Club Roost handlebars with NOS brace, an Azonic Shorty CNC stem, and purple titanium bolts that cost half as much as the bike.
Red/silver Avid Speed Dial brake levers, Shimano XT thumbshifters, the world's only reasonably-priced pair of NOS red Onza Porcipaws grips, and yellow Fred Salmon bar ends.
Clean your damn bike!
I know; I should have gotten these photos before taking it out for a ride, not immediately after. But this bike is made to be ridden and not as a museum piece, so it'll likely never be totally clean. You'll be OK.
Rose-anodised X-Lite stem cap.
Modern orange WFS sealed-bearing headset.
Why?
This bike has a 1" threadless headset, and those are hard to come by. I'd have liked to have a Chris King, but 1" threadless Chris King headsets exist only in theory and are never actually in stock anywhere. WFS was the only one of the others which I could get in a blingy colour in 1" threadless.
Grey Mavic Oxygen M6CD rims...
...on Shimano Deore XT M730 hubs...
...with purple Fred Salmon quick release skewers...
...the obligatory Smoke and Dart tyres...
...and more rainbow-anodised dice valve caps.
Early Rock Shox Judy SL forks, serviced by Pace (for those who were around in the MTB world in the 90s, yes, it's that Pace), with new reproduction decals...
...and a beautiful CNC-machined SRP arch to allow using cantilever brakes.
Why cantilevers?
The rear cable routing of the frame doesn't really allow for using V-brakes, without adding extra cable guides. I didn't really want to do that. Anyway, Lewis-logic says that now the Proflex has V-brakes, I have one bike with working brakes and I don't really need two.
Tektro RBP blue anodised cantilever brakes salvaged from the Proflex 854, with gold-coloured titanium nuts (five of which again cost half as much as the bike), and modern Kool Stop Salmon brake pads to give me half a chance of actually stopping.
With a blue anodised Tektro death triangle at the front to replace the excessively-safe Shimano fixed straddle wire....
...and a red death triangle at the back, because there was too much blue at the back of the bike and it needed a contrasting colour to break it up....
...and modern Jagwire cables all the way to further increase my chances of having brakes that work.
Shimano XT M735 rear mech with NOS 1996 Tranz-X red jockey wheels.
Shimano LX M567 front mech.
Why?
I originally got a matching XT front mech, but the earlier XT front mechs do not play well with the smaller chainsets that became common after around 1995; it's impossible on this bike to get the correct tight clearance against the outer chainring and have the cage not conflict with the chainstays. This Deore LX is period-appropriate and works as well as any other front mech.
Shimano STX chainset with modern red anodised chainring bolts and FSA self-extracting main bolt.
Why?
They're my favourite-looking chainset! I always liked these better than the higher-end ones. That they're about a quarter of the price in any given condition is a bonus.
Extremely groovy DMR V12 pedals refurbished by me.
NOS Kalloy seatpost, because that's literally the only thing I could buy in the 26mm size.
Gigantic Setlaz downhill seat, which I recovered in purple neoprene with Kevlar corners.
Six green-anodised M5 bolts for the various accessory holes on the frame to add a little more colour.
And if you were paying attention to any place a cable end was visible, you'd have noticed that I put different-coloured anodised ferrules on them, because I like it when things get better the closer you look.
:)
Anyway, that's how you end up with this.
It's cool! And it's super-fun to ride! It's light enough and it's really easy to throw around, and it's a small frame so it feels easy to control in a super-twitchy way. It's a bike that only really makes sense to me, but also only has to make sense for me.
Anyway, that is it. "It" in the sense that this is finished, but also "it" in that I don't really see myself building any more bikes, because I now have all the ones I want. Then again, I thought I had all the bikes I wanted when I finished the Proflex. And then again again the Proflex was meant to be my super-fancy bike, and now a Ridgeback looks a whole lot fancier, so there might need to be some upgrades (or at least some bling) over on that side.
See you next time, if there is one.
See also
- The original Retrobike "look at this thing I found on eBay" thread
- Which turned into my build thread. That contains a bunch of backstory that you may know about if you read my page on the Proflex 854.