1971 Dawes Galaxy

1971 Dawes Galaxy
Dawes Galaxy on train platform

Thursday, October 11, 2012

I just picked up two wheels for the Dawes Galaxy at Yellow Jersey, in Madison. They built the wheels with vintage Normandy hubs and new rims which were the closest I could find to the original profile. They also convinced me that the original Nervar cottered crankset could be used, still keeping the original cups and buying a new cottered spindle to fit.



They sold me the new cotter pins, and brought out from the depths of their work shop a cotterpin press that looked a bit like a steel dinosaur. They assured me that with proper pin insertion, a cottered crankset is as good as any other. I will take the bike in for a proper installation when I am further along in this project. One thing I definitely can see in favor of the chromed steel Nervar—the teeth on this baby are practically new, with none of the hooked wear I have seen on so many used alloy cranksets. I am just as glad to be able to use this. While I had be looking for a T.A. Specialities cyclotourist crankset as befits a touring bike of this era, the ebay prices on those cranksets are sky-high. This original crankset still definitely conjures up British cycle tourists and the CTC outings, so I think it will be just fine.

Friday, October 5, 2012

I took a set of Normandy hubs and two alloy aluminum rims to a local bike shop, The Yellow Jersey, to have them built up for the Dawes Galaxy. These were all items I had collected for the past year or two from ebay. I showed the Yellow Jersey mechanic the original cups for the Dawes and he thought they were perfectly usable, and that they could find the proper spindle to use with the cottered crankset that was original to the Dawes. When I pulled the Nervar crankset out of my bag the mechanic seemed impressed, and thought the project was definitely do-able. If they can do it, great, the bike will be more original that I thought possible.