Breezer

[Skippy]

My love affair with steel made mtbs and road bikes is no secret and over the years I have somehow managed to amass a small little collection of some truly beautiful machines, this is one of those such wonderful machines I’d like to share with you.

Living in the UK ‘Breezer’ bikes were not often seen or at least not by myself, but it was a ’scratch’ that I definitely needed to itch , the search began, ..

Those who know me know that I’m super picky about the overall condition of the bikes that I take in , and anything made of remotely lightweight steel seems to have a habit of just melting into a pile of rusty ashes over here, so this made things even harder as every breezer that I managed to track down for sale was just junk.,

My OCD and craziness made the situation worse as I wanted a specific colourway that was only produced during the 1994 production run of Breezer Storm bikes, this colour way was called Purple and moonglow pearl

As I had a plan buried somewhere in the depths of my inner soul , I knew however that should I happen find an original bike, that most of, if not all of the oem components would have to be changed out for something a little more 90’s , Trick and purple

After several years of searching and honestly almost giving up hope, I got a call from my good friend Ian to say that he had found something special for me , , all he would tell me it was purple and steel , would I like it ?

A few weeks had passed, and I had forgot all about that intriguing conversation but my friend had not , a knock came at the door , and it was Ian with a cardboard box , saying I’d better sit down and get my wallet ready..

The box was opened and inside was perfection,

I was truly shocked and amazed, what the hell.. , if this was not enough, the box contained a second fork , the original Spinner 691

… it was all down to me from here,,




to be continued..

 

[MattiThundrrr]

The box was opened and inside was perfection,

Skippy, is that you?

 

[Skippy]

Skippy, is that you?View attachment 255939

oh man.! That was a few years ago ….

 

[ingola]

oh man.! That was a few years ago ….

I tried to grow long hair and no go just one giant afrow Mattie would remember that

 

[Skippy]

Breezer Storm continuation..

So now I had frame and two fork options (I’ll talk about fork more later) I’d need to decide if I’d rebuild it bone stock catalog spec or do as I usually do and put a little twist of lemon into the mix and do a full custom build

Original build would have been as in this pic.

As a closet horder of vintage mtb parts , I had nearly all of the parts that would have been fitted to hand but to me that was the easy choice..

When I received the frameset I was amazed at just how nice it was, the purple just pops , and to me the black colour of the Ritchey stem and dia comp aheadset as would have been fitted originally just seemed to clash with the colour of the beautiful purple and white moonglow pearl finish of the frame and fork , and the more I looked at it the more I knew it deserved something a little more special.

Using the headtube decal as a starting point , and looking at the outer edge colour and Breezer script the sky, trail and that most of all that special place that I vow to ride before I go , Mt Tam , were all emblazoned in the colour of gold .. This would be my starting point…

The search now would start.. and it wouldn’t be long before I found this beautiful piece..

Edco produced some beautiful pieces during there time and this was no exception, even though this was way out on the period correct scale being a 1970’s headset the quality of the materials and smoothness was sublime even comparing to Chris King this was right up there ,



to be continued,

 

[Skippy]

The headset was perfect for the frame , well I say perfect , downside it was a threaded headset , (in my haste I’d actually overlooked in the buying process of headsets that one fork was threaded , and the other was unthreaded ) , and at this build point I was in a state of uncertainty if I should run the original unthreaded fork and ahead system as I had a 1” dia comp aheadset and plenty of Ritchey stems , I made the decision to run the custom painted to match non original threaded 1” Condor fork, keeping the original spinner 691 for another day.

Because the Edco headset and frameset sat so well together, and because this headset was of such high quality, and swanky I thought I’d go a little bit overboard with the build and put equally overboard components on the frame, and once you get to know me you’ll realise this seems to be a bit of a problem with me , I just can’t help myself ..

The collecting of further swanky pieces began with the collection of this hand made Ross Shafer Salsa roller stem, nickel plated and absolutely gorgeous, ,I don’t want to even think anymore about how much this was , the deal was done and the stem would arrive all the way from sunny California..

So this would now set the tone for the rest of the build, I’m fortunate to own a few vintage bikes, most of are either outfitted with Shimano, Suntour or Sram as these were the three mainstream dominating groupset and parts manufacturers of this era, however there was a forth, sat in the corner was one bike which was the oddball of the bikes it had Campagnolo Euclid parts on

In 1990 when I was racing , I ran , raced and destroyed whatever the shop gave me , which 99.9% of the time was Shimano equipped bikes, however my training buddy was running the then new Campagnolo Record OR groupset, I was very jealous as it was stunning to look at and having ran Campagnolo on the Road race bikes of old I so wanted it, but being in a very low paid job and racing part time didn’t afford me the finances to purchase a £1000 groupset , so after all these years this Breezer frame would reignite my passion for that groupset ,… but there was one huge problem, now some 30 odd years later after longing for that groupset ,those Campagnolo parts were and still are rare as rocking horse poop,,

Calls were made and favours pulled in and honestly can’t thank those who helped enough to start the amassing of Campagnolo parts..

First in the door was the star of the show , the Campagnolo Record OR crankset..

To add that special skippy touch and reduce some weigh, as those beautiful Campagnolo parts come with a penalty that is they are considerably heavier than there equivalent rivals , and at this time it was the top end groupset competitor of the day Shimano’s XTR M900, and as a self confessed weight weenie the weight had to be scraped away somewhere,

Enter Carbon Ti chainring bolts.

Some time would pass and the search continued and I couldn’t help myself, and as I really don’t like flat pedals , these Campagnolo NOS Centaur OR pedals would land on my doorstep, box fresh and ready to go.. those who know that this clip in design was actually designed by the french manufacturing company Look cycles and was used under licence by Campagnolo.

The design dates back to around 1984 when Look cycles decided to adapt its ski binding concept to cycling. The company thus developed the PP65, the first clip in type of pedal , designed to bring security whilst offering the cyclist a yet unequalled level of performance, I cannot explain just how smooth these pedal feel, whilst the actual binding component of the pedal was design by Look cycles , I’m pretty sure the pedal itself has deep Campagnolo quality dna.

The pieces were coming together and somehow spiritually almost fitting into place perfectly , I knew this was going to be a special build for me..



To be continued,..

 

[Skippy]

Returning to this and the search continued for those Campagnolo jewel like pieces , next find would be the Campagnolo Record OR brake callipers , with a intriguing little white round disc, which since I’ve found out is possibly some sort of brake toe in indicator but still unsure , so if anyone actually knows what it is I’d be really grateful if you could chip in

As these were not NOS brake callipers and the seller had no idea , this white round disc thingy remains a mystery ?

those eagle eyed members will have seen that in the background of the first picture some 3Dv (purple) would also arrive and would soon be assembled, time to do a bit of wheel building..

Radial front lacing on a Ringle hub , maybe not the wisest thing to do but fux it , it’s 1994

The front wheel was assembled and sitting nicely , 3Dv seemed to be perfect for this build, although the the fading on the hub shell and other potential issues would bother me further down the line..

obviously logo in line with the valve hole is a given..

Parts would now start to trickle through and further 3dv amassing would continue..

Handlebar approved by ”Funky” the cat.. always a good sign..

I’d now somehow become obsessed with just buying whatever 3Dv I could, when I could , some of which wasn’t even for this build but would go into the vaults waiting for the next one

The rear Ringle hub was proving more difficult than I had anticipated to source, and in the back of my mind I was thinking about just how durable that front Ringle hub would be in anger after all those years , as all my bikes get ridden so I decided I ought to be looking for something a little more durable, enter in another contender ..

to be continued..

 

[ingola]

Awesome
Three shocked faces by @MattiThundrrr and not a word you've left him speechless

 

[Skippy]

Awesome
Three shocked faces my @MattiThundrrr and not a word you've left h

Looks like @MattiThundrrr might go silent for a few weeks then guys as the porn will continue

 

[MattiThundrrr]

I’d now somehow become obsessed with just buying whatever 3Dv I could, when I could , some of which wasn’t even for this build but would go into the vaults waiting for the next one

I have a theory. Anodizing is addictive. See Kooka Rasta builds for further evidence

 

[MattiThundrrr]

not a word you've left him speechless

It's all so far above my level, I'd rather not interfere. There's important work happening here, I'm just the guy extolling the virtues of Shimano STX kit

 

[Skippy]

It's all so far above my level, I'd rather not interfere. There's important work happening here, I'm just the guy extolling the virtues of Shimano STX kit

Nothing wrong with a bit of STX , its a great component package

 

[Pondo]

Wow, great build and great story Skippy! That's a very special bike. Thanks for sharing it for the rest of us to drool over.

 

[Skippy]

Wow, great build and great story Skippy! That's a very special bike. Thanks for sharing it for the rest of us to drool over.

I’m pleased your enjoying this , stay tuned

 

[ingola]

Ill be starting mine very soon