I’ve always had a soft spot for 1980s Ridgebacks, so I couldn’t resist bringing this one back to life on a fairly modest budget for Chris who bought the bike in tatty condition recently, then hatched a plan to get the old lump running sweetly again as a comfortable pootler. It looked worse than it was, as my initial checks revealed a rather low mileage machine under the mass of cobwebs and sticky dust. The colour of the frame – recently described as everything from Baby Poo to Heritage Mustard – is the presumably the result of languishing in a barn exposed to a lot of direct sunlight as the bike was originally bright yellow, and it still is under the front derailleur clamp!
Second from bottom-of-the-range in Ridgeback’s 1989 line-up, the humble 601SIS nevertheless sports a reliable Shimano Exage Country 18 speed groupset (made In Japan, with Biopace chainrings and SLR brakes) attached to a robust Taiwanese built steel frameset, with the wheels consisting of lightweight Araya rims laced to surprisingly smooth running Joytech hubs. At some stage the tyres have been beefed up to Kenda Kinetics, otherwise the only new parts fitted as part of the rebuild were the saddle, grips, chain and cables – everything else, right down to the unusual seatpost gaitor, is original and works great after some DRC love…
Here’s how the bike looked prior to restoration:
