How many £'s spent on your Twenty?

[highlyselassie]

Just out of interest, how many £'s/$'s have you spend on your Raleigh Twenty(item + price) to get it to the stage it's at now?

And, if given the choice again, would it be a modified Twenty or some other folder?

[DaFriMon]

Well, I won't give you an exact dollar figure, but I could have bought a pretty good new Dahon for a little less.

I have other folders, and for me, this was an indulgence, a fun project. I do ride this bike a fair amount, about 500 miles this year, but if I were looking to get my first folder, it would never have been my choice. It doesn't fold all that small, and I had to do a lot of work before it was ready to be ridden.

So the choice was never between the Twenty and some other folder, it was between spending money on a hobby, or keeping it in the bank.

[LittlePixel]

I really dare not think!
It's been over time and now I've done one I'd know how to do it cheaper. The big spends on mine were the bike itself which was £70 GBP (about $141 USD) when there are cheaper frames to be had here, the brazing of v-brake bosses (which I no longer use having gone fixed-gear)and full media-blast/repaint, and the SRAM hub and shifting parafernalia. Oh and the Phil Wood rings. I hear of people recently talking about re-tapping the bb and it being universal so if I was doing another I could cut serious cost by finding one with good paint and not doing the whole repspray, save on the driveshaft by simply staying fixed and not spending £150 on a 7 speed gear system and get the bb threaded somewhere - thereby saving about £400 or more.

Things not worth skimping on are getting new wheels/rims, getting a long enough seatpost (and shim if necessary) and lightening up the front end with a better bar/stem/headset setup.

The bottom line on mine is as I'm sure you can all guess pretty excessive but it's easy to go overboard on your first project. My full-size fixie was done on an economy and cost £££s less.

I totally agree with DaFriMon. My bike was never about having a cheap folder and modernising it on a budget. It was all-out hobby folly to see how far I could push it. Much Twenty Vulgarity ensued... ;)

Next time I think I'd go for maybe a non-folding twenty or perhaps a Dawes Kingpin of the same era - very similar but the Dawes pips the Raliegh in terms of frame elegance. But then I think 'Maybe it'd be cool to save a rusting old Moulton' and my bankmanager's ears start to burn...

Lastly - If anyone reading this is doing a conversion and wants some NOS Twenty Decals - late model 1979 decals in fact - to put on after a new coat of paint, I have about 4 sets in four colourways and would love to see them go to a happy home. PM me if you are interested...