The old bridges had to be cut and ground out (as was the kickstand plate) and the stays were widened with a torch and press bar, the new stays were brazed in and have threaded fender bosses for a cleaner installation.

I also tapped the mounts for the chainguard and made new mounts for the fenders.

Issue with the Dawes is that they came fitted with a French 500A rim and although you can find tyres, finding the rims is a much harder proposition that will only get harder over time so we went with a fairly standard wheel size and tyre so that years from now, replacement will be easy to source.

I built this for an 11 year old girl with the expectation that she will be riding this bicycle for a very long time...