Straight Outta Puttenham; an eighties classic recycled and restored

Thomson retro-resto for Matt, restored with fresh paint, and as few new parts as possible.

We very rarely share ‘non-spoon’ original work here, and this is hardly original given the obvious age of this bike, but if there was ever a bike for our times, it’s got to be this one: a 1985 Thomson with a Campagnolo group and some old Mavic wheels. 

Restored to better-than-former glory, or at least that’s what we think. 

This bike was bought from a local bike shop initially, ordered with the groupset you see here, which was displayed in a lit glass case, and picked from stock. Old school. No price comparison. No next-day delivery. No tubeless sealant or batteries. 

Classic steel lines, with masked and painted reproduction decals redrawn and replaced by Sam at Gun Control Custom Paint. Pic by Simon Eldon.

A far cry from the way we build and buy bikes now. 

The full story of this build, and the acquisition of it—despite the misty-eyed nostalgia I’m gladly sharing—perhaps needs some balance, in that the 1985 purchase didn’t quite go to plan. The bike was originally ordered in a metallic purple (which inspired the colour seen here in this restoration). 

The bike that turned up, however, was supplied in a solid red. Not spot on, but in those days, there wasn’t really an appetite for fixing that sort of ‘minor’ complaint, and the owner was told he got what he got. 

New old stock (NOS) Cinelli Giro D’Italia bars keep the resto steering safe and sturdy for years to come. Glen’s bar tape, looking tight. Pic by Simon Eldon.

Despite the misunderstanding on the original colour, the acquiring of said bike was generally (otherwise) a huge success, and the new whip did see some serious miles, with several years of endurance rides under its belt—some loaded up with over 30kgs of overnight kit, we’re told—before it was moth balled in favour of more modern kit, presumably with slightly taller gearing. 

When Matt, the owner and original purchaser, brought it to us looking a little worse for wear, he was keen to right the historical wrong of the supplied colour choice in favour of this reimagined purple base colour. He also wanted to retain every component possible and give the whole bike a new lease of life. The brief was very specific in that we could essentially do what we wanted with it, providing we didn’t replace anything we didn’t need to. 

Friction shifters from Campag still functioning exactly as they should. Stripped and polished and refitted with the original bushes, in house at Spoon Customs. Pic by Simon Eldon.

Now, that’s wonderful, but keeping this kind of patient alive is often expensive, and if you want to ‘Benjamin Button’ a bike in the way we have here, you need a decent budget, not least to find a mechanic who knows how to rebuild it. 

Matt had the budget, and we happen to have the right mechanic on the books, so we weren’t overly concerned about defibrillating the bottom bracket or headset. In actual fact, and despite some unusual challenges, everyone here in Puttenham found the entire project hugely rewarding, hence why we wanted to share it proudly here on the Spoon blog page. 

Pic by Simon Eldon.

Perhaps it’s because of what it stands for, in these straightened times where we all discard too much—particularly given how much of a struggle it’s been over the last twenty-four or so months to find and supply new parts. Or perhaps because it’s Campag. Or steel. Or perhaps it’s just about making something old new again, in a way that we so often don’t. But in a way that we all know we should. 

We hope you like it. And perhaps it inspires you to resurrect something wonderful and make something old new again. 

Pic by Simon Eldon.

If you’re wondering, we don’t usually take on projects like this and it does cost a few bob to restore something like this to this standard (about two grand in fact, mostly on labour). But we did retain most of the components, only replacing brake levers, tyres, saddle and tape—for NOS where possible—and a few service items and necessary consumables. 

Paint was by Sam at Gun Control Custom Paint, as you’d expect. Ben at Sharp Precision Wheels rebuilt the hubs and built the wheels with the original rims, and Glen Whittington restored the BB and headset, reassembled the bike from parts which were stripped, and restored or sourced in house at Spoon Customs.

Campagnolo’s groupset gleaming just as it did when it was brand new. The anodise was removed using caustic soda, then polished by hand and machine. Pic by Simon Eldon.