markob

The Durban vintage steel group is active as well, lots of good advice and selling parts etc, not to mention planing local rides. Look us up on face book to join.

In KZN we have Andrew at AH Designs in Pinetown. Awesome attention to detail, does carbon repairs, paintwork, airbrushing and restoration to vintage and modern frames, all at a reasonable price.

Here are some pictures of the recent Gravel Giro, held last weekend in Balitho by Durban Vintage Cycle Club, 30km of dirt and gravel on vintage steel bikes. Special thanks to Toni, Eric, support ladies and Holla Trails for a great morning in KZN.

Very happy with the end result. Has Andrew completed your two?

Hi, there is a quicker way from US. I used a company called BikeFlights in the US for a shipment of parts this year. They pre clear and calculate the VAT and duty, you pay up front, took 5 days from departure to delivery at my doorstep. It was showing in customs for a couple of hours here, then on to Durban, that was from Colorado. They use DHL Expediated.

I have brought in a few small parcels in the last year, mainly from USA, UK and Germany. After the first 2 came with postal service, got stuck in Jhb for 6 weeks/9weeks respectively, I looked at alternative solution. Tried UPS Expediated, once from USA and another from UK, initial cost is higher, but it includes the customs clearance and VAT up front, goes through customs at point of shipment, not when it lands here. They just confirm that the duty is paid and release within the same day. The US parcel took 5 days and the U.K. one was 4 days, both were delivered door to door with full tracking numbers. The main problem with the postal route, CRC, use this method, is that they assume that our postal service is as good as theirs. When your parcel leaves the country of destination and lands here, our Postal service sees fit to allocate a new SA tracking / reference number, trying to get the new number is a mission on its own, then they don't always keep the tracking records upto date, my last postal item was still showing JHB customs when it was in fact sitting at Durban North Post Office waiting for collection. I would rather pay the extra up front with the expedited option for future orders.

So is my wife, the chores at home have been on the back burner for the last year, it is much more fruitful to buff and polish parts rather than paint the fence/clean the pool etc

Full Nervex lug set, have all been chromed along with rear stays and front fork. Campag 1010 rear dropouts, complete Zeus2000 front fork & front dropouts. Estimated date at late '50s early '60s, no braze on bits at all. I added the threads for a bottle cage during the refurbish. Fitting complete vintage Campag parts, Rigida rims with tubies.

Will do, coming home on Monday, thought it better to let the clear coat dry over the weekend otherwise I would have been tempted to start building already.

Andrew is the master of airbrush transformation, was that your yellow frame that he was working on?

Almost complete and soon to be back on the road