Shogun Trailbreaker - 1990

My 1990 Shogun Trailbreaker recently went in for its 10,000 mile service. By ‘recently’ I mean I took it into Bike Shak on 17 October last year.

Yes, this could be an abnormally long service. The bike was fresh from a serious outing on the Calderdale MTB Marathon. I normally get it serviced in advance of that event, but this year the old thing was running well so I left it until afterwards to get it serviced.

All was well. A quote for some new parts was accepted. After a week or so the parts arrived and Luke got down to the service. Then…

Luke: “Bad news, Martin. Before getting on with the service, I notice the frame is cracked!”
Martin: “Oh dear, what shall we do?”

That was the start of a long saga that is expected to finish next week. It might be something of a record for the time it takes for a bike to be serviced, but I’ve stressed throughout that there’s no hurry. I have Stumpy. Which now also needs a service…

I’d actually thought that the hassle Bike Shak was having to go through in order to organise the welding repair and subsequent paint work, neither of which they can do in-house, might make me something of an unwelcome customer.

However, they have kept me informed and the pictures in this posting and the following email were received from Ben at Bike Shak last week:

Hello Martin

A final update on your bike, it's 99.9% complete! - We've got the bike serviced and re-built after picking it up from the powder coaters and it looks resplendent in it's new red paint.

I have to be honest we misplaced the shifter covers with the bike components in storage so we have sourced some original replacements which will  be with us mid next week so apologies for that.

In the mean time I thought you might like to look at some photo's! The bike has been a pleasure to work on, it's really nice to bring an old bike back to life.

Thanks

Ben

'‘back to life”! Well, it was pretty lively a couple of days before being brought in for service in October, but no matter, it’ll soon be on the road (so to speak, I’ll be trying to avoid actual roads) again.

So, the bike may be in better shape than when I bought it from Harry Hall in 1990 for £300. It has always been a delight to ride, and long may that continue.

Thanks, Ben and Luke, at Bike Shak in Altrincham.