Can’t decide, stay vintage with all the warts (6 speed freewheel) or update a bit to freehub 8-9 speed and ‘brifters’. Thankfully I have a bike collective nearby to source middle age parts from.
by singlejeff
Can’t decide, stay vintage with all the warts (6 speed freewheel) or update a bit to freehub 8-9 speed and ‘brifters’. Thankfully I have a bike collective nearby to source middle age parts from.
by singlejeff
8 Comments
You might be asking the wrong sub lol. I’m personally all about keeping it period correct
If you do decide to go 8+ speed, you’ll need to spread the rear dropouts. 6/7 speed is 126mm spacing, 8/9/10 is 130mm
Split the difference: 7 speed freewheel, 7 speed brifters or bar end shifters
Do the upgrade. Spreading the rear isn’t a real big deal, I’ve done it multiple times on steel bike from the 70’s and 80’s. My one concern is if the seat height shown is correct for you, then that frame is too big for you.
I upgraded a mid-80s Raleigh racer from all original Golden Arrow to a brand new Tiagra 4700 set I bought for a few hundred on eBay – sold the old group to someone doing a restoration job so recouped a bit of the outlay. I guess it depends what you intend to do with the bike. I use mine to commute in London so downtube shifters and crappy brakes were not ideal. It felt like the bike had been given a new lease of life and I’m really happy with how it turned out.
I’d go 9/10 speed. At this point the parts are dirt cheap + it’s so much nicer to ride.
My vintage bikes have Campy 10 speed on them. I didn’t “cold set” the frames. I just jam the wheel in the dropouts.
My rain bike is also vintage. Instead of adding Campy ergo shifters, I kept the down tube shifters and old cyclone rear derailleur, but jammed in a 10 speed wheel with chain. So it’s “friction 10”. Just barely enough travel to hit all 10 cogs, after I filed down the “L” stop a bit.
It’s nothing fancy. Have at it.
It also depends somewhat on your age and fitness. In the 70s and 80s I didn’t mind pushing the fairly big gears common to that era, but now in my seventies I definitely want to spare my knees and take advantage of newer gearing. I have found that I can comfortably friction shift up to a 10-speed cassette with decent bar end shifters. I’ve converted three road bikes to 9-10 speed cassettes now, presently completing new wheels for a Viscount frame that fits me well. I favor the Tiagra hubs for the useful combination of cassettes they work with. Although I agree with the other posters who noted cold setting was fairly easy, and simply stretching a frame barehanded often works, I took a different approach with the Viscount- I took a few millimeters off the axle of the Tiagra hub and simply changed out the spacer between the cone nut and the lock nut. I was pretty happy with the results, but don’t try it unless you are good with tools and trust your wheel building skills. Good luck with your build.