Vintage Bike Upgrade

There are lots of upgrades and/or fixes you can make, but some are more important and easy than others.

I’d say the most pressing issue is the tires, they look pretty old, and it’s usually the one upgrade that improves the ride the most. We can help you with sizing if you’re unsure, if you take a pic of the current tires’ markings.

Then I’d turn to the braking. One limitation of the bike as it is will be its steel rims. They look in good shape so it’s a shame, but the best improvement of braking power would be by changing the wheels, or at least the rims, to aluminium ones, especially if you’re going to be riding in wet conditions a lot.

There are extra-soft brake pads that can mitigate this effect so it’s worth a try before changing out the wheelset.

Getting dual-pivot brake calipers would be nice too but it’s probably not the limiting factor (yet).

Then I’d turn to the points of contact : saddle, pedals, bars/bar tape. That’ll have a bigger impact than one might think.

Only then would I turn to the drivetrain. It has a 5 speed freewheel, so it probably had a 1/8″ chain and chanrings, which means you’d have to upgrade the whole thing at once, which would be a shame, I think, so I’m not too sure. But you’ll know if you feel limited by your gearing only after having ridden it for a while.

All of this is assuming there aren’t any glaring issues that would take priority. I’ll list what my experience tells me to check :
– worn brake cables or housing,
– an indexed headset,
– freeplay in the wheel bearings or the bottom bracket,
– stuck seatpost
– stuck handlebar stem
– heavily dented rims
– spoke tension problems

I’ve been down this road before on a bike of similar vintage, and while ultimately it was a great learning experience, there’s only so much that’s reasonable to do before you’re throwing good money after bad.

First thing that jumps out at me to fix are the brake levers. That style you have is *not* supposed to have the brake cable housing under then handlebar tape, by doing so you have a sharp angle at the lever which adds friction and reduces braking performance. Plus suicide levers were never a good idea in the first place. I’d actually consider replacing both the brake levers and the entire handlebar (and brake cables/bar tape)- Some Tektro RL430s and some drop bars with a modern shape will totally update the feel of the bike. Some new brake pads is rarely a bad idea, but those looks like steel rims, which will never have the best braking performance.

A more modern saddle could also be a lot more comfy too.

If the tires are in poor shape they’d also be high on my list to replace. However, if they’re in decent condition and you’re not bothered by them being mis-matched, then you’re probably better off leaving them as-is. They’re likely 27″ wheels, which is a mostly obsolete size, meaning there’s a limited selection of tires available for them, none of them particularly high-performance.

If everything is functional on the drive train, I probably wouldn’t touch it. There’s a bunch of things you’d need to replace all at once to get a noticeable upgrade (crankset, bottom bracket, derailleurs, shifters, freewheel, even maybe the wheel itself), and it’s unlikely to be worth it.

Some new pedals might not be a bad easy upgrade.