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Upgrading my paper route bike



 
 
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  #1  
Old September 30th 03, 05:00 PM
Forjador
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Default Upgrading my paper route bike

Just acquired a '72 Raleigh Super Course, just like the one I bought
years ago in high school with paper route earnings. Given that it's
30 years old, the bike appears to be in decent shape. Most of the
components appear to be original. The paint's a bit worse for wear,
but the frame and fork appear to be true and undamaged. The Brooks
B15 has got a nice, 30-year burnish to it. Even the old Weinmann
wheelset has held up pretty well. I'm considering the
possibility/feasibility of upgrading this bike with an idle Dura-Ace
8-speed setup for weekend riding, but would like to hear from more
experienced wrench-turners. Here's what I'm considering:

--Swap out 27" wheels for 700C; replace Normandy hubset with newer
hubset that will accept "modern" 8-speed cassette; stretch rear
triangle from 120mm to 130 mm.
--Pull off the Simplex front derailleur and Shimano Eagle II rear (may
not be original--IIRC, my first Super Course had a Simplex RD) and
downtube shifters; replace with 8-speed Dura-Ace STI brake/shifter
combination.
--Pull Stronglight crank and original BB setup and replace with DA BB
and cranks.

To effect these changes, here's what else I think needs to happen:

--Replace old handlebars (the originals are very narrow, anyway)with
newer ones that can accommodate cable routing for STI shifters.
--Dura-Ace brake levers should work OK with Weinmann centerpulls, but
brake blocks would have to be lowered to properly contact 700C rims.
--Downtube shifters are clamp-on style; would have to install braze-on
cable routings for STI setup.
--Rear dropouts do not have a derailleur hanger (the old Eagle II has
an integrated hanger that mates with the dropout); not sure how to
mount the DA derailleur. Does Shimano or some other after-market
manufacturer market some sort of adapter?

Should I take this on, or am I better off to "make do" with existing
parts? Any thoughts or advice from anyone who has attempted a similar
upgrade is appreciated.
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  #2  
Old September 30th 03, 06:56 PM
Donald Gillies
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Default Upgrading my paper route bike

(Forjador) writes:

Just acquired a '72 Raleigh Super Course, just like the one I bought
years ago in high school with paper route earnings. Given that it's
30 years old, the bike appears to be in decent shape. Most of the
components appear to be original. The paint's a bit worse for wear,
but the frame and fork appear to be true and undamaged. The Brooks
B15 has got a nice, 30-year burnish to it. Even the old Weinmann
wheelset has held up pretty well. I'm considering the
possibility/feasibility of upgrading this bike with an idle Dura-Ace
8-speed setup for weekend riding, but would like to hear from more
experienced wrench-turners. Here's what I'm considering:


Your bike has a 531 straight-gauge main tubes-only frame. It weighs
27 lbs and the frame/fork probably weighs 6 lbs. Therefore, dura ace
is really overkill for this frameset. The normandy hubs are pretty
good campy copy hubs. The components on it are fairly well balanced
to the frame quality. I think you might be better off leaving it "as
is" and perhaps putting a metal simplex SLJ derailleur on the back to
make it more "vintage". there are also some nice metal NOS simplex
shifters available on ebay. consider joining the vintage bikes email
list,
. see www.bikelist.org for more
details.

If you want to upgrade the bike, consider either an ultra 6 freewheel
(ebay), or space the frame to 126 mm and get a 7-speed freewheel from
sachs for your weekend rides. You might want to save the atom /
simplex freewheel because the bike and parts in their present original
form are collectable.

- Don Gillies
San Diego, CA
 




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