DCBassman
Retro Newbie
Greetings again, 2nd post.
Here's the nearest thing I have to a retro bike. It was almost certainly sold originally as a ladie's drop bar roadie.
When I first got it, it had 27x1 1/4 wheels, full mudguards, riser bars, and downtube shifters.
Now it has narrow flat bars, 700c Shimano R500 wheels, a Sora GS 8-speed 11-34 setup at the rear. The original 50-36 Stronglight and Suntour front derailleur are still in use, the latter, amazingly, controlled perfectly and without so much as a scrap of adjustment, by a Sora 2x indexed flat-bar setup. It is only a couple of pounds heavier than my alloy Scott roadie. Tubing is Ishiwata 0245 with Reynolds 531 forks.
In recent days, it has lost its nearly useless Weinmann 730 side-pulls and gained a new set of Tektro R559 long-drop dual pivots. So now it actually stops...
This bike, now that it is actually safe to ride, is lovely. Comfortable on 28s, and the gearing, although not having any really low gears, works well for me. My mods have not increased the gearing range except at the top end. The old 5-speed freewheel was 14-34 anyhow!***
My favourite bike of the two, at the moment.
Edit: while idly researching the original rear derailleur, I discovered they had date codes. August 1980. So given that these components can often lay in bins awaiting build, I've edited the title from Mid to Early 80s.
*** I lied, of course. It has smaller wheels, so slighly lower gearing.
Here's the nearest thing I have to a retro bike. It was almost certainly sold originally as a ladie's drop bar roadie.
When I first got it, it had 27x1 1/4 wheels, full mudguards, riser bars, and downtube shifters.
Now it has narrow flat bars, 700c Shimano R500 wheels, a Sora GS 8-speed 11-34 setup at the rear. The original 50-36 Stronglight and Suntour front derailleur are still in use, the latter, amazingly, controlled perfectly and without so much as a scrap of adjustment, by a Sora 2x indexed flat-bar setup. It is only a couple of pounds heavier than my alloy Scott roadie. Tubing is Ishiwata 0245 with Reynolds 531 forks.
In recent days, it has lost its nearly useless Weinmann 730 side-pulls and gained a new set of Tektro R559 long-drop dual pivots. So now it actually stops...
This bike, now that it is actually safe to ride, is lovely. Comfortable on 28s, and the gearing, although not having any really low gears, works well for me. My mods have not increased the gearing range except at the top end. The old 5-speed freewheel was 14-34 anyhow!***
My favourite bike of the two, at the moment.
Edit: while idly researching the original rear derailleur, I discovered they had date codes. August 1980. So given that these components can often lay in bins awaiting build, I've edited the title from Mid to Early 80s.
*** I lied, of course. It has smaller wheels, so slighly lower gearing.
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