Old frame, new parts - Your thoughts

[gregs656]

I have been thinking about going ergo/sti, but to be honest with indexed downtube shifters it seems hardly worth it.

I do need to do something about my mixed bag groupset. It all came off a parts bike, and the 105 shifters to chorus rear and record front isn't ideal. It works for now though

 

[NeilM]

Depending on what you go for you need to consider rear drop-out spacing but it doesn't seem to cause too many problems.

Yup, I'd though about that, as ideally I'd like to get a 9 or 10 speed cassette on the back, so I'd need a frame that could either take a hub that wide or be cold set, which to a degree would also dictate the tubeset, as I know some are not so easy to modify.

I don't mind mixing brands to a degree, but they really have to work well together. I currently have Shimano XT or XTR mechs and Gripshift / SRAM twist shifters on all my mtbs (and have done since the early 90's). Compatibility and the correct style are the key.

Going off to trawl through the archive on Cycle Exif for inspiration :shock:

 

[Kerplunk]

I've got a couple of Peugeot Athenas built up with modern Shimano. The first one was a 40th birthday pressie to myself, the original paint and chrome was too far gone to save so it got a respray.

Really liked how it rode so when another one turned up on here in really good condition I couldn't help myself. Birthday bike is now for summer/best and this is for winter/daily.

The one thing I would say is that modern Shimano chainsets/rings look very chunky on skinny steel frames. You can see in the second photo that I've changed the chainrings to Stronglight ones that I think help them look a bit slimmer.

 

[west green]

Really nice bikes. I want to do this to my Rourke but haven't got round to buying a clamp on gear changer as none of the solutions look that nice and I don't have braze ons on the downtube. Another project in limbo!

 

[west green]

Ps there's a whole thread on one of the USforums dedicated to old frames with modern group sets , should be easy to find will post when I remember

 

[NeilM]

Those are nice looking bike Kerplunk, I especially like the second one.

 

[chipper]

I have absolutely no problems with modern stuff on classic frames, here's mine.

 

[NeilM]

What, no carbon forks, ahead headset and clamp on stem?


Looks stunning, and is exactly along the lines I am thinking.

 

[fiks]

Actually those two don't look too bad, at least they've still got their original paint and forks and don't have threadless stems.

But in effect they are new/modern bikes, even if the frame is older/classic/vintage. No different from getting a newly built traditional style steel frame (ie pre compact and threadless) and putting modern parts on it.

But on the other hand I can see why people do this. An old frame is much cheaper than a new one or you might have an old frame lying around.

 

[Pauliepie]

I`ve just finished the initial build on this Scapin frame using DA7700, I dont see that updating the running gear takes away from the bike too much, essentially the frame is the heart & soul of the bike, in its current guise I feel it rides better & outperforms my previous modern road bike. On my 50`s Beetle I ran a bigger engine & disc brakes to keep up with modern traffic, the difference with the bike is all the upgrades are on show!

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