Retromod - Di2 on a classic steel road bike - advice/links to those that have please?

[TOMAS]

A very kind customer of mine has gifted me his old written-off Trek that was involved in a high speed car crash - frame is trashed but i've salvaged the fully working Di2, rim brake groupset off of it .

I come from offroad - mtb and for the last 18 months mixed with gravel riding. I like the idea of trying to build the Di2 into a mid-range classic road bike. Has it/can it be done? I understand I'd probably need to neatly drill some holes to feed the wiring through - probably head tube/towards top of down tube and possibly enlarge pre-existing breather holes in the chainstay etc.

I'd be on the hunt for a rolling-chassis, ideally 56cm to suit me @ 5'10" with need for a longer audax type headtube & ideally 1.1/8 ahead steerer (so we are talking early 90s - a dynatech would be lovely).

Any thoughts/suggestions greatly appreciated - would I likely encounter any probs with running 6800 Ultegra calipers (the drop?), am I also right in thinking they ran 120mm rear dropout width back then - hoping I can squeeze a 11spd Shimano cassette on using a 35mm depth Shimano freehub body?

Tom

 

[jim haseltine]

If you search the 'net for "di2 on a steel frame" you'll find loads of discussions and a fair few examples of it being done.

 

[mattr]

Early 90's will mostly still be 1" threaded headsets (or converted to threadless) but 130 rear spacing, You'll probably need mid/late 90's to guarantee getting 1 1/8. You should be ok with normal drop calipers, unless it's designed for large tyres and/or mudguards.
Might need some bosses taking off and a respray, but drilling holes in a mid range frame *should* be ok as long as you don't go through the very thinnest sections, or too close to the weld/braze/solder.
Don't forget that the bottom bracket will be the tight spot for all the Di2 cables if you run them internally...

 

[slackboy]

I did it on a modern ti road bike - battery in the steerer tube, mtb di2 controller on the handlebar and then a single wire run under the down tube held in place with helitape to an external junction box which screws into the cable guide hole on the bottom bracket.

 

[TOMAS]

Early 90's will mostly still be 1" threaded headsets (or converted to threadless) but 130 rear spacing, You'll probably need mid/late 90's to guarantee getting 1 1/8. You should be ok with normal drop calipers, unless it's designed for large tyres and/or mudguards.
Might need some bosses taking off and a respray, but drilling holes in a mid range frame *should* be ok as long as you don't go through the very thinnest sections, or too close to the weld/braze/solder.
Don't forget that the bottom bracket will be the tight spot for all the Di2 cables if you run them internally...

Cheers fella! The 130mm wide back end gives me confidence that i'll get an 11spd cassette in there

I have several early 90s Dyna MTBs all running 1.1/8 steers, I assumed their road bikes would be the same.

Guessing im more favourable with early/mid 90s over late 70s/80s? I'll get hunting for a suitable bike/rolling chassis - i've been away from Retro since Covid came along and gave rise to every clown trying to sell their hammered old bikes out the shed for obscene sums - it put me right off buying/trading.

 

[mattr]

You'll definitely get 11 speed in there, i have a 6800 groupset on my 97 team bike, the 130 back end was still "standard" until not very long ago. Now we have about 11 standards... :/ Only thing to watch out is if the top sprocket catches on the ends of the stays. I can only run 11 or 12 tooth, 13 catches on the end of the chainstay...

The 11/8 steerer was coming in about then on road bikes, so you'll have to have a look around. By 2001/2 it was pretty much standard.
The Dyna tech MTBs went 11/8th in the early 90's, i had one in 94.

 

[TOMAS]

thanks Matt for the tips! I might have come up trumps, my neighbour was one of the high up managers, possibly directors at Raleigh BITD, I was chatting to him the other day and said he used to own a lovely Raleigh road bike from late 80s/early 90s, that was irridecent green (custom/rare Raleigh colour he told me) & possibly full Campag groupset - he gave it away to one of his friends years ago (whos now in his late 70s & doesn't ride anymore) - he's still got it and going to re-gift it to me, possibly for this very project!

Another issue will be if I kit it out in Di2, the downtube shifter mounts will be redundant and I really don't want to chop them off (to avoid ruining the originality of the frame) - nor do I want to just leave them as bare sharp stumps... wondering if there is anything I could fit over them to neaten them up?

 

[pigman]

You've kinda hit the nail on the head there by Di2ing an older frame. All those fixed-on bosses, stops and guides that are now redundant would irritate the hell out of me. I'd be torn between having them removed and like you say spoiling the frames originality

 

[badgermat]

Could you not just use a pair of the friction adjusters (604/1 in the image) as blanking covers?

If you don't want to disassemble the shifters on the bike at the moment, you can probably get the parts fairly cheaply.

 

[mattr]

One reason I passed up on a used 10 speed Di2 group a few years ago. I got 105 for sightly less, and didn't have to butcher my frame to make it look "right".
The 105 is still going strong on it's third build on my training bike. The Di2 is now no longer supported, spares/repairs only from eBay... And the bike in question is now running the 6800 group as above, which needs the bosses I would probably have ground off...