Upgrade old bike or buy new bike

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Comments

  • PeeDee
    PeeDee Posts: 88
    Another thougt, check the size of the tyres on your existing rims. Being a French make, they wil probably be 700c, but being sold in Britain there is a chance they might be the old 27 inch specification.

    New wheels will be 700c which are slightly smaller than 27 inch. They will fit so long as there is enough adjustment on your brake calipers to lower the brake shoes down a little. If not, then you might need some longer drop brakes to make the wheels fit.
  • uphill struggler
    uphill struggler Posts: 9
    Many thanks to everyone for all the very useful advice. My LBS (see even picking up the TLA's now!) widened my rear forks already to fit a 7 speed sprocket set in place of the original 5 when I switched to a compact set up, the front forks are a standard 100mm and the wheels are 700cc so I think I just need to find some wheels now, and many thanks for the pointers on that peejay78. The Genesis Equilibrium did catch my eye but my wife wants to go on holiday in the Autumn so even apart from my attachment to the Peugeot there are now other constraints!

    I'll let you know how I get on..

    Cheers
  • wikey
    wikey Posts: 13
    hi there,i am interested in this thread as i have two old bikes
    i have gone as far as i think i can upgrading the one

    it is a 1960s falcon 531 frame

    i have changed the gearing from 5 speed campag to 12 speed, with a 14 28 freewheel at the back and initially a 52 42 on the front on a 120mm bb, this had the sprockets pretty near the frame, about as good as they could be. i am 65 and recovering from serious illness and living in peak district so lots of hills. so i recently fitted an alloy generic 50 34 on the front. i have gone from a120mm bb to a 110mm bb as recommended by the online shop i bought the crankset from, but chainrings were too far away from frame, so then I have fitted a 103mm bb (square taper). still the chainrings could be 3 or 4mm nearer the frame to improve the chainline. but crank now any closer. i have a couple of more 27 inch rear wheels and i might play around with one and see if i can set up a 7 speed freewheel on one, move spacers to drive side etc , but my attempts so far has smallest cog rubbing on frame

    i have another old bike, a 1953 mercian king of mercia which i am part way through the same process. i also have a modern ribble alloy bike with carbon forks and campag chorus 10 speed cassette brakes wheels and everything on it,very nice but i dont want to ride it in winter etc. also it is 53 39 ront and about 12 to 26 rear and it would cost a lot to put a compact crankset on it and alter rear changer and keep quality like it is. so with all these issues I am thinking of getting a new bike.

    I put all this on here to see if anyone else has altered old frames and got them running nicely with compact cranksets and 6 or 7 speed freewheels or 8 speed cassettes on back and done it successfully. would love to know what components people have used to achieve this...
    cheers
    wikey

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