old early 80's road bike questions

marshman777

Hi Guys
just restoring my old 501 tubing raleigh road bike.
Want to se if i can re gear the bike as a climbing bike with with a big granny gear on. The weight of the frame is not realy an issue to me as i am not the thinest of guys and dont see it as relevant. The original gearing is a 52-42 on front with 24-14 (6 cog) on rear. Was woundering what i can add to make life a little easier. The front is predrilled to take a smaller cog. But not sure what i can get on 34-36? Also what options have i got for the rear can i fit a mountain bike cog.
Not the most knowledgable on these issues so help is appreciated.
Andy

redvee

You might be able to find a chainring of a smaller size in the BCD to fit your chainset, 34t freewheels are available too.

marshman777

Sorry whats the BCD ?

redvee

marshman777 wrote:

Sorry whats the BCD ?

http://www.sheldonbrown.com/gloss_bo-z.html#bcd

ynyswen24

if it's a Shimano chainset you might be able to go down to a 38t chainring, Campagnolo down to a 39t. Fitting a new freewheel or cassette on the back (probably a freewheel if the bikes from the 80's - a good bike shop will be able to help) would then make a big difference. The rear derailleur should work okay with a 28t largest cog, any bigger and you may need a new rear mech with a longer arm to cope with the length of the chain - you may need a new chain to match the wear on the rear cogs and cope with the size of the cogs.
Ultimately, the best bet for a low gear would be to fit a triple chainset but you'll need a bottom bracket to match it.
In all of this, a good local nike shop should be able to identify what you have on the bike and what the best options would then be.

bagpusscp

I use a Stronglight compact. Runs fine with my 6 speed rear block and a 6/8 speed chain.
Info here.
http://www.ribblecycles.co.uk/sp/road-t ... TROCHAR560

craker

You could fit a new crankset, the bottom bracket is English 68mm.

My old Raleigh Europa is on it's original crankset (40 ish + 50 ish.. uphill is hard), but I swapped out the original 6 speed for a 7 speed rear wheel. No idea what the big gear is, but if you've got a 7 speed screw-on freewheel ebay gives you a few options. Just had a quick look and 14-28 seems popular & cheap.

marshman777

Just bought a 32 tooth front ring and a mate at my local bike shop said just buy a 27 rear cog off a mountain bike and that get me up anything round my area.
Fingers crossed just lookingh forward to riding a 30 year old bike and seeing how it rides after all these years.
Thnaks fot the info

rolf_f

marshman777 wrote:

Just bought a 32 tooth front ring and a mate at my local bike shop said just buy a 27 rear cog off a mountain bike and that get me up anything round my area.
Fingers crossed just lookingh forward to riding a 30 year old bike and seeing how it rides after all these years.
Thnaks fot the info

Apologies for the obvious question - has the rear hub been replaced with a cassette hub - if not, it won't be quite as straightforward as your mate thinks. The bike would have had a freewheel hub originally (see here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freehub). Freewheel sprockets are more of a faff to find than cassettes and it probably isn't as simple as "just buying a 27 rear cog". I've just had new wheels built for my 1990 Dawes - partly to aid cassette replacement.

t4tomo

I used to have a 10 speed racer in the 80's which I'm sure was no lower geared than what you describe and could climb the 1 in 3 hills around where I live.

MTFU and pedal it like its designers intended :!: