Old 97 CAD2 upgrades

Bigapl

I am new again to riding since I took a 27yr hiatus. I am running a older R200 with 26,36,46 crank and 12-28 cassette 7 speed , I’m trying to get a year or 2 out of this bike and would like some input on worthwhile upgrades for smoother shift transitions since i feel bogging or spinning all the time! I looked in to changing to a 26,42,53 and swap the rear for a 11-23 but in only 7 speeds will it even be worth it?

keef66

What you can do cheaply depends on what kind of shifters you have. Are they downtube shifters and if so are they indexed or simple friction (or have that option)? Or are they integrated STI units so you're stuck with 7 speeds?

With friction DT shifters you have the option of fitting a 10 speed cassette which would give you smaller jumps between sprockets. (You'd need a 10 speed chain and probably chainrings too)

Are you riding just on road? If so, your chainset sounds more MTB or touring bike to me. If you don't need that very low 26t chainring you could fit something like a compact road double chainset with 50/36 chainrings, or if you want to keep the triple, choose 50/39/30?

Probably the simplest would be to pick up a used groupset. Plenty of people are upgrading from 9 and 10 speed stuff to the current 11 speed road gear. Then you'd know it all works together and you'd have the convenience of modern STI units

lemonenema

Thats exactly what Id do, the ideal is to have a wider range and more sprockets on the cassette and fewer chainrings, but this would be a good compromise.

You may be ok with the 36t chainring as 36-53 is the traditional double setup.

Id get a new cassette and try a 50T chainring and see how you get on - youl have to measure the BCD and number of bolt holes to find which chainring fits)
Ive had a quick look and Sunrace do a 7spd 12-24 cassette for about £14

shirley_basso

39-53 is traditional double - to avoid confusion.

36-52 is the more recent semi-compact

34-50 is a compact

11 * 50 is a bigger / harder gear than 12*53

lemonenema

my bad, thanks for correction

keef66

52 / 42 used to be the standard road double chainset back in the day
53 / 39 is a standard double these days.
Compact doubles are usually 50/36 or occasionally 34.
Now they've invented the semi compact 52 / 36.
And with the rise of gravel bikes there are now (more widely available) super compact chainsets with 48 / 31 and 46 / 30.

The world's your lobster these days...

arlowood

I reckon this is the bike in question

https://www.bicyclebluebook.com/SearchL ... odel=45315

and the pic suggests that it definitely fitted with Shimano RSX downtube shifters. Not sure if they are friction or indexed and can't so far find any info to confirm either way.

One benefit is that it has a Shimano BB-UN52 threaded square taper BB so the OP should have no problems finding an alternative square taper compact chainset if that is the route he chooses

drlodge

If the rear axle is 126mm OLN then you will be limited to a 7 speed cassette.

Another option is to find a 7 speed shimano cassette that will fit the hub - or a combination of 2 cassettes to give you the sprockets you want. The you can fit Campagnolo 10 speed shifters (with the downtube cable gizmos whatever they're called) and use that with a shimano rear derailleur.

Bigapl

The shifters are upgraded 7 speed sti and rear is 126mm so inexpensive upgrades seem to be out, the 46-50 seems best route to add some more gearing options. I didn’t realize from 7-8/9 would require so much more in chain, shifter, and chainrings to be changed.
Thanks

Bigapl

Would there be any benefit in changing from 170mm crank to 165mm arms and has anyone used Origen8 products? I also found a Shimano set in 48-38-28 but in 170mm not a huge change but not sure?

Alejandrosdog

why not run it as it is, saving your money for the upgrade bike, it's a much more cost effective way and wont make a jot of difference to performance.

lemonenema

I'd read that there are benefits in using a 165mm crank length and so I tried it for a while on my road bike but went back to my usual 172.5 which felt much more normal. The 'normal' lengths are between 170 and 175 but I honestly wouldnt get hung up on a few mm difference, not worth spending on IMO.

DeVlaeminck

If you can get an 11-23 cassette (I'm assuming it will be a cassette I used to have a Mercian 7 speed that took a screw on block) of reasonable quality then I'd go down that route - I wouldn't spend any more than that - a 46*11 is not a tiny gear so should work even if say a 50 tooth chainring may be preferable.

The fact you are trying to get a couple of years out of this bike suggests you don't want to spend much - of course if you wanted to spend more you could do more but I think purely in terms of cost you'd then be better off selling it and buying something else even second hand.