A question..

[DCBassman]

I'm thinking, in the medium term, that I may renovate a vintage narrow-tube road bike. It needs to be able to take a square taper BB, and a modern-ish transmission, because I need low gears. Are there any relatively easy candidates for such a resto?
Ta.

 

[midlife]

Anything really I'd think about something that takes 700c wheels, Allen key brakes and maybe 130mm Old. Perhaps stay away from old bonded frames?

The world, as they say, is your oyster

 

[DCBassman]

Good, I'm hoping the choice won't be too difficult!

 

[midlife]

I wonder if @biggs682 has something in his shed

 

[DCBassman]

Not in the immediate future, have to finish the Norco hybrid first!

 

[biggs682]

Thanks @midlife
@DCBassman give me a shout when you are ready along with size required and will see what I have

 

[DCBassman]

@biggs682 , will do. Small stuff, my well fitted Trek 800 was an 18 incher.

 

[biggs682]

@biggs682 , will do. Small stuff, my well fitted Trek 800 was an 18 incher.

Ok let me know and i can have a look and keep an eye open

 

[Cycleops]

A square taper BB modern? I don't think so. If you want modern that would be a Hollowtech BB. Don't worry you can covert them if you wish.

 

[midlife]

Something like this in square taper?

https://www.sjscycles.co.uk/chainsets/alloy-compact-double-square-taper-chainset-5034t-170mm/

 

[DCBassman]

Triple, always a triple!
</wimp>

 

[Drago]

Careful though, there are 2 x square taper standards, the Shimano, and the older one what who's name eludes me. That said, but chainset and BB together and you're laughing.

 

[SkipdiverJohn]

Good, I'm hoping the choice won't be too difficult!

The great thing about vintage steel bikes is the choice is truly vast. You really need to narrow down your criteria a bit; how many gears do you want? Do you favour lightweight butted frames or are you ok with gas pipe? Are you looking for lively geometry or something more relaxed and stable? Big brand mass producer like Raleigh, or smaller quality specialist like Dawes, or cottage-industry custom builders? Then you start to consider age of bike; recreational cycling as a mass participation activity really kicked off in the 1970's, so the vast majority of old project sports bikes are 1970's or younger. If you are aiming for 1960's or earlier, then you are looking at either drop bar bikes bought by dedicated club riders and tourers, who would have been fewer in number, or flat bar roadsters that may have been run into the ground getting to work on.

 

[gilespargiter]

Careful though, there are 2 x square taper standards, the Shimano, and the older one what who's name eludes me. That said, but chainset and BB together and you're laughing.

There is the ISO (International Standards Organisation) Taper and the JIS (Japanese Industry standard taper). They are both 2deg tapers but (IFIRC) the JIS one tapers down fractionally more. You can still fit an ISO chainset to this by using a small washer that will fit into the socket under the nut/bolt, although some people don't like that idea and you have to be careful that the chainset is tight before coming up against the shoulder on the spindle. Conversely the nut/bolt doesn't do up quite so far. I may have explained these the opposite way round!!

The ISO standard is the older one but to this day runs contiguously with JIS. A lot of spindles now do not have a shoulder - so making it easier to fit them either way. One of those never did have a shoulder in the first place.

Then you have Campag tapers - all by themselves as usual.

 

[DCBassman]

I suppose I should have been a bit more concise. Having read everyone's comments above, what I'm after is a decent light touring frame, as opposed to a twitchy pure road bike. This might even have a triple already.
Whatever transmission, downtube shifters are on the agenda. Touring heritage would probably also give it the ability to carry mudguards. So, a 531 touring frame, capable of taking 700c wheels and relatively modern transmission, ie 48-38-28 up front, and something fairly wide at the back, 7 or 8 -speed.