Bike refurb

[Nebulous]

Not wanting to hijack the build a bike thread but I've been following it with interest.
The n+1 is beginning to bite. I have an allez road bike for leisure and a hardtail mountain bike for my short commute. I'll never sneak a higher spec carbon bike under the radar.

Almost 30 years ago my only previous drop bar bike was a 12 speed Carlton in steel. I quite fancy something of that vintage as a project. It will give me an excuse to buy some tools if nothing else.

So what would it take to get say a 6 speed 80s racer running well? Probably looking at slightly wider tyres and mudguards. Not fussed about looks I don't want a classic restoration, more a reliable runaround. Would £100 on bits - not counting the tools do it?

 

[GrumpyGregry]

a very useful resource is retrobike

 

[smokeysmoo]

I'll never sneak a higher spec carbon bike under the radar.

^and why would you want too?

Seriously though, I picked up an 80's Peugeot road bike off fleabay a while ago, I paid a bit more than I really wanted to, (probably due to the growing trend for all things 'retro'), but TBH, if I'd wanted to just use it as it was, then a quick gear service, swift brake check and some air in the rubber was all it needed.

I rode it around the block and everything was working fine, (feels very strange though if you're now used to a modern bike), but I then stripped it for a full restoration and fixed gear conversion, but if I hadn't I'd have still had a perfecly serviceable bike for a lot less than you've suggested.

Plus there is something unquantifiably satisfying about standing back and thinking, "I built that"

 

[Manonabike]

Not wanting to hijack the build a bike thread but I've been following it with interest.
The n+1 is beginning to bite. I have an allez road bike for leisure and a hardtail mountain bike for my short commute. I'll never sneak a higher spec carbon bike under the radar.

Almost 30 years ago my only previous drop bar bike was a 12 speed Carlton in steel. I quite fancy something of that vintage as a project. It will give me an excuse to buy some tools if nothing else.

So what would it take to get say a 6 speed 80s racer running well? Probably looking at slightly wider tyres and mudguards. Not fussed about looks I don't want a classic restoration, more a reliable runaround. Would £100 on bits - not counting the tools do it?

I did a similar job on my Reynolds 531 18 months ago.

Mine was a 7 speeds indexed bike, hardly used, and I began by putting new tyres, after 15 years in storage. After riding it for about a 1000 miles I decided that I wanted STI gear levers because I found that hills were harder to climb as I could not change gears once started climbing. That was the main reason for me and I was totally right.

If you have hills to climb then you might want to go for STI levers..... I think you can still find shimano 7 speeds STI levers around. I did look at them but I didn't like them so, if you go to anything above 7 gears you will need to get a new rear wheel so that you can fit an 8 or bigger cassette. Your frame will probably have a gap of 126mm for the rear wheel.... there is plenty of information on how to overcome that problem. £100 might not be far off, A pair of shimano 8 speeds STI levers were sold here for about £45 not very long ago. A rear wheel could be as cheap as £30, an 8 speed cassette for under £15 and a chain for under a tenner

 

[Nebulous]

Thanks guys

I've had a look at retrobike. There is enough there to keep me going for a while. I've no experience of older indexed gears, but I used to be pretty good with the old friction shifters and I'm happy to start with them.

Main usage is likely to be running around town so no huge hills.