Dawes Touring Frame Project

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emulsifier12

New Member
Location
Nuneaton
Hi

I have just picked up a Dawes Touring frame on ebay for £11-50. It is a steel frame reybolds 531 I think... not too sure??? The frame includes fork, stem and handle bars and the original triple 26, 36, 46 crank set. It is in fantastic condition.


Basically I need the following:


Wheels 700c x 100mm front and 700c x 130mm rear (measured the drops front and back)

Breaks - Cantilever or V brake
Seat Post (25.8mm) and Seat
Gear levers and brake levers - eg Shiano 105's
Rear casette x 8 speed.
Front and rear derailers
Cabling
Downtube Cable Stop Adjusters / bosses.

I would like to change the crankset to a double 42 / 52 with 8 gears at the back.

Could someone who has some knowledge of Dawes tourers tell me how old this frame is.

I want to change the downtube shifters to ones on the handlebars.

I would like some help and advice with components and things to use. I would like to build this up as a solid weekend road bike that is quicker than my current bike. I weigh 18 stone and have mutilated the back wheel on my claud butler urban 100.

Any suggestions on possible setups and components?

Thanks in advance for your help.
 

PpPete

Legendary Member
Location
Chandler's Ford
Unlikely to be Reynolds 531 if the seatpost is 25.8mm.

Any original stickers on it that you take close-up pics of ? That would help to date it.
 

Crepello

Active Member
Difficult to tell much from your photo - needs more detail. The corner of the headtube badge suggests it's 1980's. From that, you need to work out whether the brake bosses are set for 27.25" or 700c. The latter can make it more complicated to set the brakes up. Also, the bosses will be closer together, discounting the use of V brakes (but not sure why you'd use those with STI levers). Even with cantilever brakes, some consideration on choice may be required. New 'frog-leg' style may fit.

Also, it's been resprayed, which means nothing regarding condition. It may look fantastic, but could be hiding corrosion that's 20 odd years old.

For 8 speed, you'll have to 'spread' the rear drop outs 126mm > 130mm. For STI choice, your limited to old Sora or new Acera (i think).

You can tell, there are a lot of 'maybe's' about decisions for this frame.
 
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emulsifier12

emulsifier12

New Member
Location
Nuneaton
Just got an old seat tube from a friend and tried it, fits well and it measures 26.4mm.

The bike is an original spray job as I have stripped the frame down and had a look inside the steering pipe and seat pipe, no colour change although the original stickers have been removed though. I have given it the tap test and it pings right round, no dull thuds or loose rust rattling around inside the pipes, so therefore no 'hidden rust'.

How would I go about measuring the original tyre size for cantilever setup? 700c or 27.25 inches? Why would I have to use old sora or new Acera? Excuse my ignorance on the STI issue...

The rear drops measure 129.8mm or my digital caliper.


Thanks for replies. keep em coming.
 

RecordAceFromNew

Swinging Member
Location
West London
The first challenge is to determine what wheel size the frame was designed for, so that suitable brakes for the rims can be identified, and from that levers. Can you provide the distances between the wheel axles and the brake bosses?

If you want to use drop bar STI levers, you need to be aware that those levers don't have the same brake cable pull as the mountain bike levers (which are designed to work with the usual V brakes), hence causing a complication for working with typical V brakes. However e.g. mini-V brakes are available which work with drop bar STI levers, but at this point it is hard to tell which is going to be compatible with which rim...
 

hubgearfreak

Über Member
emulsifier12 said:
700c or 27.25 inches?

i may seem pedantic, but i reckon it's bad form to represent 27x 1 1/4 that way. there's enough confusion in this area already.

anyhow, good luck with your build, and remember that there's only 4mm in it between those two wheel/tyre sizes - so my bet is that either will do.

although having said that, 27" is old fashioned, vertical dropouts aren't. so my bet would be that it's for 622 rims
 
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emulsifier12

emulsifier12

New Member
Location
Nuneaton
I am going to source some nice strong and light 700 wheels with 130 rear and 100 front hub width. Something with 32 or 36 spokes.

One problem is that the bosses on the brakes are closer together than my hybrid when I did a test swap from my hybrid for measurement purposes on my on the steel frame. I took my front wheel of my hybrid to test (700c x 100wide) which fits the fork fine. I then took the shimano v brakes with break shoe off my hybrid and the height from the bosses to the rim is ok, but this steel frame fork is narrower and the v brake sticks out very very far on the outside of the fork.
 

RecordAceFromNew

Swinging Member
Location
West London
emulsifier12 said:
Distance from centre brake boss hole to centre of the axle hole is 285mm.

The design standard for V/canti boss is 27mm below the centre of the braking surface of the rim. That and your measurement indicates the radius of yours at 312mm, or diameter of 624mm. Since the ISO bsd of 700c and 27" rims are at 622mm and 630mm respectively, I believe your frame was designed for 700c.

You mentioned that your bosses are unusually close to each other? The standard is 80mm to 82mm, and they are seldom under 77mm.
 

Crepello

Active Member
RecordAceFromNew said:
You mentioned that your bosses are unusually close to each other? The standard is 80mm to 82mm, and they are seldom under 77mm.
From my experience with touring frames. The spacing for canti bosses has got wider over the years. I can't recall the figures from memory, But a modern tourer (Hewitt Cheviot, say) has has front bosses much wider than an 2002 Galaxy, which again has wider front bosses wider than a 1990 Galaxy. That's from observation.

The head badge still suggests a late '80's or early '90's frame (therefore narrower spaced brake bosses), so you'll need some more clarification on the right brake choice.

The choice of STI lever is limited if you go down the 8 speed route, because Old Sora and Acera are all that's available in 8 speed STI. But you could consider 10 speed Campag Ultrashifters (Veloce or Centaur), which will give you 8 positions at the back wheel with a Shimano rear mech. They're good value compared to many Shiamano STI's.
 
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emulsifier12

emulsifier12

New Member
Location
Nuneaton
The measurements between the brake bosses are:
front 63mm
back 72mm
Measurement between centre of brake boss to centre of braking surface with 700c wheels on:
Front 26mm
Back 20mm

Measurement between centre of braking surface to hole above wheel for traditional caliper brakes :
Front 58mm
Back 60mm

It seems upon closer inspection that there were calipers fitted on this bike as there are marks on the frame where they were bolted on. (Single hole above the wheel, not canti bosses).

I am tempted to just get calipers for this frame and maybe... maybe cut the bosses off and touch up the paint work. It seems this would be an easier route to go.

Are there any people out there who have used tektro or similar brakes levers on the drops and had other types of gear levers (not STI or Bar end shifters) on the drops? I am not keen to use the downtube shifters and the STI route for an 8 speed is very expensive.
 

RecordAceFromNew

Swinging Member
Location
West London
If you want to use caliper brakes, for 58mm/60mm drop, you would need deep drop models. They are available by Tektro, Shimano and Ambrosio.

For whatever reason all drop bar brifters are significantly more expensive than flat bars ones. This sometimes lead to creative use of flat bar brifters on drop bars, but am unsure how easy it is to operate.

The only alternative gear shifter, that is neither brifter, bar end nor downtube, that I can think of at the moment, is stem shifters such as these. You should however be aware of the health warning associated with them here.

ps for the right drop bar it is possible to fit trigger shifters or grip shifters designed for flat bars, but it may require some surgery.
 

PpPete

Legendary Member
Location
Chandler's Ford
RecordAceFromNew said:
The only alternative gear shifter, that is neither brifter, bar end nor downtube, that I can think of at the moment, is stem shifters such as these. You should however be aware of the health warning associated with them here.

But if you want to try stem shifters I've got some you can have for free.

As has been stated earlier deep drop dual pivot calipers are available. I've fitted them to a few old tourers which lacked canti bosses. They gave a much improved braking performance than the original fit centre-pulls.
However as the canti bosses are there, my preference would be to fit cyclo-x style cantis. Very simple and efficient. Calipers can get in the way of things like rack & light mounts IME.
 

rh100

Well-Known Member
Have been reading this with interest, will measure up my Galaxy to see what options I get for updating mine.

What I would also like to do if possible, is add some brake levers to the top of the handlebar, interrupters I think they are called. Are these straight forward to fit and are they compatible with all types of braking systems?
 

RecordAceFromNew

Swinging Member
Location
West London
rh100 said:
Have been reading this with interest, will measure up my Galaxy to see what options I get for updating mine.

What I would also like to do if possible, is add some brake levers to the top of the handlebar, interrupters I think they are called. Are these straight forward to fit and are they compatible with all types of braking systems?

Since few wants two pairs of levers on the flat, most cross top levers are designed to go with modern road brifters/aero brake levers, and therefore are for road caliper and cantilever brakes. However adjustable ones are available, e.g. by Paul's Components, that can go with V brakes.

IME you might want to be aware that the cables don't fit well with traditional non-aero brake levers where the cables run out of the top of the hoods (i.e. not out of the side along the handlebar). For that you need something like this but you have to ensure the handlebar width and diameter fit.
 
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