Upgrading road bike

[Steve90]

Hi, new to the forum and looking for some advice on making a few changes to my bike.


Basically it is currently on a single speed flip-flop setup. How difficult and more importantly expensive would it be to change this to a multispeed setup? It has fixing points for downtube shifters but I believe I can go for bar end shifters with cable stops fitted to the down tube shifter mounting points? It has all the rest of the bits needed on the frame for cables etc, so at one time it definitely wasnt a single speed setup..


Further to that I think I need a new rear wheel, front + rear derailleur, chainset and chain? Has anyone got any setups with most of what I need lying around, (willing to pay obviously) I'm finding it difficult to find what I need and know for definite it will all work together, for example buying indexed shifters and having the incorrected rear cassette or something simple like that. Hence getting a used setup which will definitely work together I think is the best idea..

I believe its a claude butler frame, and is pretty old, but I like the idea of playing/tweaking it so dont want to ditch it and buy new.

Any advice offered would be greatly appreciated!

 

[RecordAceFromNew]

You asked some very reasonable questions, but they are not easy to answer well because there are quite a lot of unknowns - e.g. in terms of dimensions (e.g. seat tube diameter - 28.6mm?, rear dropout spacing - 120mm?, frame material - hopefully steel?, current wheel size - 27" or 700c? etc.), and what use do you have in mind which impacts what gearing you want to end up with, and how much do you want to spend etc.

What I can recommend in the meantime is this article and of course pages from Sheldon such as this.

If you don't want to spend much, gearing via a wide range cassette/freewheel (say 11-34/13-34), no front mech/shifter/new chainset and a thumb shifter (indexed or friction) on the handelbar instead of bar-ends will save quite a bit of money and could make the conversion relatively inexpensive.

 

[Trickydicky]

Hi, new to the forum and looking for some advice on making a few changes to my bike.


Basically it is currently on a single speed flip-flop setup. How difficult and more importantly expensive would it be to change this to a multispeed setup? It has fixing points for downtube shifters but I believe I can go for bar end shifters with cable stops fitted to the down tube shifter mounting points? It has all the rest of the bits needed on the frame for cables etc, so at one time it definitely wasnt a single speed setup..


Further to that I think I need a new rear wheel, front + rear derailleur, chainset and chain? Has anyone got any setups with most of what I need lying around, (willing to pay obviously) I'm finding it difficult to find what I need and know for definite it will all work together, for example buying indexed shifters and having the incorrected rear cassette or something simple like that. Hence getting a used setup which will definitely work together I think is the best idea..

I believe its a claude butler frame, and is pretty old, but I like the idea of playing/tweaking it so dont want to ditch it and buy new.

Any advice offered would be greatly appreciated!

Not sure but maybe buying a sora or other group set may be the answer,
HAve a look here
http://www.merlincycles.co.uk/Bike+...ra+3400+9+Speed+Groupset_SORA-GROUP-OFFER.htm
However u need to know weather it will fit, and u will need an adaptor for the front mec aswell

TD

 

[eldudino]

I'd keep that bike as it is and buy a second hand multi-geared bike. Unless you find all the bits at ultra-bargain prices, you'll end up spending a fortune. Even the Sora groupset above at c.£200 will nearly buy you a cheapish 2nd hand bike.

 

[Genman]

Whereabouts do you live Steve? I have most of what you need on a project I never completed due to ill health, which you can have for peanuts if you pick it up.