Originally Posted by
Nigeyy
Hey, nice bike! It's lovely to discover a little gem.
Since it sounds like the drivechain is in good condition and *if* you want more convenient gear shifting, I'm a big Kelly Take Off evangelist now since I put them on my tourer. The only thing you'd need to do is get the Kelly Take Offs ($40 including shipping on ebay), new cables and housing (which for a bike that age is probably a good idea to do anyway). That's it -you can keep your original shifters -then you are good to go with shifting from the drops.
Kelly Take Offs are the mutts nutts. Just upgraded to them + 8sp 105 shifters during a major overhaul/creak troubleshoot, and did 73 miles yesterday right after tightening the last cable. As fond as my memories are of suntour barcons, Take Offs are lightyears ahead. They even have certain advantages over STI, such as being faster at dumping gears in back when you hit a hill, and friction in front of course.
If you're going to stick with the five speed setup on your new Nishiki, you'll be doing alright keeping the friction shifter for the rear, but with my eight speed cluster, I'm thrilled to have finally evolved beyond knuckle dragging.