Originally Posted by
restwhenyoudie
I recently picked up a 1985 Bridgestone Mb-2 on craigslist for the low, low price of $110. I immediately put on a honey brown Brooks B-17 to compliment the blue and I've been fallen in love with the bike. My plan is to essentially update the bike with a modern drive-train and tour with it for a year or two at which point I'm going to purchase a Surly Long Haul Trucker frame to transfer the parts onto while the Bridgestone will be relegated to single-speed MTB duty (bless those horizontal dropouts). The lugged 4130 should be sturdy enough for loaded touring while I get a handle on the sport of it.
My rough sketch for drive-train updates are as follows (items needing help in bold):
Rear/Front Derailleur: Shimano Deore XT
Shifters: Shimano Dura-Ace 9 Speed bar end
Brakes: Shimano Deore V-Brakes
Brake levers: Tektro Road V brake levers (the ones from Rivendell)
Crankset: Original Sakae SA or replacement? If so, recommendation?
Cassette: 9 speed something-or-other with wide range of gears
Stem: Nitto Dirt-Drop
Handlebars: "Commuter" drops donated from friend
Wheels: Shimano XT hubs + Velocity Cliffhanger/Aeroheat (leaning towards Cliffhanger but uncertain)
Tires: Schwalbe Marathon
One of my small concerns is that the rear spacing is 130mm and most modern MTB hubs seem to be spaced to 135mm. As someone who started his cycling career doing botched fixed-gear conversions (I've since changed my ways) I'm under the impression that anything can be crammed into steel dropouts...but I'd rather not screw around too much if I'll be doing loaded touring.
Any opinions or thoughts on this little experiment? Is there anything I should beware of when collecting parts? Compatibility problems/etc?
Any help or advice is greatly appreciated!
Isaak
A few thoughts:
Any modern derailleur will shift better than the old style pre-SIS derailleurs, XT derailleurs would certainly be nice and light. Friction shifters and an 8 speed cassette might be cheaper and more dependable, though. If you're putting drop bars on the bike, a set of bar end shifters like the Rivendell Silver shifters might be nice. My winter commuter is an MB-3 frame (1993) with Nitto Moustache bars, Silver shifters, XT derailleurs and an 8 speed cassette. My tourer also has silver shifters and an 8 speed cassette. 8 speed cassettes are still pretty easy to find, and you can just switch to 9 speed cassettes if you can't find an 8 speed.
What's wrong with the old crankset? If the chainrings are worn, replace them, but otherwise run the crankset until it breaks. If the bike is so heavily used that you think the crank arms are cracked and might break that's one thing, but otherwise I would keep the crankset. A modern cartridge bottom bracket might be nice, though, it would certainly require less maintenance.
Cliffhanger rims are strong, but they weigh a ton. The Velo-plugs that Velocity offers will save weight over conventional rim tape without compromising dependability. Which Schwalbe marathons are you getting? Like the Cliffhangers, Marathons are not known for being light. The XR HS 359 in a 26 x 1.6 would handle lots of road surfaces and offer good puncture resistance and durability without being quite as heavy as some of the other Schwalbes. The Marathon Supreme in a 26 x 1.6 with kevlar bead is even lighter but is really more for paved roads. Neither tire is cheap, though. The Marathon Cross in a 26 x 1.75 is a great tire for dirt roads and pavement and is very sturdy, but it weighs a ton.
Whether you like how the bike handles is your call. I rode a 1985 MB-1 90 miles from Wonder Lake to the entrance of Denali National Park and had a blast, but that was in 1987 and maybe I just didn't know any better.