Cyclocross - Lugged Novara Randonee as SS or Cx/touring bike

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steelcx
01-28-09, 05:04 PM
One of my friends has a bike I was considering to buy. I'm not sure of the year but its an older Novara Randonee, lugged steel touring bike. I of course, would swap out, polish out a few parts but one thing that makes me hesitant to puchase the bike is the Top-mount Downtube shifters. Striped down this would make a pretty neat single speed CX I would imagine but what if i wanted to leave it geared, would this part be hard to replace/upgrade? YAY or NAY?

oharescrubs
01-28-09, 05:43 PM
cool lookin bike, im assuming 27inch wheels though, probobly making either conversion difficult.
TimJ
01-28-09, 05:44 PM
Where are the cables coming from down at the bb? Along the sides of it? If so you can get a clamp on cable guide to go near the top of the downtube and that's all you need to switch to brifters or bar-end shifters.

steelcx
01-28-09, 06:37 PM
The bike has steel cable guides on top of the bottom bracket. I guess in a way it would look nice as single speed minus the cable guides and 27" wheels. I would swap them out for some 700c's but I heard getting the cantis to line up may be a problem with depending on what brakes I use.oh yeah he wants a $150.00
B17
02-07-09, 10:36 AM
The bike has steel cable guides on top of the bottom bracket. I guess in a way it would look nice as single speed minus the cable guides and 27" wheels. I would swap them out for some 700c's but I heard getting the cantis to line up may be a problem with depending on what brakes I use.oh yeah he wants a $150.00

How much $$$ do you want to spend? You can have the canti bosses moved (or if moving them makes them unusable, new ones brazed onto the frame) for about $80, add shipping if you live in a town with no framebuilders. You'd then have a lugged CX-ish frame and could add the 700c wheelset of your choice. I woudn't remove the BB braze-ons even if I were going SS- you never know when you might want to return it to being a geared bike.