Classic & Vintage - First Official Road Bike! (..and now more questions)

and it's an oldie but goodie. It's the one I posted questions about the other day.

It's an early 1990's Raleigh RT 600
-black/purple frame
-16spd
-LOOK pedals
-Reynolds 531 Aluminum frame
-Downtube Shifters
-Fiber Fork
-Tri Spoke Fiber Rear wheel (He gave me a spoke rear wheel as well)
-Hollow Pin Chain
-Durace components
-shimano 600 brakes

And it's previous owner was a racer and bike tech back in the day when he first bought this bike, so he gave it a super duper tune up before handing it over. And I only paid 125.00 for it.

Tires were dry rotted so I went by the LBS today to buy some Michelin Lithion 700 x 23c tires and tubes. The look pedals are my very first clipless so of course I needed shoes and cleats, so I bought some shimano shoes, and some third party LOOK cleats. I'm all set.

The only thing left I'm going to change is the handlebar tape. I was joking with my wife that it's already a big purple, gay pride bike, and that the purple and black tiger pattern tape kinda sets it over the top. I'm going to replace with plain black. Anyway, finally set everything up (shoes, saddle height, new tires), and here she is:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v497/cbaillo/bike.jpg

QUESTIONS:

1. Is it common (back in the day, or even now) to have a different back wheel than the front? Seems kind of odd to me, that he only switched out the back.

2. I'm not a big fan of how MUCH purple is on the bike, so if i DO decide to switch the the trispoke w/ the regular wheel, I think I may have a problem. He is mailing me an 8 speed cassette, but just in case he forgets..the current 'replacement' rear wheel he gave me is a 7 speed cassette. Is it possible to use the current replacement wheel with the 7 speed cassette with the current 8 speed derailleur setup? or do i need a special adapter to make it work? if i need more things to make it work, what do i need?

Thanks for continued help guys.

Interesting bike, never heard of reynolds 531 aluminum, not to sure about that..

I love the purple myself, but I would ditch that rear wheel, yuk! I wouldnt mind seeing some more photos of it.

Some options..

If both wheels run cassette hubs, Remove both cassettes + axles from the wheels, get a 10mm allen key (or 11, 12mm depending) and take the freehub off the tri spoke wheel and put it on the other rim and you can run the 8 speed cassette with it, or...

the 7speed cassette should shift with the 8 speed shifters, just turn the low screw down on the derailleur till the rear derailleur cage lines up with the lowest gear on the 7, afterwords that last shift will just be a dead shift that doesnt do anything.

Or you can run the shifter in friction mode. you should see a switch for it SIS >> Friction

Ya I'm not a fan of the rear either...if and when he mails the 8 spd cassette, is it as simple as sliding it on, or does it get more complicated?

run the shifter in friction mode? you lost me lol.

QUESTIONS:

1. Is it common (back in the day, or even now) to have a different back wheel than the front? Seems kind of odd to me, that he only switched out the back.

2. I'm not a big fan of how MUCH purple is on the bike, so if i DO decide to switch the the trispoke w/ the regular wheel, I think I may have a problem. He is mailing me an 8 speed cassette, but just in case he forgets..the current 'replacement' rear wheel he gave me is a 7 speed cassette. Is it possible to use the current replacement wheel with the 7 speed cassette with the current 8 speed derailleur setup? or do i need a special adapter to make it work? if i need more things to make it work, what do i need?

Thanks for continued help guys.

1. Triathletes commonly do this. Time trial bikes will also commonly have a different rear wheel. But both of those specialties have tri-bars and such. Regular road bikes seldom have them.

2. Whats wrong with removing the cassette that's on the hideous tri-spoke and using it on the spoked wheel?

oh, you can do that with no other changes?

Ya I'm not a fan of the rear either...if and when he mails the 8 spd cassette, is it as simple as sliding it on, or does it get more complicated?

run the shifter in friction mode? you lost me lol.

In indexed shifting, one "click" of the shifter pulls (or releases) exactly enough cable to move the chain up or down one cog. Indexed shifters come in groups with derailleurs so that the length of cable moved with one click produces enough travel in the derailleur to move the chain exactly the spacing between two given cogs. Change any one of these elements (shifter, derailleur, cluster), and you MIGHT find that one click does not in fact shift one cog (all sorts of undesirable things could happen). Thus, if you change # of cogs in the rear, you may have problems shifting.

Friction mode is an option on most better quality rear shifters. Instead of moving the cable discrete distances between clicks, as in indexed shifting, in friction mode the lever moves continuously across its range, and it's up to you, the rider, to find the sweet spot for the derailleur so that you get your gear without any grinding of the chain against the derailleur or other cogs.

While this takes some practice, it instantly solves the problem of incompatibility between elements in the transmission, since you, not the shifter, decide where the chain will end up. The only issue might the the total cable that the shifter can pull, but if you're going from an 8 to a 7, that should not be a problem.

If you look closely at the shifter, you may see a little lever or a screw you can turn to change from indexed to friction (and back).

oh, you can do that with no other changes?

As long as they are both cassettes or freewheels, it should not be a problem, though you may need a special tool to remove either (a bike shop can do this in a jiffy). To go from the 8 to the 7, you may also have to adjust the travel limits on the derailleur (usually via "limit screws" -- I'm not familiar with any of this newfangled 8-speed technology--maybe for those, you have to login to an admin interface over the web to adjust the travel).

I tell ya. Kids today. Have you seen this new Shimano PowerTap hub that twitters your cadence every four minutes?

If you're going to fool around with this bike, you're going to have to spend some time with Sheldon Brown.

http://www.sheldonbrown.com ... just search for terms with which you are unfamiliar, and new dimensions will be opened unto you. It's like the freakin Hubble Deep Field of bicycle technology.

Ya I'm not a fan of the rear either...if and when he mails the 8 spd cassette, is it as simple as sliding it on, or does it get more complicated?

run the shifter in friction mode? you lost me lol.

In indexed shifting, one "click" of the shifter pulls (or releases) exactly enough cable to move the chain up or down one cog. Indexed shifters come in groups with derailleurs so that the length of cable moved with one click produces enough travel in the derailleur to move the chain exactly the spacing between two given cogs. Change any one of these elements (shifter, derailleur, cluster), and you MIGHT find that one click does not in fact shift one cog (all sorts of undesirable things could happen). Thus, if you change # of cogs in the rear, you may have problems shifting.

Friction mode is an option on most better quality rear shifters. Instead of moving the cable discrete distances between clicks, as in indexed shifting, in friction mode the lever moves continuously across its range, and it's up to you, the rider, to find the sweet spot for the derailleur so that you get your gear without any grinding of the chain against the derailleur or other cogs.

While this takes some practice, it instantly solves the problem of incompatibility between elements in the transmission, since you, not the shifter, decide where the chain will end up. The only issue might the the total cable that the shifter can pull, but if you're going from an 8 to a 7, that should not be a problem.

If you look closely at the shifter, you may see a little lever or a screw you can turn to change from indexed to friction (and back).

Yin-
531 is steel. not aluminum.

That's a really nice bike with awesome components. I can't believe you got it for only $125 (even factoring in that it needed new tires). Good find!

well i used black tape to cover up the current tape, so thats less flaming now :p

so if i move the 8spd cassette to the wheel with the 7 spd cassette, will i need to make derailleur adjustments as well?

is it steel? ok, then its 531 steel lol..thanks i thought it was a nice find...just gotta replace that back wheel now..or maybe at least spraypaint it black until i figure out what to do, or have the balls enough to tinker w/ the cassettes, etc.