Mas Mon

I have a Raleigh Touriste touring bike which I purchased back in '89 and has now covered many thousands of happy miles. The frame is 531 touring geometry and as I am thoroughly attached to the bike I would like to upgrade/replace the drive train with new components.
I measured the rear dropout spacing which comes out at 128mm (?) so I figure that no problem with moving up to 9 speed as the frame is steel and the additional couple of mm required will not be a problem.
I have purchased new Ultegra 36 hole hubs (to match the Mavic rims), a 9 speed cassette, 9 speed down tube shifters plus I will be getting XT front and rear derailleurs.
My question is regarding the crankset - can I fit a Shimano LX/XT Hollowtech II crankset to this frame, bottom bracket shell width is 68mm. I am worried that it may not fit or the chain line may go way out of sync.

Thanks in advance for any help.
Simon

TallRider

You seem to know what you're doing, down to building your own wheels. If you're really (loaded) touring, I hope you're not using Mavic MA3, Open Sport, Open Pro or CXP22... although a carefully-built wheel with 36 spokes should be okay with any of these rims. But there are better rims for touring.
Also: congrats on using downtube shifters. I love the simplicity. (Although I would rather use bar-end shifters.

As to your main question: an integrated crank/BB system designed for chainline with 135mm-spaced rear hubs will put the chainline 2.5mm too far out when used with a 130mm-spaced rear hub.

Mas Mon

The local bike shop will be rebuilding the wheels (something I have always wanted to learn how to do !) - I will be using my old Mavic M3CD rims (circa 1992) which are still in fine shape.

Thanks with regards the advice on the Hollowtech and it being designed for 135mm rear spaced hub - I guess my best bet would be to purchase an Ultegra triple chainset with matching BB or something similar that is designed for 130mm hubs.

acorn_user

The Ultegra will have high gearing though. Why not consider something with a lower range, like a Sugino XD. They have a nice square taper bottom bracket, so you could adjust the chain line by buying the correct one.
And the finish is really nice. If you are pushing the boat out with Ultegra, Campy does a 50-40-30 range, and TA has some lovely crank sets too....
Just some more options!

TallRider

I doubt you'd notice meaningful stiffness difference between the Sugino XD and a Shimano Hollowtech II crank. Incidentally, the Sugino XD triple gets proper chainline for road rear hub with a 107mm (symmetrical) square-taper bottom bracket.

You should make your decision based on what sort of gearing you want. Do you need a 53/12 high gear? Go with a "road" triple crank. Do you need a 22/34 low gear? Go with an mtb triple crank. Neither, not even close? Get a compact double (50t and 34t chainrings).

Wheels sound fine.

cs1

+1 on the Sugino triple. Great crank for the money. Tapered BB spindles are very underrated. If you are an average sized person you won't be able to tell the difference between them and the new integrated versions. I really believe it's mostly marketing hype. Good luck on whatever you choose.

Tim

Mas Mon

Thanks for the replies regarding options for cranksets. My problem is a matter of limited choice; I am currently living in Indonesia (my trusty Raleigh brought me here back in the mid nineties from the U.K. and I haven't been able to leave yet), Shimano stuff is really all that is readliy available here, but at very cheap prices approximately 50% of U.K. prices, I guess cause so much of it is made next door in Malaysia.
Most of my current riding is pretty much on the flat so higher gearing with an Ultegra crankset would be o.k. - just I cannot find an ultegra triple with 170mm crank arms (never know when I might re-start my world tour !), only 175mm which for some strange reason is what is more commonly available here which is strange considering most asians are kind of short in stature and leg length.
The only other cranksets I can locate with 170mm crank arms are the old shimano LX FC-M572 (which doesn't seem to get such good reviews) and the Hone FC-M600-3 - not sure if this would fit or is designed for 135 mm rear spaced hub.
It's times like this when I wish I lived in a place with a good loacal lbs where I could go for advice.

Thanks again for the advice as I really am in a place where I cannot get any reliable information
Simon

TallRider

Given your choices, you should just go for the Ultegra then. The Ultegra has a 74mm bcd for the small chainring, and so while it comes with a 30t small chainring it could take chainrings down to 24t. So if you start loaded world-touring again, you can have a plenty low minimum gear with a 24/34 (assuming you get an XT cassette with 12-34 teeth).
Since you're getting a new cassette, you can err toward more teeth on both the cassette and crank. Depending on the choices you have in cassettes, of course. I assume you have no use for a 53/11 large gear...

Mas Mon

I will go with the Ultegra as suggested plus try to find a cassette around 12-27 to give me a reasonable gear range.
Thanks again..

TallRider

You could get a 12-28 or 12-32 as well, since you're using a mountain-bike derailler that can take a larger cog. That is, if you want the bike to have lower gears in case you start loaded touring again. (On the other hand, you could just buy a 12-32 then, probably.)

edit: oops, no one makes 12-28, it appears. I've just been looking through cassette options, and I can't even find mtb-range cassettes that don't start with 11t.