jtfowl01

I just happened upon a beautiful older 18 speed Raleigh touring bike..not sure how old, but I'm guessing early 80's as it has shimano deore non-indexed downtube shifters and deore derailleurs. The derailleurs are not in such good shape--rusty and creaky--so I'm thinking I should get new ones, and while I'm at it, indexed shifting would be nice. I'm planning to use the bike as a commuter. The gears are all in great shape, so no need to change them out. Here's what I was thinking about:

Shifters (If compatible downtube shifters are available, that would be fine, but I am having trouble locating them)
Front Derailleur
Rear Derailleur

Also, I guess I'll get a new chain as the exiting one is pretty rusted. Also, I assume I need downtube cable stops as well. All this stuff is pretty cheap, and seems readily available, so I'm good there. My questions are:

1. Will this setup work (will these parts play nice?) Do I need anything else?
2. How difficult would the swap be? I'm by no means a bicycle mechanic, but I can do basic stuff and can follow directions reasonably well. Thanks all!

ryanparrish

Those shifters go one the stem I would suggest Bar ends or down tubes you should already have the cable stops you need for the cables.

and if the free wheel is rusted reall bad your going to need one of these



Plus some assorted tools from Park

ryanparrish

oops I kind of want to restate about the free wheel if you get a new chain you want a new freewheel because if the previous one is worn bad with a new chain you may have problems getting it to mesh nicely and a new chain will increase the wear on the freewheel till it gets really bad

jtfowl01

Thanks for the info. Bar Ends are cheaper than brifters, but still more than I wanted to spend, and I haven't been able to locate indexed downtube shifters that I am sure would play nice with the derailleurs. Any suggestions?

New downtube shifters would be easier from an installation standpoint, but for my short commute I won't be in the drops that much so I'm not sure it would make much of a difference.

ryanparrish

Maybe pauls thumbies can help you it looks like they come in 8-9 and ten doesn't say anything about six or seven

https://www.paulcomp.com/

Road Rash

If you got the new front and rear deraillers, you could still us the existing shifters and wait until you found the shifters you wanted. I found some unused Dura Ace 9 speed bar end shifters for $20 and a pair of Suntour friction bar end shifters with a complete bicycle attached for $35, so they are definitely out there.

ryanparrish

I found this chapter in the Bible that might be helpful I mean Sheldons site

https://sheldonbrown.com/upgrade-gears.html

jtfowl01

Sweet, thanks for all the help guys. Guess I'll pull the trigger on the derailleurs and wait for the right shifters to come along on ebay.