zacster

My wife is interested in riding again, and has been riding my Trek 8000 mtb from 15+ years ago that I converted to slicks for commuting, but is otherwise pretty much stock. She likes being upright, and on my Trek she isn't quite as upright as she wants. About 20 years ago, maybe even more, I helped her buy a Cannondale road bike that she rode for a while, but lost interest in it. We currently have that bike pretty much permanently mounted on the trainer. This C'Dale has Suntour 6 speed freewheel with rapidfire indexed shifting that never really worked, Dia-Compe sidepull brakes that were pretty common at the time, a quill stem and older style bend road bars.

I know what I'd do for the stem in that I'd put a converter on it so I can use any modern stem, maybe an adjustable one, some kind of flat or maybe slightly upright bar, and Tektro levers. What I'm still having trouble with is shifting. I was thinking some kind of MTB style thumb shifting with a 7 speed Hyperglide freewheel. Does that work? I have 126 spacing in the rear, will mtb style shifters work with road spaced freewheels? I've quickly read through Sheldon Brown, but didn't see anything.

I'll put this all together on paper and see if it is worth the money & work vs. buying a flat bar bike like a Sirrus/Vita. And after all this would it be comfortable as a bike made that way? The big con is that my trainer bike won't be permanently setup anymore.

dabac

If she wants to be more upright, and you already have a threaded fork I wouldn't bother with an adapter. There are extra-long quill stems with really little forward protrusion that'll help a lot for getting upright. Toss in a North Road bar and you're close to cruiser style.

Suntour have dabbled in using different spacing through the cassette/freewheel, am a bit hazy on the details. If you've got one of those, no wonder it never played nice with Rapidfire, which I believe is a Shimano name.

Shimano has been impressively conservative when it comes to spacing changes, and I've had zero issues with using a 7-speed supposedly road cassette on a MTB. An 8-speed MTB cassette on a road bike has been equally uneventful. Here's a link for further study:https://www.ctc.org.uk/desktopdefault.aspx?tabid=3946

Kimmo

The plan makes sense.

7spd HG freewheels are available and appropriate for the 126mm spacing, and I'm sure you can find decent enough 7spd shifters.

I think you might need to re-space and dish the wheel, but that's pretty easy.

If you want more ratios, an 8/9/10spd 126mm hub built on an OC rim has less dish than a normal 130mm wheel. But not recommended at 126 without the OCR unless the rider's like 50kg or so...

fietsbob

C'dales cannot be spread so 6~7 speed is it, but you can get Ratio ranges that are wider
to make it more useful

Index seems oversold.. Falcon friction thumb shifters a re cheap, work fine..

Portland shop that sells Dutch imported bikes and Brompton uses a Brompton piece
to make seat set back greater than the frame seat tube angle allows.
to dutchify sport bikes [particularly steepened seat tube Asian Mixtes with 27" wheels..
the Saddle adapter pin is made by Brommy to let the sear come forward,
but it works as well to let it go backwards on plain type seat posts..

Brompton makes the Best saddle clip, for plain seat posts..
even Brooks seller Wall Bike cherry picks the Brompton Part so they can offer it.

Kimmo

Hello, how many times do I have to mention an OCR allows you to run 8/9/10spd / 126mm with less dish than a normal 130mm wheel?

OCR.
OCR.
OCR.

It's win for everybody. Rim manufacturers who don't make one are dumb as hell, since it's the biggest improvement in rim design since aluminium.

FrenchFit 

"vs. buying a flat bar bike like a Sirrus/Vita. And after all this would it be comfortable as a bike made that way?"

My experience with spouses and daughters is get them what they want, don't mess around with tweaking and converting. Think...plush, not frankenbike. New bike, yo.

wrk101

+10 Peace at home is well worth getting her what she wants.

xenologer

Get North Roads Handlebars
that'll be plenty upright
also opens up the possibilities of using inexpensive 22mm mtb type shifters; either gripshifters or thumbshifters or even shimano mtb shift/brake pods.
switch the freewheel for a shimano 6 or 7 for compatibility


how is it btw, that this cannondale has road bars, combined with rapidfire shifters?? are the shifters just mounted to the flat of the bar near the stem or something? sounds frankenbike, bought it used?

zacster

I'll have to check the label again, but these "rapidfire" shifters were early Suntour downtube indexed shifters, not the Shimano bar shifters of a similar name. They are basically friction shifters with a click that can be engaged/disengaged. They've been disengaged from practically the first ride when they just didn't work well. I've actually never seen them on any other bike. This C'dale was a low end model, which rumor had it was built on the same frame as the highest end model at the time, the original fat tube aluminum bikes that Cdale copied from Klein (another long drawn out saga, and I probably don't have the detail right.)

And yes, I do know that you can't spread a Cannondale. I have 2 steel 126 frames that I have spread for 130 wheels and that works fine, but don't try that on aluminum. What I didn't know is that there are 126 freehubs that will accept 8/9/10 speed cassettes. But if I go that route I'm starting to spend more money. See Frenchfit and wrk101 above. I've actually built an OC rear wheel myself so I'm not incapable, but it wouldn't be worth it in this case.

The whole idea of converting this bike is that my wife didn't want to spend the money on the new bike and was riding my Trek, which is just too big for her, while we had a bike gathering sweat on the trainer that does fit.

But a lot of good ideas here, so thanks all.

Retro Grouch 

Yeah, that's a lot of new parts to buy. I'm not sure how it will cost out.

A new bike will have every single part brand new and every part designed to work with every other part. You also get a new bike warranty and choice of color.

ak08820

I had bought an old FUJI Supreme (82-84) and restored it from a pile of rust and molten tires.
I kept all original parts (not counting cables, tubes and tires), and swapped the stem and bars with a Raleigh M-20 (or 30?) MTB which was bought as a donor bike due to its damaged wheels. It had twist grip shifters designed for 3+7 speeds and work fine with the 2 + 6 speeds of the Fuji. The longest I have rode on that bike is 60 miles. Only drawback is the 42 teeth chainring as the lowest. I am looking for a smaller chain ring with 110 BCD so that I can climb steeper hills. There is a pic of that bike in some other post by me.

ThermionicScott 

I have some 6-speed Exage thumbshifters (index) if you'd be interested. Came off a bike using a 6-speed Shimano freewheel with 126mm spacing.

Trek_geek

Got my wife a Trek 7.5 FX WSD about 4 years ago. She loves it. Upright seating, flat bar. 700x32 tires so it is good on paved surface at 100 psi and packed gravel trail at 50-60 psi. Had to the 7.5 $900+ to get the carbon fork. Now the 7.4 FX has a carbon fork and is just over $800. If she is not going to ride that much, the 7.1; 7.2 and or 7.3, all with steel forks and less expensive and still WSD (women specific design)

zacster

The Trek FX series, the Giant Dash, the Specialized Vita and the C'dale Quick were all on my list for her. All are very nice bikes. There are also bikes by Felt, Jamis, GT, and a lot of others that would be somewhat cheaper but not as nice. I've been checking around for a used one of any of the first 4 and almost never see them.

I also had another idea that won't cost too much money. I can put an upright bar on the Cannondale that we have, but not upgrade the shifters, just to see if she's more comfortable on it that way. That would be the cost of a straight bar, an upright stem, and a pair of levers, altogether about $75 at most. I spent more than that on socks and shorts last week. Shifters and cassette would probably cost another $50-75. I already have a set of brake cables from another project that I never used so those are already covered, and I think most shifters come with cables, or at least they should.

zacster

And as an end to the story, we went to a shop and she chose the Specialized Vita after trying the Trek FX and the Cannondale Quick. Nice to have a store that had all 3, and they carry Giant also, but didn't have one in her size. The shop mostly only had the low end models in stock, and in the end that was the best choice for the amount of riding she is likely to do.

She is very upright on the bike, it is much lighter than my MTB, and the shifting is quick and precise. She's never had a bike like that so now she's interested in riding, even taking a weekend cycling trip.

Dan Burkhart 

Glad to see she found something she can enjoy riding. I've done lots of conversions of older road bikes to upright rides, and it generally works fine. The biggest issue is the steeper frame angles which can be somewhat offset with a set back seat post.

Scooby214

That's how my wife got her new Specialized Vita. She loves it! It didn't cost much more than the changes you are talking about on the old road bike, and it fits her perfectly. If we had gone the route of changing out parts on her old bike, the old bike still could've not fit her as well as the Vita.

ThermionicScott 

Glad this story has a happy ending! It's great when things come together so that your SO really wants to get out there and ride.

zacster

Now I go out with her and do 2 laps of Prospect Park, about 7 miles + to/from the park, with her, and then do another 3 or 4 without her. I'm going slow with her, but usually take the small hill at full speed and wait at the top to at least make the slow laps worthwhile for training.

Kimmo

Also, I don't think anyone's mentioned this, but 'upright' is the term recumbent riders use for normal bikes.

Myosmith

Not knocking new bike, but my wife rides a 1990s Trek 820 MTB that has commuter tires, a 2" riser bar, and a cruiser seat and she is very happy with it. About $200 into it and it looks and rides like new.

Kimmo

'Just buy a new one' is a first-world solution that's days are numbered...