Originally Posted by
mcgreivey
What's your FD? I sheared off my FD anchor bolt, and I took the derailleur off intending to take out the broken stub. I never got around to it, and I rode it around with no FD for close to 20 years. I shifted the front with my hand. I only shifted down to the small chainring for hills, anyway. I had better knees then. Ummmm or maybe my knees suck now because of that. I dunno.
I eventually got a new FD--a NOS Suntour, similar to the original. it only cost me $10 (on Ebay).
Anyway...
I don't know that I could go without a FD. At least now.
Anyway, the derailleurs are Suntour AR from an old World Sport. It does work, you just have to wrench on it to get it to go over to the big ring. However... Back to the other issue with the crankset/chainrings...
I took it for around 16 miles (round trip) yesterday morning. The right shifter worked great. I have to do a little tweaking with the positioning... The chainrings... The small chainring is bent. Just a little. But just enough to allow the chain to get caught between the rings. I had probably shifted the front rings 4-5 times, maybe more- but then it got caught. That was a drag. I've finally figured out how to undo it (by rolling the bike backwards), but now I'm more seriously considering getting the BB on this bike tapped out to put in the cotterless crank and the rings from the World Sport.
My goal was to build up this bike for around $100. Right now, with the shifters, I think I'm around $140 (not that I've been keeping careful track). So the idea of spending another $30 isn't appealing, but the finish line is *right there!*