Not really trying to lower my gearing , at least only so far as trying to gain some future flexibility.

More a story in how to save a few bucks, but in reality, spend more by maybe not thinking some things through. It is definitely age related.

The bike is a 1998 Miyata City Liner. It's a full blown lugged steel (Prestige tubing) touring frame that is by far my favorite bike. I purchased the frame for $175 from American Cyclery in SF, CA.

At some point, I really don't remember when, I had a set of 9 spd. Ultegra triple rated brifters sitting around and decided to make this bike a 9 spd., removing the 8 spd system, LX R derailer, Bar-Cons, Diacompe 287 V brake levers..... etc.... I ended up needing a 9 spd. crank and b-bracket to make the switch to 9, so a Nashbar trekking crank, 26-38-48 plus ISIS b-bracket.

It never really shifted well to the small ring, mostly I think, due to my stubbornness in using a 1991 vintage Suntour XC-Pro F derailer. As I was mostly commuting on this bike on flat terrain, I was sort of OK with it, until recently I found myself riding a lot "upstate NY", with a lot of hills, as well as loaning the bike to a buddy on a ride, and basically the bike would not shift to the granny unless you stopped and moved the chain by hand.

This won't do.

So knowing I still had the bar-cons, plus 287''s plus LX rear derailer, I decided that rather then buy a new set of 9 spd. bar-cons, for the out-of-this-world price of $100, I would buy a new 8 spd cassette and chain ($50). Plus $50 or so for cables and bar-tape. As I would have needed the cables and bar tape anyway to do 9 spd bar-cons, it saved a bit.

Then the existing Sora level front V brakes would not work with the 287 levers. Too much dirt, corrosion, etc.... so a new set of Acera V brakes, $15 ea. went on the bike ( a score at my LBS who NEVER has this kind of stuff). They worked fine. Then the Nashbar 9 spd crank, which apparently had pins and ramps on the middle and large ring, would not work with the 8 spd chain. The chain would catch in certain gear combo's. So I dig out an old XT crank, 110/74 bcd with 24/36/50 rings that don't look too worn. Plus I seemingly have about 5 new square taper b-brackets, all in 115mm, no clue why so many, but it seems to work.

I think I gained about 4 gear inches at the low end, so maybe my tired old ass will make it up some hills.

The age thing is, I used to do all my own work on bikes. I've built up probably 15 bikes or so, but sort of grew tired of it maybe 4-5 years ago. Thus I could not remember things like " why do I have so many 115mm square taper b-brackets ?". And "how do the DiaCompe levers go together, there's this plastic front cover thingie.....". And forget trying to figure out the problem with the original v-brakes. And there was NO WAY I was moving to canti-lever brakes, even though I had like 3 sets in my parts drawer. I recall enough of how cantankerous they can be, and quite frankly I don't have the patience anymore. That's an age thing.

Plus all this tinkering took me 3 days. I know I could bang out a bike build in a day, but no longer.

I test ride tomorrow. If it don't shift on the first hill, I heading to the local REI. They are clearing out their LHT's.

Thanks for reading.

SB